PM 101: World Class Maintenance

Planning with SAP and Prometheus

Course Handbook

Name: _____________________________________________

SAP ID: _____________________________________________

Planner Group: _______________________________________

Version 6
Copyright © 2019 by Prometheus Group
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior
written permission of Prometheus Group.
 Tuesday – Day 1
Welcome - 8:00 am

• Closed Loop Maintenance Strategy – Identification to TECO and back

• Getting started – The Notification

Break – 9:45 am

• Reviewing Notifications
• From Notification to Work Order

Lunch – 12:00 pm

• Getting into Work Order planning

• Operations and Telling the Story

Break – 2:45 pm

• Planning Materials
• Material Availability Management

Day 1 recap

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 Wednesday – Day 2
Recap of and Questions – 8:00 am

• Production Resource Tools

• Documentation

Break – 9:45 am

• Planned and Estimated Costs

• Relationships and Logic

Lunch – 12:00 pm

• Intro to Scheduler
• Graphical Planning

Break – 2:45 pm

• Task Lists
• Planning with Task Lists

Day 2 recap

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 Thursday – Day 3
Recap and Questions – 8:00 am

• Building a layout and variant for Planning Backlog upkeep

Break – 9:45 am

• Managing the Planning Backlog

Lunch – 12:00 pm

• Scheduling and Execution

• Work Order Completion

Break – 2:45 pm

• Analysis and Tracking

Session Recap, Closing Remarks

Friday – Day 4
Optional Certification Test – 8:00 am

Course Ends -11:00 am

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Table of Contents
Closed-Loop Maintenance .................................................................................................................................7
Your Goal...................................................................................................................................................9
Notifications .................................................................................................................................................... 10
Creating a Notification ............................................................................................................................. 10
What Happened and Where .............................................................................................................. 11
Priority .............................................................................................................................................. 13
Responsibilities ................................................................................................................................. 13
Malfunction and Breakdown ............................................................................................................. 14
Notification Items and Codes ............................................................................................................. 14
Notification Tasks .............................................................................................................................. 15
Notification Activities ........................................................................................................................ 16
Documentation ................................................................................................................................. 16
Saving the notification ....................................................................................................................... 17
Reviewing Notifications ........................................................................................................................... 17
Priority .............................................................................................................................................. 17
Status ................................................................................................................................................ 18
Work Orders.................................................................................................................................................... 20
Creating a Work Order ............................................................................................................................. 20
Planning Work Orders.............................................................................................................................. 22
Job Walk-downs and Scoping............................................................................................................. 22
Header Details................................................................................................................................... 22
Operations ........................................................................................................................................ 23
Planning Materials............................................................................................................................. 24
Bill of Materials ........................................................................................................................... 24
Material Where Used .................................................................................................................. 25
Searching for Components .......................................................................................................... 25
Updating the Bill of Materials ...................................................................................................... 27
Material Statuses ........................................................................................................................ 28
Material Availability Management ..................................................................................................... 28
Requirement Date Management ................................................................................................. 30
Just-in-Time Scheduling............................................................................................................... 34
Production Resources/Tools .............................................................................................................. 36
Managing PRT Capacity ............................................................................................................... 37

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 Estimated and Planned Costs............................................................................................................. 38
Documentation ................................................................................................................................. 39
Relationship Logic.............................................................................................................................. 40
Relationships within the Planning Board ..................................................................................... 43
Graphical Planning............................................................................................................................. 47
Direct Edit ................................................................................................................................... 47
Adding Operations ...................................................................................................................... 47
Splitting Operations .................................................................................................................... 49
Managing the Planning Backlog ............................................................................................................... 49
An Intro to Prometheus Scheduler ..................................................................................................... 50
The Selection Screen ................................................................................................................... 50
Building Great Scheduler Variants ............................................................................................... 52
The List Edit ................................................................................................................................ 52
The Planning Board ..................................................................................................................... 53
Taking Advantage of Layouts ............................................................................................................. 54
Managing the Backlog with User Statuses.......................................................................................... 55
Task Lists ................................................................................................................................................. 56
Task Lists Types ................................................................................................................................. 56
Creating Task Lists from Scratch ........................................................................................................ 56
Leveraging Order to Task List for Planned Jobs .................................................................................. 59
Applying Task Lists to Work Orders .................................................................................................... 61
Execution and Close-Out ................................................................................................................................. 63
Planning Complete and Release Strategy ................................................................................................. 63
Scheduling and Execution ........................................................................................................................ 63
Tiered Scheduling .............................................................................................................................. 63
Tier 1 – PM’s ............................................................................................................................... 63
Tier 2 – Major/Fixed Work .......................................................................................................... 64
Tier 3 – Targeted Work................................................................................................................ 64
Tier 4 – Fill-in work...................................................................................................................... 64
Reviewing the Schedule and Executing .............................................................................................. 64
Work Order Completion .......................................................................................................................... 64
Time Confirmation............................................................................................................................. 64
Technical Completion ........................................................................................................................ 67
Analysis and Tracking ...................................................................................................................................... 69
Analyzing Equipment History ................................................................................................................... 69
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 History Tracking and Learning from the Past ............................................................................................ 69
Your Plan ......................................................................................................................................................... 70
Appendix ......................................................................................................................................................... 71
Accessing Transactions ............................................................................................................................ 71
Easy Access Menu Path ..................................................................................................................... 71
Favorites List ..................................................................................................................................... 71
Manual Entry ..................................................................................................................................... 73
Selection Screens..................................................................................................................................... 75
Selection Criteria ............................................................................................................................... 75
Multiple Selections...................................................................................................................... 75
Boolean Selections ...................................................................................................................... 76
Search Helps ............................................................................................................................... 77
Personal Lists .............................................................................................................................. 78
Wild Cards .................................................................................................................................. 78
Saving a Selection Variant.................................................................................................................. 79
Protecting Variants ..................................................................................................................... 80
User Default Variant.................................................................................................................... 80
Dynamic Variants ........................................................................................................................ 80
Finding a variant ......................................................................................................................... 82
List Editing ............................................................................................................................................... 84
Managing a Layout ............................................................................................................................ 84
Add, Remove, and Organize Fields .............................................................................................. 84
Sort Order ................................................................................................................................... 87
Total and Subtotal ....................................................................................................................... 87
Filter ........................................................................................................................................... 90
Saving Layouts ................................................................................................................................... 91
User Statuses........................................................................................................................................... 92
Notification User Statuses ................................................................................................................. 92
Numbered Statuses..................................................................................................................... 92
Non-Numbered Statuses ............................................................................................................. 92
Order User Statuses........................................................................................................................... 93
Numbered Statuses..................................................................................................................... 93
Non-Numbered Statuses ............................................................................................................. 94
Work Centers .......................................................................................................................................... 95

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Closed-Loop Maintenance
Maintenance strategies are developed to achieve a proactive work environment, where break-ins are limited to
only emergencies and the schedule is filled with PM’s and very few corrective actions. Phrases like “reliability-
centered” and “proactive maintenance” are used to describe these, but often these results seem unattainable.
This goal, though achievable, requires diligence and understanding of the work environment. While no two
plants are the same, these results can be achieved by following a closed loop maintenance strategy. To reach
this level, the Closed-Loop Maintenance strategy should be employed with each job to move towards a more
efficient and effective maintenance team.

Maintenance is often viewed as a linear process. This means that when an issue is identified, it is considered a
unique occurrence, it is solved independently, and the business moves on to the next task without looking back.
While this method may seem effective in reaching the immediate goal of the repair, it doesn’t provide for
forward, proactive thinking and will lead to reactive work again in the future.

Instead, the following questions should be asked when looking at each issue and occurrence:

- Has this happened before? If so, what did we do then?

- When was the last time we worked on this item? Was it an issue then?
- How can I keep this from happening in the future?
- If it does happen again, how can I be better prepared as a planner?

These questions, and their subsequent answers, provide the information needed to progress and develop the
maintenance department towards a more reliable facility. When considering maintenance as a closed-loop
process, we can learn from the past to develop new and improved strategies moving forward.

Identify

Learn Review

Evaluate Plan

Document Schedule

Execute

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Each step of the process plays a key role in advancing maintenance:

• Identify – What is the issue? Is what I am seeing the actual problem or just a consequence of something
else? Is it something that has been seen before?
• Review – Do we have enough information to make a decision? Have we dealt with this or a similar issue
before? What were the results of the latest PMs and inspections?
• Plan – Identify each step required to address the situation, and all necessary items/materials required,
and how long it should take. If we have performed similar work, do we have a template? Or can we use
similar information from another area?
• Schedule – When does the job need to be done by? Where can we fit it in around other critical work?
Do we ALL agree that we can work this job in the time proposed?
• Execute – Using the provided plans and materials, perform the work as per required. If anything varies
from the plans, make sure we note this.
• Document – What was done to resolve the issue? Were the plans accurate? If not, how so? Were any
additional materials needed? What were the as-found and as-left conditions? How long did it take to
perform the work, and did it fit within the proposed schedule? If not, why?
• Evaluate – Is the backlog managed effectively? What is our planning efficiency? What were the planned
vs actual costs? Reliability metrics should also be taken into consideration, such as MTTF, MTTR, and
MTBF.
• Learn – Was the issue due to inadequate PMs? Should the PM be updated, or should the frequency be
changed? Were the plans accurate? Could this job happen again, and if so should we make a job
template for it? Was the bill of materials correct? What can we do to mitigate this issue in the future? If
the planning and scheduling compliances are low, what caused this and what can we do moving forward
to help this?

There are a lot of questions that should be asked at each point, but the answers will lead to greater efficiency
and accuracy for a more effective work force. The closed-loop maintenance strategy is designed to find the gaps
and weak points in a maintenance department and begin filling those holes with knowledge. The result will be
higher quality information in and out of the system, a more reliable facility, and better KPIs across the board.

This course is going to focus the tools that SAP provides for planning and how they fit into the closed-loop
maintenance strategy. These are broken down into three basic objects, each of which carry unique details about
what is happening and what took place:

1. Notifications – Notifications represent the equipment history. These contain details about every issue
the equipment has ever had, when they occurred, how long they lasted, and what actions were
performed to mitigate each one.
2. Work Orders – Work orders represent a job plan and costs. The job plans define who will perform which
actions, in what order things will take place, with what materials, and any other items necessary to
perform the work. These all have associated costs, which are compiled and tracked along the way.
3. Confirmations – Confirmations tell how long the job took, what setbacks may have occurred, who
performed the steps, and what is left if it is not yet complete. These give us the actuals to our plans for
comparison later.

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Additionally, we will take a deep dive into the planning tools included in ERP Advanced, and how we can leverage
these capabilities to become as efficient as possible while planning work within SAP. This will include reviewing
graphical planning, tools for updating bills of materials, saving task lists, and building documentation for work
orders. Please bear in mind that this course and the subsequent exam are based on our expertise and experience
and may not follow your current planning model.

Your Goal
Throughout this course, we will be focusing on the different aspects of the closed-loop maintenance strategy
pertaining to planning. Your goal, as an attendee, is to identify where your role, department, and maintenance
team can take advantage of what SAP provides to move towards a more effective maintenance group. In the
space below, write down what you want to get out of this course and how you want to use it to enhance your
current maintenance strategies within the next year. At the end of each day, you will refer back to these and see
if they are still valid, if they need tweaking, or if you are on track to becoming a best-practices maintenance
shop.

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Notifications
Notifications within SAP are one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tools that drive reliability and
track the health and history of equipment. Notifications are used as work requests when an issue is found,
however, they are typically created with minimal data. This process leads to lack of information available for
planners when they start trying to understand what it will take to fix the issue, as well as reduces the usability
of SAP because the history of the equipment is not tracked well. This section will cover the types of notifications
and when to use them, entering data for reliability metrics and equipment history, and reviewing notifications
to effectively manage the backlog.

Creating a Notification
Notifications are created via the transaction code IW21, where users are prompted to select the notification
type before proceeding to the form. Select the appropriate notification type based on what is being reported.

Selecting the correct notification type is important to track appropriate history and work type. There are three
standard notification types for general Plant Maintenance usage.

1. M1 – Maintenance Request – This notification type is for general maintenance purposes, indicating that
something requires attention, but it does not affect, or appear to affect, usage. This would be for
cosmetic repairs, basic parts replacement, and non-invasive work requests.

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 2. M2 – Malfunction Report – This notification type is used any time a malfunction affects the usage of the
equipment, such as a complete breakdown or significant reduction in ability. These typically lead to
invasive repairs requiring the equipment to come completely out of service.
3. M3 – Activity Report – Activity reports are used to report irregularities and anomalies that occur but do
not require additional assistance at this time. This includes an operator topping off fluids after noticing
they are low, irregular start-up before normal operation, or other occurrences that need notice, but do
not require additional attention. These are used for Root Cause Analysis and maintenance trending over
time; therefore, these notifications are important to record and track.

What Happened and Where

A notification should be filled out as completely as possible, yet concisely at the same time. It is important to
put enough information into the notification to fully explain the issue. Keep in mind, though, that notifications
are usually first reviewed in a list edit format.

A notification denotes the issue or request for the equipment, therefore, it is important to begin filling out the
notification by defining what happened and where. The creator will utilize the subject line either at the top of
the form or in the Subject section to describe the situation taking place in a clear and concise manner. Keep in
mind that a notification is designed to describe the situation, not to define the action that needs to take place, .
This function is handled in the work order after review and walk-down. An example here would be “Oil line
showing excessive wear”.

Any additional information necessary can be added to the long text, using either the larger entry field in the
Subject section or the ‘Create text’ icon . In this section, the user would describe information to better locate
the issue, recreate the situation, point out any attachments to the notification, and provide a potential course
of action if desired. In addition to the short and long text, the ‘Symptom’ code field (also known as the ‘Coding’
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code) can be used to further classify the notification. This allows for enhanced reporting based on the initial
issue.

Depending on configuration, the long text may be locked upon save with time and name stamps. Additional
information may be entered, but the original text cannot be changed or removed.

In addition to stating the issue, it is just as important to also provide the reference object. This makes sure that
all history is being posted to the proper equipment number and tells the reviewer where the situation is taking
place. If the exact equipment number is not known, the search help will provide ability to search through the
functional location Structure or utilize any of the other Search techniques with specific fields such as Object Type
and Sort Field if employed. If the occurrence is at the functional location level as opposed to specific equipment,
then entering the lowest level of functional location possible will be appropriate, as long as the reference object
is as focused as possible to the situation.

Upon entering the equipment and functional location, SAP can provide a view of active notifications and orders
to the user. This is used to avoid duplicate entry of notifications and orders. These are accessed via the Object
Info button in the Reference Object section.

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If there are any active notifications or orders, the user may drill into these or choose to view all by selecting the
appropriate Notification or Order icon appropriately. This will take the user to a selection screen, IW29 or IW39
respectively, with the appropriate equipment or functional location filled in and ready for any adjustments or
execution. After this validation step concludes that this notification is unique, then continue filling in the
notification.

Priority
Upon creation of an M1 or M2 notification, an appropriate initial priority should be set. The Required End date
can be updated to reflect the priority selected based on the Required Start date.

Note: Emergency priority should only be used in the event of a true emergency, as deemed by your emergency
criteria and reviewed by the appropriate positions. Just because one person may believe it is an emergency does
not mean standard protocol agrees and should allow for the break-in.

Responsibilities
Many technical objects will have responsibility assignments based on the type of equipment, where it is located,
or what most common actions taken are. If these are assigned to the object itself, the Responsibilities section
will be filled in based on this information. Whether or not these are pre-determined, the reporter should make
sure that these are set appropriately based on who is going to be responsible for mitigating the issue. For
instance, the object may be typically under the jurisdiction of the mechanics, but an issue might actually fall to
the electricians or another group due to the nature of the situation. These are set based on who has the most
skin in the game for planning and performing the work, as well as validation once all is complete.
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Malfunction and Breakdown
Malfunction start and end times are important for documenting the timeline of any issues that take place. While
the M2 notification is used for true malfunctions, such as damage and failures, start and end times may be
tracked on any notification and should be filled in whenever possible.

Malfunction Start represents when the issue first began, down to the date and time to the best of the reporter’s
knowledge. Malfunction End will be filled in after the issue has been addressed and fixed, if there was an issue,
and should represent at what point the object was capable of operating at an acceptable capacity, which will be
after all invasive work is complete, not when operations begins running the equipment again. These dates and
times are valid for all notification types, as they indicate how long each issue lasted.

The Breakdown Indicator should be used additionally for all instances where the equipment is taken down or
undergoes a significant reduction in operating ability during the malfunction and/or repair. While this isn’t
necessary for an Activity Report or a PM, nearly all Malfunction Reports will fit the criteria for a Breakdown;
therefore, this should commonly be used here. Maintenance Requests, by definition, are not breakdowns when
they are reported, but there may be a case where as we get into scoping and digging into the issue we find that
the equipment does meet breakdown status. If this happens, the Breakdown indicator should be checked for
the M1 notification.

These indicators and dates are used to determine reports such as Mean Time to Failure, Mean Time to Repair,
and Bad Actors. This information leads to repair versus replace analysis, maintenance plan reviews, and more,
therefore this information is important in every notification.

Notification Items and Codes

Notifications allow users to indicate codes to describe the issues in a standardized format, which results in a
searchable and reportable method of tracking like issues beyond free text. This is done via the Item codes in the
notification, where a user may input the following codes and information:

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 - Object Part Code – This code represents what physical part of the equipment that is damaged. More
than one Object Part code may be assigned to the notification if multiple items have issues.
- Damage Code – This code indicates damage that the object incurred. There can be exactly one damage
code per object part. Additional text may be added to the code if necessary using the Text field or Long
Text option to the right of the Text field.

- Cause Code – On the second sub-tab of the Item tab, Cause Codes may be added to indicate what the
likely cause of the damage was. Multiple Cause Codes may be added to the same notification item, and
additional text may also be added as needed.

Notification Items may be added before or after the work is performed, due to many of these being unknown
until after the fact. Any information known ahead of time should be added during the report, review, or planning
process. These codes should be entered with every notification as soon as they are known.

Notification Tasks
Depending on the job, there are tasks that may need to be completed before any repair work may be performed
by maintenance, such as MOC’s and Engineering work. These are tasks that will need to be documented but
aren’t always needed to be tracked on the work order itself. Instead, Notification Tasks may be used to indicate
these steps, and may be created, released, and completed individually as they are accomplished. These may also
be accompanied by target dates and tracked in list format.

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When closing out notifications, all tasks must be completed before the notification may be completed. The
system status will identify if there are any outstanding tasks, OSTS, or if all tasks are complete, ATCO.

Notification Activities
After work has been performed, Notification Activities may be used to document the actions that took place. All
notification types may employ the activity codes to determine any corrective actions, including all repairs,
replacements, inspections, and small adjustments.

These will be used later to determine corrective actions based on what was performed previously. The
combination of all codes will provide the extensive history of the equipment in a reportable and trackable
format.

Documentation
Documents may be linked to a notification if they add value to the assessment of the notification or the history
of what occurred, such as pictures of issues, change documentation, and other necessary information. These
may be added to the notification via the Services for Object icon just above the icon tray .

Attachments may be saved directly into SAP using the Create Attachment option or stored as a link the actual
document on a shared drive with the Create External Document (URL) option. Each has its own benefits and
drawbacks, therefore follow your company protocol for document attachments.

Note: The Services for Objects button is only available when a notification number has been assigned. If Early
Number Allocation is being used, then users may input these from the Create screen. Else, the user will need to
first save the notification and then navigate to IW22 or IW28 to attach the files.

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Saving the notification
After all known information is entered as complete as possible, review all entries one last time and save the
notification using the Save icon at the top of the screen to store the notification and pass it into the review
process.

Reviewing Notifications
Notifications may be searched and listed using various transactions depending on the desired report. Standard
Notification reviews are commonly performed looking at the main header information from the notification,
therefore IW28 will provide sufficient information for reviews and approval, yet this is not the only form of
notification list editing available from SAP. Lists include:

• IW28 – Notification Header

• IW64 – Notification Activities – Review and analyze corrective actions performed
• IW66 – Notification Tasks – View open and completed tasks
• IW68 – Notification Items – Review damage and causes

Each list can provide a difference perspective of the notifications, what happened, and what is still required.
Understanding what each can provide a user will help to better organize and interpret the information. The
above transactions are the “Change List” transaction codes but are accompanied by display-only views. Typically,
the “Display” transaction code is one number higher than the “Change” transaction code, e.g. IW28 is change,
and IW29 is display.

Reviewing corrective notifications is a thorough process where the reviewer is responsible for verifying the
validity and accuracy of the notification. The IW28 list edit should be set up in a manner to provide all necessary
information to avoid drilling into the notification when possible. Only when the reviewer is ready to check long
text, make a subtle adjustment, or approve/reject the notification should they have to drill into the actual
notification itself.

Upon validating the notification, the reviewer is responsible for verifying or determining the priority, as well as
the status it should be moved to.

Priority
If the notification is verified and moved forward, the priority will drive when it is to be completed. The following
should be considered:

- Is it a true Emergency that needs to be handled immediately? If so, the priority should be set accordingly,
and the job should be approved and processed as per the Emergency work process.
- If not, how urgent of an issue is it? To the best of the reviewer/team’s ability, the priority should be set
on the notification if not already done so appropriately.

The Priority is used for reporting, planning, and scheduling moving forward. It is important that all notifications
are prioritized appropriately for later use and reference.

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Status
Status management will drive where and when the notifications are reviewed and maintained. There are two
different types of statuses to consider. The user status is used to determine approvals or additional
requirements, while the system status indicates what has taken place in the workflow process. Rejected
notifications should be set to the proper user status and completed via the Complete icon . In addition,
information should be added to the long text about why it was rejected. Approvals should be set accordingly
and put into Process via the Put In Process icon in the icon tray if all other requirements have been met to
advance.

Status management will drive where and when the notifications are reviewed and maintained. There are two
different types of statuses to consider:

- System Status – This status is determined by the system based on user input and indicates if the
notification is outstanding, in process, closed, or deleted. These statuses are also known as the phase of
a notification, as only one of these may exist at a time. Additionally, the System Status will identify a job
has outstanding tasks, if it has a work order assigned, or if it has been printed.

- User Status – This is a status assigned directly by the user and is broken into two categories: Numbered
and Non-Numbered Statuses.
o Numbered Status – Only one of these may be assigned at a time. These are used to indicate the
approval phase of the notification.
o Non-Numbered Statuses – These are appended to the numbered status and can have multiple
statuses assigned simultaneously. These provide additional information about the notification,
such as an MOC requirement or engineering review required, before moving forward.

These may be accessed and viewed via the Status Detail icon at the top of the notification directly under the
short description.

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Work Orders
Work orders are used to define the work, materials, services, and costs required to complete a job, be that for
a PM, a repair, or general maintenance work. Work order planning is key to drive efficient maintenance, as it
clearly defines who is responsible for each job, what they need to perform it, how long it will take, and when the
work is to be complete, while keeping track of the hours and associated costs.

Creating a Work Order

A work order is generally created from a notification once it has been approved. This will include all repair work
and general maintenance work. During the notification review process, a work order may be created from within
the notification or from the list of notifications. When creating an order, select the appropriate order type for
the type of work to be performed. There are three standard order types for general Plant Maintenance usage.

1. PM01 – Corrective Maintenance Order – This order type is for lower to medium priority corrective
maintenance. This order type can be used in conjunction with M1 notifications for jobs such cosmetic
repairs, basic parts replacement, and non-invasive work.
2. PM02 – Preventive Maintenance Order – This order type is used for work orders generated from a
maintenance plan. These orders are pre-planned and scheduled on a regular cycle.
3. PM03 – Emergency Maintenance Order – This order type is used any time a breakdown or emergency
occurs job. These jobs are typically created from M2 notifications, which lead to invasive repairs
requiring the equipment to come completely out of service.

The user may create a work order directly from the notification in IW22 by pressing the Create button
located next to the Order field within the Notification Header.

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This will open a new screen for the initial creation of a work order. The user will need to provide the correct
work order type according to the job and press the Continue icon in the bottom right.

All information available from the notification will be carried over to the work order automatically, including the
short description, equipment and functional location, Planner group, Main Work Center, and Priority. The user
may choose to update any of these that may be incorrect, such as changing the short description to the scope
of the work to be performed as opposed to the identified issue, or any other necessary changes.

Once the initial set up of the work order is complete, the save button at the top of the screen will save the
work order within SAP and return the user to the notification page.

When reviewing a list of notifications in IW28, a user may choose to generate the work orders from there. This
is done by selecting the notification which has already been approved and selecting the Create Work Order icon
from the icon tray. This will apply this notification to a new work order and save it.

Multiple notifications may be assigned to a single work order in this method in the event of duplication or
combining like jobs by highlighting all necessary notifications and using the Create Work Order icon. This will
assign the first highlighted in the list as the main notification but apply all selected to the Objects tab of the work
order. All notifications are considered linked to the job and will need to be updated when the job is complete.

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Planning Work Orders
Work orders are to be planned fully as per the job requirements, including all relevant text, operations,
estimates, and materials. This is the product that a planner is expected to deliver to the supervisors, the
scheduler, and the maintenance tech that will be performing the work. In the beginning a work order will be
delivered to the Planner in a very blank state and it is their job to now transform this into the complete job plan.

Job Walk-downs and Scoping

When a planner has a job that requires planning, it is now the responsibility of that planner to gather as much
information as possible to perform the work in an effective and efficient manner. A job walk-down is very
important part of the planning process, where the planner will take the information initially provided and
investigates the issue. This may include physically going to the job site, making a few phone calls, or perhaps
starting to develop plans based on the quality information provided in the notification.

During this phase, the planner is responsible for determining the manpower requirements, materials and service
needs, and any cost estimates as necessary to the best of their ability. Once all this information is gathered, it
must be built out within the work order.

Header Details
The Header tab of the work order will provide the basic information for the job, including the Main Work Center
(responsible work center), planner group, dates, and priority.

While most of this information is auto-populated from the notification and when it was created, the planner is
responsible for making sure that all information is correct other than the exact dates of execution. Estimating
dates in the Basic Start and Finish dates fields are not necessary during planning, but may be relevant for
materials and purchasing, if applicable.

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The planner will also adjust the short description of the order to describe the job taking place, as initially the text
from the notification will be copied over. The work order text should depict the repair as opposed to the issue.

Long text may be added where the short text does not adequately describe the full scope of the job. This is done
using the Long Text icon to the right of the short description field.

Operations
The second tab of the work order is the Operations tab, which should be filled out by the planner telling the
story of the work that’s going to take place. Each independent physical step should be listed out in this tab, along
with the work center performing it, the number of people required, and the appropriate time estimates.

Initially, the first operation will match the description of the work order and bear the Main Work Center as the
work center for the task. These should be changed to the appropriate first physical step in the job with the
appropriate work center. Operations should also be listed in execution order, meaning operation 20 should come
after operation 10 chronologically, as this is how SAP will schedule the operations. Should any two independent
operations allow for simultaneous work they will still need to be listed separately but will be addressed in a later
planning step. If a task requires a supporting step, such as Fire Watch for a Welding step, then this could be listed
as a sub-operation to the main step. This will by default schedule the two steps simultaneously so that no
additional planning is required, yet still allow for each to be confirmed independently for the most detailed
planning and tracking.

Note the control keys of each operation, as these determine how the SAP will treat the operation line. These
should be selected based on the type of task that is being performed, because this will tell SAP whether the
operation is internal labor, requires service lines with a requisition, as well as other information about costing
and scheduling. When adding a service line to the work order, the planner will need to apply all appropriate
information to the External Tab of the operation, including the vendor, any agreements that may already be in
place, and the proposed price of the service for planning and requisition purposes.

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Planning Materials
The third tab of the work order is the Components tab. This is where all the known required materials for the
job should be listed out and assigned to the operation for which it will be consumed. This is key for requirements
dates, kitting by operation, and collecting materials.

The SAP Materials number should always be used when adding materials to a work order. If the SAP component
numbers are not known immediately, these may be found using one of three common methods: The Bill of
Materials, the Material Where Used list, or by searching for components.

Bill of Materials
When in the components tab of the work order, a user may select the List icon at the bottom of the
page. This will first prompt the user to select the appropriate operation number, and then will display the
materials associated with the equipment or functional location record from the Reference object field of the
Header tab.

The Bill of Materials should contain all materials used on the equipment to completely rebuild it from scratch.
Select all appropriate materials that will be consumed during the selected operation step by expanding the
levels, holding the control key, and selecting all necessary components. In the event some of the materials will
be used on a separate operation, do not select this item until selecting the appropriate operation step. Transfer
materials to the work order using the Choose icon in the icon tray. This will transfer the quantities from the
bill of materials, but these may be altered if fewer are needed for this instance.

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Material Where Used
When in the components tab of the work order, a user may select the Material Where-Used icon
at the bottom of the page. This will first prompt the user to select the appropriate
operation number, and then will display the materials that have been issued to the equipment or functional
location record from the Reference object field of the Header tab, as well as minimum and maximum withdrawn
against it.

As a word of warning, any materials that have been issued to this equipment or functional location in the past
will appear on this list, which can include Kan-Ban items used for a previous job, and any other items that may
have been charged in the past regardless of use on the equipment. For this reason, this list should not be
regarded as an alternate for a true Bill of Materials, but instead a reference if the BOM does not contain the
appropriate items yet.

Searching for Components

If a required material is not listed on the Bill of Materials, it is necessary to then search for the material. The
standard SAP search help is available within the component box, but Prometheus enhances materials searching
with the Material Shopping Cart functionality, accessible via the work order icon tray when in the components
tab . The user will be prompted to select an operation for the materials to go on, and then this will bring
up a new dialog box to allow users to input search criteria for finding the desired components.

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From here, the user can perform a key word search through their materials masters by inputting whatever
criteria necessary in the “Material Description” field, without the use of wildcards of any kind. Pressing either
Enter on the keyboard or the Search button within the shopping cart will run the search, checking multiple fields
for the words typed into the box, regardless of order or word part. From the returned list, double-clicking on a
material will add it to the user’s shopping cart in the top right. Double-clicking from this section will remove the
material from the list. Repeat the search function and adding materials to the list until all materials needed for
the selected operation are found.

Transfer materials to the work order components tab using the Transfer icon. This will pass all items in the
shopping cart list to the work order. Any materials that are stock items, item category L, will be passed directly
in, while any non-stock items, category N, will prompt the user for purchasing information that will be passed to
the requisition, including number required. Afterwards, it is necessary to go back to the non-stock items and fill
in the desired quantity for these as well to ensure that the warehouse understands how many of each material
are needed for the job.

For the purposes of staging and kitting, the unloading point and recipient fields may be used to denote staging
areas and groupings. These are free-text fields that are tracked through the reservations with the material
requests.

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Updating the Bill of Materials
If the Bill of Materials is missing a critical item, the planner should recognize that the BOM needs to be updated.
Depending on your model, the planners should have the ability to update the BOM as needed. Because of this,
Prometheus provides the Order to Bill of Materials to the enhancement tab of the work order. Selecting this will
provide for immediate updates to the BOM.

From here, the planner is given options to choose between updating the BOM from either reference objects,
their related construction types, or see the hierarchy. Select the method that best fits the needs of the planner.
In all but the hierarchy view, the results will be a list of materials, with any on the BOM already identified with a
green check and any items saved to the components tab and not on the BOM marked with an Add Line
symbol . In this situation, the planner can update requirement quantities of any line item, remove any
materials no longer necessary with the Ignore Row icon in the icon tray, and add any items showing the Add Line
by pressing the standard Save button at the top of the screen.

With the Hierarchy view, the planner can see the full BOM as they would see it in the List view from the
components tab, with any items not saved to the BOM listed at the bottom of the page. From here, the planner
can drag and drop materials into exactly where they are needed in the BOM. Updates may also be made to
existing items just as with the other options, and the standard Save icon will commit all changes to the BOM
instantly.
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Material Statuses
Unless otherwise denoted for long-lead items or through configuration, the materials associated with a work
order are not officially reserved or requisitioned until the work order is released. For this reason, releasing the
work order when the materials are ready to be ordered is very important. Additionally, the requirement dates
are determined based on the dates of the order and operations. In most cases, the materials will have a
requirement date based on the Earliest Start Date of the operation for which it is associated; therefore, having
a rough idea of when the order will be performed set into the dates will put the appropriate requirement dates
on the components. It isn’t always the case in regular maintenance that we know when a job will be targeted,
but an educated guess can be made based on the priority and understanding of your work environment. In some
cases, this may already be addressed from the initial priority, along with Required Start and End dates, from the
Notification.

While waiting for materials to arrive and be issued to the job, it is important to manage the user status of the
work order to display when the job is awaiting materials to arrive. A non-numbered WMAT – Waiting for
Materials user status is typically used and should be assigned as soon as the planner adds materials to the order
so that it is set from the beginning. This will be removed later once all materials are delivered and issued, either
manually or through programmatic input.

Material Availability Management

One of the largest constraints that everyone deals with is material availability. It’s hard to perform work without
the required materials, and sometimes these can be a black hole until we physically have the in hand. For this
reason, we want to focus on exactly how to manage materials through SAP.

1. Plan materials on the components tab.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but many companies struggle with just getting materials planned to the work
order. Many locations we have dealt with have materials planned via direct requisitions that are later billed to
the work order. This makes it difficult to back-track and see where these are coming from or where they need
to go for kitting and usage. They will also have no bearing on material commitments and movements on the
order and can often lead to mismatch of materials, either too many on hand or not enough.

From a cost-analysis perspective, having them on the components tab will give information to planned costs and
the charges will come back as the right valuation types. If they are not planned to the order and instead “back-

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doored” through a requisition charged to the order, then this will not show up as a planned cost and skew
reporting later, unexpectedly inflating actual costs.

If for some reason there is a case where direct requisitions are required, at minimum we want to account for
the costs in our estimated costs with everything else before the work order is released. This will enable us to
capture this cost during planning in some way and compare to the actuals later.

2. Plan Materials for the operation during which they will be consumed.

Even more common than direct buys is the habit of putting components to the wrong operation entirely.
Common workarounds seen are either planning all components to line 0010 because “it’s always there” or
creating lines for materials purchasing, planning, and staging, such as “Order Mechanical Parts”. These practices
cause issues when it comes to kitting these materials, especially for larger jobs, because we don’t always know
who needs what and when they need to be staged.

When planning materials to the correct operation, this allows for several things to take place that lead to more
efficient handling of materials overall. First, reservations are made per operation so that the warehouse is aware
of what all parts are needed, where they are coming from, and who is getting them. Next, when the work orders
are printed later, each operation can/will show what materials are needed just for those tasks. For bigger jobs,
this is critical so that the technicians can check that they have everything they need before starting the job.
Finally, when we look at requirement and delivery dates later, we will be able to see if we can start prep work in
anticipation to materials arrival for later tasks in larger jobs.

Material masters carry vital information for everyone. This includes storage and inventory information for
warehousing, purchasing and lead time information for procurement, and assurance of getting the right parts
from the planner’s perspective, leaving nothing to chance. All stock materials must have a material master record
to show up in SAP, but it is also just as important to have non-stock and stock-zero items as material masters as
well. This will ensure that we are getting the right parts from the right vendors and at pre-arranges prices rather
than having to bargain for the best deal every time. This will also ensure any lead-time information is kept as
well for long-lead items.

Another advantage to having non-stock items in your material masters is so that we can have those readily
accessible on the BOM. While free-text items could be added to the BOM in theory, it is not a good practice.
Having a non-stock item on the BOM is just as necessary as the stock items, because we need to know everything
that we would have to order to get the right parts, including things that we do not keep in the warehouse.

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The only case where a free-text items should be allowed for purchasing is after we have exhausted all other
possible methods to try and order the material based on a master record number. In the event this happens, we
should always try to get those added for later use with the appropriate information.

Requirement Date Management

When we plan the components to the work order, how does warehouse and procurement know when to stage
the work order and have materials in hand? This is all done through the material requirement date associated
to this explicit item on the work order.

When we order materials, the requirement date of that item is what tells warehouse and procurement when
we need to have those parts available by, but it’s not always known exactly where this information comes from.
Long story short, this date is based on your work order planning. Take a look at the expanded Dates section of
your work order header, the Adjust Dates option tells you what the driving factor of the Requirement date will
be:

• Blank and 2 – Requirement dates are set based on the Earliest Start Date of the operation for which it
is planned
• 1 and 3 – Requirement dates are set by the Basic Start Date of the work order

This setting is set specifically for each order type within your plant, therefore these can potentially vary between
order types. Either way, planning the operations to the specific operation will force the requirement date of
those materials to the appropriate date where the work sits.

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For an example, the PGU System uses blank Adjust Dates blank, so we will look at materials required for the
third operation here.

Here we can see that operation 0030 has an earliest start date of February 9th at 8:00 am based on the currently
scheduling of the job:

Because of this, if we double-click into the material line, or select the line and navigate to the General Data tab
via the first button at the bottom of the screen, we can see that the requirement date of this part matches the
earliest start date of the operation.

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When the order is released, this information is immediately copied to the reservation, which automatically sends
this to the warehouse. If the material was a non-stock, the date is also passed into the requisition. If the order
is ever rescheduled, then the reservation and requisition will be updated accordingly. The only time there is a
disconnect is after the purchase requisition and PO is released to the vendor, because at that time the document
is considered external to the scheduling process since it is presumably sent out to a third party. Even after the
non-stock items are ordered, warehouse can still see the reservations for these parts, therefore if the jobs shift
at any time the warehouse is able to see those whenever they check in materials and can plan accordingly.

Many times, requirement dates are manipulated in various ways to meet procurement or warehouse needs, but
this is often in conflict to how the planners and schedulers maintain their information. A common method used
is forcing a constraint on operations to show where they think the parts will be in, but this has serious
implications on the rest of the work order. This method is common when facilities are using a single operation
to order materials outside of work scope tasks. Instead of forcing constraints, SAP allows two different methods
for managing requirement dates.

1. Lead Time Offset

This is popular for routine maintenance where we want to have the work orders kitted and staged a few days
before the work is to begin. With this method, the users will have the ability to go into the components
themselves and use the Offset field to give a number and unit for the offset, such as “2- DAY”, which would pull
the requirement date 2 days before the earliest start date. As you can see in the example below, inputting this
2- DAY shift has moved the requirement date from the 9th to the 7th:

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With this method, any rescheduling can be performed, and the offset will carry through. Therefore, if this job is
moved to a different week, then the requirement dates will shift as well, just like if we had no offset at all.

2. Manual Requirement Date

Another method of setting the requirement date is to do so manually. As you can see, the requirement date for
this work order is editable, therefore I can type in whatever date I wish. Here, I will set it explicitly to the first of
the month:

Note that the system also set the indicator for Manual Requirement Date, meaning that it has been directly set
by my action. When this indicator is set, any rescheduling of the work order will not change the requirement
dates in any way. For this reason, this style of requirement date management is not commonly used for routine
maintenance. However, this is an excellent way to call for materials for outages and turnarounds to be staged in
advance, requiring everything in house 2-weeks before the actual work begins and allowing the planners to
continue manipulating schedules as needed while parts are being brought in.

For those Material Availability Coordinator (MAC) users, both the Lead Time Offset and the Manual Requirement
Date can be set via the MAC Mass Change function, allowing this additional manipulation to be done in mass.

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This will make it much easier for planners, both routine and turnaround, to manipulate their requirement dates
without directly affecting their work orders as well.

With either method, the key is to get the parts on the right operation for the work order so that they are queued
based on where the job sits anyway. To make this even more useful when it comes to ordering materials and
trusting these dates, it is important to think about where these jobs might get done before we release the
materials. In most systems, the priority of the work order will project out the Basic Start Date anyway, but it is a
good idea for the planner to at least give a rough estimate of execution date/week before releasing the work
order so that procurement can trust the requirement dates. Warehouse should drive reservation fulfillment
based on work order status anyway, but they will also appreciate the heads up for what’s coming down the
pipeline and what to expect.

Just-in-Time Scheduling
After planning the components to the right operations and driving our requirement dates through these, we can
then trust that procurement will meet our needs and trust the requirements. When we are dealing with non-
stock or out-of-stock materials, it will be important to note when these items are expected to be delivered. The
Delivery Date is filled in from the PO when the procurement person releases those, enabling the ability to analyze
when those will be coming due. This information can now be pushed to the scheduler using MAC integration to
plan bigger jobs based on when the parts get in house. This is done via Reference Field Monitor 5 in the scheduler
selection screen.

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This will look at the material requirements for each operation, find the latest delivery date for any of those
materials, and compare this to the Earliest Start Date of the operation. Any operations that are scheduled before
this comparison date and are still awaiting delivery will be flagged to alert the scheduler that the parts will not
be here in time.

Additionally, within the planning board, the planner is can enable Material Delivery Diamonds within the Chart
tab of the Display Settings to show physical diamonds on the planning board for when the materials should be
in. This will show the scheduler where they need to schedule work to ensure they have the parts they need to
any operations missing items.

When it comes to scheduling, most facilities focus on only scheduling work once all materials are in. In some
cases, this might be necessary due to remote locations or long lead for specific items, but that is not always the
case. If you are in a location with reliable shipping and vendor delivery times, then just-in-time scheduling is a
method you could use to reduce inventory and staging requirements by reporting and tracking delivery dates
and scheduling work to be executed right after materials arrive on site. Especially for larger jobs, this will be
useful for when prep work is required that can be started before the final materials are on site, and then wrap
up just in time for the parts to be received and taken to the field.

Always be careful when attempting to use just-in-time scheduling, as it requires a lot of trust between the
planner, the procurement team, the scheduler, and warehousing. All 4 of these roles must work together to
achieve these goals by ensuring the right information is being passed along throughout the process. It all starts
with good planning in the beginning and leading to good and trustworthy communication all the way through.

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Production Resources/Tools
Production Resource Tools, or PRTs, are objects that are required to perform a job, but are not going to be
consumed, installed, or otherwise disposed of with the work order. This could be a piece of equipment, such as
a lift, a calibrated wrench, or even a document required for a task. These are assigned directly to the operation
for which it will be used and will remain associated through the planning and scheduling portions.

PRTs are assigned within the operation itself by selecting the operation line in the Operations tab and using the
Production Resources/Tools icon in the icon tray at the bottom of the screen.

This will bring up the PRT entry screen, where the planner is able to select a PRT to assign to the operation. Types
of PRTs include:

• Equipment – Serialized equipment or vehicles, such as cranes, lift, and welding units, that are used by
maintenance for specific tasks and are typically mobile. These must be built as a PRT originally, else they
cannot be used as such. Constructing Equipment PRTs is done either by creating a type “P” Equipment
from IE01 or using transaction IE25. Not only can these be assigned as tools, but the same number can
be used for the PMs that keep it in service.
• Material – Reusable materials used for maintenance. Like equipment, they must be originally built as
PRTs via MM01, commonly built as type FHMI in standard rollouts.
• Document – Operation-specific documentation, such as calibration sheets and procedures. Like the
previous two types, the document must exist as an object in SAP and can be built via CV01N.
• Measurement Point – Measurement reading that need to be taken with the operation. These
measurement points must be built to the technical object on the operation for which it is assigned, not
just the technical object on the order header. This comes in handy for group inspections, where each
operation is a specific object on the route.
• Miscellaneous PRT – Miscellaneous PRTs are designed for informational flags on an operation for any
purposes other than the previous listed. They are open-ended; therefore users can apply them for any
purpose. These are built via CF01.

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All entries will be listed within the PRT list. Dates will be set for the PRT based on the operation for which it is
planned, but these can be offset to schedule check-out of equipment ahead of time.

PRT usage within a work order is only defined by a check box in the operations tab and not a system status of
any kind, therefore it is often a good idea to include this as a non-numbered user status. These should be set at
the order and/or the operation level to indicate the PRT for scheduling and execution purposes to identify the
requirements.

Managing PRT Capacity

When dealing with Equipment PRTs, it’s common that there are only one or two of a type of tool, therefore
many different jobs will need to use it. To avoid overbooking, Scheduler is equipped with PRT Capacity view to
read Equipment-type assignments from the operations in the selection to check for conflicts. This is shown as a
solid bar in the capacity section of the planning board, colored in green for where the PRT is assigned to only
one operation, or red for when there are conflicts. As with the rest of the capacities, double-clicking into these
bars will filter down the operations to show just these steps with the associated PRT and time.

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To show PRT Capacity for these Equipment, enable the PRT Capacity checkbox in the Capacity tab of the
Scheduler Display Settings.

Estimated and Planned Costs

As the work order is being planned, Planned Costs will be compiled based on the materials, services, and labor
associated with the job. These will be compiled within the Costs tab of the work order and associated with the
appropriate buckets for Labor, Materials, Services, etc.

Once the planner has the work order together for the most part, the Estimated Costs may be populated in the
Costs sub-tab of the main Costs tab. Estimated costs may only be entered before the work order is released, and
afterwards are locked. If for any reason there are additions to the work order after release, these costs will be
added to the Planned Cost, but will not affect the Estimates. For this reason, it is important that the planner fills
in the estimated costs associated with the work order for each category as a baseline for final analysis before
they submit the order for final approval and release.

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The planner may enter any values into the estimated costs fields. If an estimate is not known, copying the
planned costs into the estimates will allow for the planned costs to be baselined moving forward. Any
discrepancies between the planned and estimated costs should be documented for evaluation as necessary.

Estimated costs will be rolled up to the overall estimate at the top of the costs page, as well as noted within the
Costs field on the work order Header Data tab.

Documentation
Much like the notification, a Work Order may also have documentation attached to the Services for Objects
section via a direct attachment or a URL link. This should be used for any job-specific documentation necessary
for the work order.

For any documentation that may not be job specific, such as a calibration sheet, exploded drawing, or other
general document, the planner will want to consider where these will be best used. These types of documents
should always be stored against the object for which they are referencing. This means any documentation
related to the equipment should be stored against the equipment record itself, either via DMS or Services for
Objects within the equipment record. Other objects that can accept document links include functional locations,
Materials, Maintenance Plan, and task lists, allowing planners to attach documentation exactly where it’s going
to be used.

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For document retrieval and prepping the work package, the planner will be responsible for setting up the job
package through the Work Package Manger. This is found via the Enhancement Tab, where the planner will
activate and select all necessary documents by checking the box for each document needed in the final printout.

As a planner, prepping the job package toward the end of planning inside of IW32 will help to set up the techs
for success, making sure that they have everything they need to perform the work properly. If the package needs
to be previewed, this can be done using the Print Preview icon to see what the output will look like. After
the package is ready to go, the Save icon in the icon tray will save the checks for mass printing from the List Edit
later once the job has been scheduled and is ready to go.

Relationship Logic
As a part of telling the story during planning, some operations may require or allow for simultaneous work with
other steps, need a delay from the previous step, or other requirements. This type of relationship logic may be
applied between any two operations as necessary, allowing the planner to set the sequencing criteria for how
the operations need to take place. Relationships can be created using the Network Graphic directly in IW32.

Access the Network Graphic within a work order via menu path Goto > Graphic > Network Structure. This will
provide the user with a pert chart style view of the entire work order, with each box representing a separate
operation.

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From here, the planner may use the “Connect” icon to then click and drag relationships between the different
operations. A click or release on the left half of the box will induce a Start link, while a click or release on the
right half will create a Finish link. Use these to generate the necessary links between the operations as desired.

Clicking and Dragging from one operation to the next will create the relationship between the two based on
where the user clicked or released the hold. A relationship line will appear between the two with the initials of
the relationship type created.

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Double-clicking on the relationship allows the user to adjust the relationship as necessary by creating lag time
between the operations. The user may choose between inputting a time using the Time Interval fields for
Number and Unit or based on the percentage of either the predecessor or successor via the Time Interval % and
Time Interval Key fields.

Any offsets entered here will be displayed below the relationship line in the pert chart.

Relationships may also be deleted by selecting the desired relationship and pressing the Delete icon in the
icon tray. Once relationships have been added between any two operations, standard SAP assumptions of Finish-
Start scheduling between each operation is broken. Therefore, it is a good idea to generate logic between all
operations from here if any is required.
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When complete, press the Schedule icon to see the operation dates change within each box as per the new
relationship logic. To return to the work order and save these changes, press the Back icon at the top of the
screen and selecting Yes when prompted to save.

To quickly apply Finish-Start relationships between all operations in an order from IW32, follow the menu path
Order > Functions > Dates > Generate relationships.

Relationships within the Planning Board

As an alternative to using the Network Graphic, planners can utilize the Gantt Chart of Scheduler to determine
relationship logic. From within the planning board, planners have a few different options by which they can
create and manage relationships: Directly drawing them between any two operations, double-clicking on the
header to induce hard Finish-Start relationships, or by selecting multiple operations and linking them using the
Link Selected Operations option. Using a combination of these methods will allow a planner to rapidly build out
the necessary logic quickly and visualize the outcome.

When manually drawing relationships within the planning board, it is important to focus on drawing from the
predecessor to successor, making sure we hit the actual operation bars, and understanding the Finish and Start
relationship that we are looking for. For example, start out by selecting the relationships icon, , from the icon
tray and then look at the predecessor and successor operations in the planning board. Visualize a vertical line
running straight down the middle of both operations. Clicking or releasing the relationship anywhere in the front
half of the operation bar will induce a Start relationship point, while clicking or releasing the relationship
anywhere in the back half of the operation bar will induce a Finish relationship point. Therefore, if I want to
create a Start-to-Start relationship, I would want to click and hold from anywhere the front half of the
predecessor operation and then drag and release in the front half of the second operation like so:

When generating this type of relationship in the work order, the order will instantly be updated, and the
remaining operations rescheduled, based on this new relationship and the planning board will update
accordingly. Planners will see that as soon as a single hard-relationship goes into the work order, though, the
standard scheduling using soft relationships no longer applies.

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Here, we see the single hard Start-to-Start relationship has been generated, and drilling into the operation will
show this as well, but all other operations are also aligned with the start of the work order. In order to update
this, we will need to generate the remaining relationships. These can be done manually in the same method
previously used to create the one, or they can be added in mass based on the scenario. If all remaining
relationships can be created based on a Finish-to-Start to the adjacent operation, double-clicking on the header
will induce a hard FS relationship where no other hard relationship exists:

As before, these changes are instantly saved, and we can see that the original SS relationship is still upheld. Using
this methodology, if only one or two operations differ from the standard FS concept, the planner can start by
generating the exceptions and then create the rest with a double-click on the header. Doing this in reverse is
also possible by modifying a relationship directly by double-clicking on it to maintain offsets and relationship
types.

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From this pop-up, the planner can generate both absolute and relative offsets if delay or downtime is necessary
with in the job, as well as modify the relationship types. This differs from the Network Graphic, because there
the planner would have to delete and then redraw the relationship to change the type.

The third and final method of generating a relationship between operations is to hold the Control key on the
keyboard, select multiple operations from the planning board, and then click the Link Selected Operations option
under the relationship icon dropdown menu, . This will open a Relationship Details window from which the
Relationship Type and Offset can be defined.

This method is best used when attempting to link operations of different work orders when they are not right
next to each other in the planning board. This allows the planner to select the first operation and then scroll
through the planning board to locate the second, for instance in turnaround planning. It can be used to link as
many tasks as desired and will march straight down the planning board linking each one within the selected
chain.

In addition to creating relationships, it is also good to be able to delete them. In some cases, such as multiple-
path jobs, it is often quicker to start with a double-click to align most of the operations as they will fall, and then
go back and delete a single operation out to realign the second path where it needs to break off. In this instance,
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select the relationship(s) that can be deleted and use the Delete Relationships option under the relationship icon
dropdown menu. Only the selected relationships will be removed, while leaving everything else intact. Draw a
new relationship to appropriately assign the second path.

In some cases, the original relationships built may become too complex, making it easier to start over from
scratch as opposed to attempting to rescue the current output. This has often happened when users are first
learning the network graphic within IW32 and are unable to see the tangle due to looking at a non-schedule-
based chart. In this case, select the work order bar in the planning board and the Delete Relationships option
will remove all internal relationships and reset the work order.

Now the planner can start over or leave the job as is. Bear in mind that with daily maintenance planning, it is not
always necessary to generate relationships within a work order, as most often the job will be executed one
operation directly after the other. But in the cases where there does need to be logic tied into the job, for Start-
Starts or delays and offsets, it will be necessary to create relationships for all operations within the work order.
Else, SAP will schedule any lingering tasks with an Earliest Start equal to the Order Basic Start, but with a free
float throughout the entire job. This is like saying that the task can happen whenever someone feels like going
out and doing it, when most often this isn’t the case. For this reason, we promote using the planning board for
graphically planning and viewing relationships over the Network Graphic inside of IW32, because the planner
can physically see how the job is laid out and scheduled instead of having to guess and potentially miss
something.

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Graphical Planning
With most of order details prepped and ready to go, the Planner can turn to Scheduler to graphically inspect and
plan the work order. This is a way for them to ensure that the plans match their expectation from a duration
standpoint, as well as the execution order. This is done by highlighting the entire work order, or in some
circumstances multiple orders, within the Scheduler list edit and taking these to the planning board using the
Planning Board icon in the icon tray. This will now pull in all selected line items in to the graphic for further
inspection.

From here, the planner review the flow of the job, and the length of the individual steps, as well as the entire
job, in order to see if any updates need to be made. From this screen, the planner may drill into the order to
make a potential change or may perform any of the following updates from the planning board:

Direct Edit
When looking at the operations graphically, the planner can now see how long within the day, or days, each step
seems to take, as well as the impact it has on the work centers from the capacity below. Based on this
information, the planner may want to modify the requirements by adjusting the Work, Duration, or Number of
persons on the job, based on the calculation key. This can be done using the Direct Edit feature of Scheduler.
Clicking on an applicable field in the Item Details section will allow the planner to make changes without having
to drill-in to the work order. Simply type the information into the text box and hit enter; any changes will be
immediate and saved within the work order. Direct edits can also be made in the List Edit screen by pressing the
Toggle Edit Mode button . When Toggle Edit Mode is On, all directly editable fields will be displayed in white.
Some of the available fields include: Work Center, Duration, Number, Work, Notes, and Percent Complete.

Adding Operations
When reviewing a job in the Planning Board, a Planner may recognize that an operation needs to be added to
the work order. This can be done using the Right-click functionality of Scheduler. The planner can Right-click on

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the work order bar in the Gannt chart, or on the line in the Item Details section, and select Create Operation.
This will open a dialogue box in which the planner can input information for the new operation.

The Oper./Act. Number will default to the next available operation, and the Work Center will default to the Main
Work Center, but these can be changed if necessary. The Planner will need to input the Operation Short Text
and Duration/Work and Number of people and hit the green check. The operation will immediately be added
and saved to the work order and show up on the planning board.

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Splitting Operations
In rare occasions, a planner may want to split an operation into multiple line items. This could occur when
attempting to plan for more than one craft but forgetting to create a secondary line beforehand or could happen
when a job needs planned downtime and we need to show the physical break between the two segments. In
this case, select the line item that will be split, and select the Split Operations icon in the icon tray. A new
dialog box will now come up prompting the user to fully define the split.

Here, the program pre-assigns the new operation to exactly one number above the original, e.g. splitting off
operation 10 defaults to operation 11, where the program has assumed we want the split to immediately follow.
If this is not the desired operation number, the planner may update this on the right-hand side of the box. The
calculation key will then drive which option is editable (Duration/Work), and default it with the equivalent value
from the original operation. The planner will now need to input a value less than this to successfully split the
operation since we are literally separating the original planned operation into two parts. They do not have to be
equal parts, but the two resulting lines will add up to the original. Pressing the Calculate Values icon will show
how much is left on the original after the separation. Additionally, if a new work center is needed for the split,
the planner may update this now. The result will be two independent operations that can now be used for
planning relationships between them, as well as any other needs for the new operation line. The resulting new
operation will adopt the name of the original, with the addition of a flag at the beginning letting the user know
which operation it was split from.

Managing the Planning Backlog

There are a few different methods for looking up work orders in SAP, consisting of order or operation level
searches. For this course, we will focus on using the Prometheus Scheduler to load a list of work orders. The key
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advantages of Scheduler include allowing the user to manage a planning list, make mass updates quickly, and
visualize work within the planning board to graphically plan out jobs and any necessary interactions

An Intro to Prometheus Scheduler

Users will access Scheduler via transaction /PGP/SCHEDULER. Users typing this into the t-code box will need to
always use the precursor /n due to this being within a Prometheus namespace.

There are three key components that make up Scheduler: The Selection Screen, the List Edit, and the Planning
Board. Before getting into the advanced planning practices, it is important to understand the basics of how
Scheduler is set up and what drives it.

The Selection Screen

Like many transactions within SAP, Scheduler is a selection-based transaction, allowing users to pick and choose
exactly what data they do and do not wish to see. For this reason, it is important to know how to manage a
selection screen and understand how to build selections to get exactly what you want.

The selection screen consists of different sections allowing for selections based on Order level or Operation level
fields. In addition, there are options that will allow the user to further define how the planning board will be set
up once we get to that point. There are three modules that can be loaded into Scheduler: Project System, Plant
Maintenance, and Maintenance Plans. For this course, we will be focusing on the Plant Maintenance Module.

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In practice, users will want to focus on key fields such as order types, user status inclusions, and system status
exclusions, along with any other criterion that fully defines the planning work load. Always make sure to note
the planning board settings for days in the future and past, as well as exclude unused work centers, as these are
settings that will help set up the planning board and increase usability. For the purposes of this training, we will
focus on the segregation of work via Planner Groups but keep focus on how you use this today and what you
can use moving forward. Additional criteria within the selection screen brings additional functionality for
scheduling purposes, but these will not commonly be necessary for a planner.

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Building Great Scheduler Variants
Variants should be built for all different situations, such as backlog reviews, look-aheads, schedule reviews, and
updates. For each case, there are going to be different needs and therefore different search criteria. To build
the best variant the first time (or with minimal attempts), answer the following questions before ever beginning
to input anything into the selection criteria:

• What is my end goal with THIS variant? – Am I going to use this for planning or just reporting? What do
I expect to see in the end?
• What defines the work that I am looking for? – What do all of the operations I want to see have in
common? Is it that they all do have this flag or don’t have that one? Consider statuses, planner groups,
order types, date range, etc., and draw a figurative box around your orders with the selection criteria.
• Am I going to be using the planning board or just the list edit? – If the planning board is in my future,
what settings do I need to include with the variant to make sure I get the most out of it.
• Are there any fields that need to change as I move forward? – Dynamic variants can help save time by
calculating and populating date fields without having to think about it.

Once these questions have been answered, the selection criteria should be simple to build out and save the
variant for later use after a quick test or two. Be sure to take advantage of advanced Variant capabilities, such
as multiple selections, exclusions, and Boolean operators, to get exactly what is needed out of each field.

The List Edit

Following suit, the list edit will display the results of the selection, with each line item representing an operation
line. As with any list edit within SAP, the displayed fields, sorts, and filters may all be managed through standard
layout management.

The key here is to focus on seeing enough information to give you what you need as a planner, but without
cluttering the screen with too much information. Not everything needs to be displayed at once. Depending on
what all you will be using Scheduler for, it may be appropriate to maintain multiple layouts since changing layouts
can significantly change the output of a list edit and the understanding of the data.

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When it comes to sorting the data, it is important to focus on what the goal of the layout is. As with the visible
fields, the sort order will change based on who is using the report and how. For planning, focus on keeping the
order together as a whole by starting sorts with Order level information. The order will be planned as one full
job, so breaking apart the different steps of the order using operation level sorts too early may cause confusion
later. Suggestions would be to focus on the criteria and the prioritization of the jobs. For example, when looking
at a planning backlog of corrective work, perhaps first sort by Priority, ABC indicator, and then Age to see the
oldest and most important jobs at the top of the list. But perhaps when looking at PMs, we may want to sort by
order type and then by Order Basic Start Date, that way we have our PM’s organized by planned date. Due Date,
or Latest Acceptable Completion Date (LACD), is a field that Scheduler brings to the table based on the
notification or other calculated parameters. Depending on your business’s prioritization for planners, this may
be a sorting method to consider. After all order level sorts in any list edit, sorting by Order and then
Operation/Activity in ascending order will ensure all operation steps within a single work order are together and
in execution order.

In addition to basic list editing skills, the Scheduler list edit provides a planner with tools to quickly update and
align many work orders with minimal effort. Features like Mass Change and Set Basic Time/Date allow planners
to quickly bring backlog work together to the current time, move work between user statuses, and manage any
number of fields necessary. Many options are also built into the List Edit for scheduling purposes as well, but
since this course is based on Planning we will not be focusing on those.

The Planning Board

The Planning Board is designed to give anyone who touches a work order pre-execution the chance to see what’s
happening and how. Here, the user can visualize the work order, or orders, from start to finish in a Graphical
format and see the time span, the interaction, and capacity requirements.

The Planning Board is made up of four main quadrants. Clockwise, from the top left, we have: the Item Details
section, which displays the first 11 columns from the list edit page, sorted in the same fashion; the Gantt Chart,
which graphically displays the orders and operations based on their dates and horizontally aligned with their
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respective details on the left; the Capacity section, which displays the capacity requirements for each period by
work center over the work center’s availability during that period; and the Work Center List, which displays all
work centers assigned to the selected operations.

Planners and schedulers alike can find utility in the planning board, as it provides extensive functionality for both
use cases. For planning, the planning board provides the user with the ability to maintain planning of each
operation through single and mass updates, as well as manipulation of the job flow through relationship logic,
all while being able to visualize the flow of the job to ensure it’s being planned in execution style with realistic
expectations. Additionally, the different sections of the planning board consist of drill-in capabilities allowing for
quick access to work orders, work center details, and other reports.

It is important to set up the planning board in such a way that promotes your planning needs. Additional settings
are managed from the Display Settings icon located at the far left of the icon tray. Settings include
displaying details to the left and right of the operation and order bars, adjusting the stoplight settings of the
work center section, and adjusting the calendar period between hourly, daily, and weekly views. While none of
these settings are required, it’s often helpful to develop settings that will provide enough information to quickly
glance and see all necessary information with little effort.

Throughout this course, we will be working out of Scheduler to take advantage of all these aspects for the
purposes of planning. To ensure that we will have the appropriate setups that we will need for this course, it will
be important to have your variant and layout set to continuously refer to through the week.

Taking Advantage of Layouts

As already mentioned, one layout often won’t fit the needs of all work planning, reports, and queries, nor should
it. Running the exact same data set through ten different layouts can bear ten very different reports based on
how the layout is set. When setting the layout, it helps to refer to the original questions from the variant: What
is the goal of the layout? What defines the parameters of the report I want? Am I going to be using the planning
board? The answers to these questions from the layout’s perspective will help decide how to set it up.

If the planning board is in your near future, such as for the purposes of visualizing job plans, for example, then
keep in mind that only the first 12 columns displayed in the list edit will be displayed in the item details, but that
data can also be displayed to the right and left of any of the graphical objects in the planning board. Build the
first 12 columns, or less, based on what needs to be immediately available, but perhaps doesn’t make sense to
display on the planning board itself. Fields like Order, Description, Operation/activity, Work, Number, Duration,
and Priority are often good choices here. When thinking of display to left and right of the bars, it can often help
a planner to see fields like Operation Short Text and Work Center directly on the planning board to help align
the resource needs.

Sort criteria are important no matter what the report scenario is. There should always be a reason that the top
line is displayed on top, and the user should be able to say why without having to question SAP. Sort criteria will
differ based on the data sets. For example, we would want to look at backlog work by priority and age, but for
PMs looking ahead we would want to look by planned date and due dates so that we are focusing on what is
coming up next. This can also be used to clean up a list and give visual breaks for faster processing with SAP’s
cell merging settings. When multiple sorts are employed, the list with first is sorted by the criteria listed first in
the Sort Order tab, then the second field, and so on.
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In addition to sorting, totaling and subtotaling give a greater effect for reporting and processing. Expand and
Collapse functions are unlocked with subtotals to get high level views of reports and drill down to whatever level
is needed for more detail.

In dealing with layouts, it is important to know who will benefit from it. When attempting to standardize layouts
across a group, it is best to use global layouts instead of having each user build their own personal layout. This
will keep everyone on the same page and know what to expect at any point when we pull reports, planning
backlogs, and schedules, whereas user-specific layouts can only be used by the person who built it. While not
everyone may have the ability to create a global layout, having someone set those up based on the users’ needs
is very important. These will be visible to everyone and denoted by the precursor “/”, as all global layouts must
start with the forward slash. User-specific layouts will not have this.

Managing the Backlog with User Statuses

User statuses allow users to assign status(es) to a work order to provide more information about the state of
the order in the planning and scheduling process. Much like notifications, the top portion is dedicated to
numbered statuses, only one of which may be selected at a time, and the bottom is for non-numbered statuses,
where all that apply may be selected. Refer to the Appendix for a full list of statuses used in this class.

Numbered user statuses reflect the phase of the order in the planning and scheduling life cycle. The following
statuses can be used to indicate that the work order is in the planner’s backlog.

• 1NEW: New Order – This indicates that the work order has been created but is sitting in the planner’s
backlog, awaiting planning.
• 2PIP: Planning in Progress – This status indicates that the planner is currently working on planning the
job. This status should be set as soon as the planner begins working on it, including starting the walk-
down process.

Non-numbered statuses can also be added by the planner to provide additional information or indicate required
actions for the work order.

• ENGR: Engineering Required – Indicates any point where a job is on hold until an Engineer can review,
modify, or document something on an order after the order is already in planning or beyond.
• HOLD: On Hold – General hold for any criteria that would cause a job to be postponed indefinitely for
any reason not listed in other statuses.
• MOCR: MOC Required – The job is on hold until the proper Management of Change process is completed
after the work order is already in planning or beyond.
• PRTA: PRT Assigned – Indicates a Production Resource Tool has been added to the job to alert those
printing or executing to be aware of these additional requirements that may be hard to find. This may
also be added to the operation to indicate exactly which line carries the PRT.

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 • WMAT: Waiting for Materials – Some of the materials required for the job have not arrived yet or are
not currently available.

Task Lists
Task lists represent pre-planned jobs that may be deployed at any point for the purposes of rapid planning.
These are commonly used for PM work, but are also applicable to many corrective work orders.

Task Lists Types

There are three types of task lists common in SAP, each of which has a different use case:

- Type A: General Task List – A general task list is for general purpose use within the plant, meaning it can
be applied to any work order within the planning plant, despite the functional location or equipment
being worked on. Typically used for PMs, inspections, and common equipment types. These may be
grouped together under an alphanumeric group name.
- Type E: Equipment Task List – Specific to an equipment record and is typically only used against this one
case. These are typically used for very specific jobs with materials and time estimates and are tailored
to the situation. These will be grouped together by equipment record.
- Type T: Functional Location Task List – Specific to a functional location where special cases arise for the
area. This would typically pertain to hazardous areas, such as confined spaces, or other environmental
situations specific to the region. These are grouped together by functional location.

When creating task lists, it is important to select the type of task list which best fits the situation.

Creating Task Lists from Scratch

Creating a task list is very similar to planning a work order, where the user must plan all operations and add in
all materials and logic as necessary. By type, the transactions are as follows:

- IA05 – Create General Task List

- IA01 – Create Equipment Task List
- IA11 – Create Functional Location Task List

Upon entering any of these transactions, the user will be presented with an entry screen to provide the Group
number for the general task list (used to group similar task lists together, e.g. PUMP, VALVE, and INSPECT), the
equipment number for equipment task lists, or the functional location for functional location task lists. If the
task list group already exists, the new task list will be given the next available Counter number unless specified
otherwise.

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Before passing through, the user will need to select the Profile and Key Date. The Profile, if available, can auto-
fill key information within the task list by default, such as usage, status, and units. The Key Date will determine
from what point the task list may be used. If the task list will be used immediately, it is often a good idea to back-
date the Key Date, as it cannot be applied to any order with a Basic Start Date before this date.

Once all information has been properly entered, the user may press the Enter key on the keyboard to progress
into the task list Header.

For equipment and functional location task lists, the Description field will already be filled in with the description
of the object, but for general task lists, it will not. Either way, this should be changed to the scope of the job
itself, much like a Work Order header description. Additionally, check that the Work Center and Planner Group
fields are applied appropriately based on the job taking place. Note that Planner Groups for task lists may not
match those for Work Orders, therefore use the search help to locate the proper group. If the task list will be
used at any point for Strategy PMs, the appropriate maintenance strategy will need to be assigned at this point,
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as it cannot be added, removed, or changed later. The maintenance packages may be assigned to individual tasks
later, if the strategy is defined in the header.

When using general task lists, the group will often allow the user to quickly find task lists related to their
objectives, but this header data is often going to be used as a key search option. One significant field to highlight
for general task lists is the Assembly field. This field can be used in alignment with the Construction Type
assignment to technical objects so that searching by reference object later will return generals as well as
equipment and functional location task lists. Since construction types are used to organize and upkeep specific
models of equipment, this function will even further drive the application of like-with-like assignments.

Once all entries are made appropriately, the Operation Overview icon will navigate to the operation
list, where the operations may be planned out. Each independent task should be listed out with time estimates
where applicable, as well as the proper work centers set to each line.

If a material needs to be added to a task list operation, selecting the operation line and pressing the Components
icon at the bottom of the page will navigate to the Component overview screen. Here, all
necessary materials for that operation step should be planned out, with quantities.

For functional location and equipment task lists, the Structure List may be used to access the Bill of Materials by
selecting the Component Hierarchy Selection icon , just above the materials list.

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External Operations, such as services, may also be planned within the task list, and should follow standard
external operations planning practices.

After planning all operations and necessary materials, the Network Graphic may be used to create any
relationship logic necessary via menu path Goto > Network Graphic. From here, the user may create any
necessary relationship links using the same functionality as within a Work Order.

After all logic and adjustments have been made to the task list, the Save icon will store the new task list for use.

Leveraging Order to Task List for Planned Jobs

Often in maintenance, even corrective jobs can be repetitive. This means there is a good chance a planner will
encounter a new job that needs planning and recognize that they planned a very similar job from start to finish
previously. Order to Task List allows the planner to take these jobs and apply all the planning they have already
done to a new task list. With this capability, a fully planned out work order can quickly become a new template
for the next time around when a planner recognizes the opportunity for it to happen again.

From within the work order, a planner can navigate to the Enhancement Tab of their work order to save it to a
task list. Within this tab, select the radio button for “Order to Task List” under Prometheus Solutions and press
the button at the bottom, Activate Prometheus Solution.

This will now load the details from the work order into a header template for a task list. From here, the planner
may change any of the input fields, as well as maintain what task list type and group will be made from the work
order.

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As before, the type of task list will determine how it can be found and used in the future. The key difference
here is that if we select to use a reference object, it will be read from the header of the work order instead of
having to be input separately. As before, the user may input the task list group to add this new task list to.

Beyond the task list type, the program will auto-fill the additional fields based on configuration and details from
the work order. This includes the Short Text from the work order as the task list title, the plant and planner
group, as well as other key information. The planner may update this as necessary. The Usage, Status, and Key
Date are fields that are necessary to pay attention to, but these can be pre-configured to auto-populate as well.
Since we are creating the task list from a planned work order, we can typically assume the task list is ready for
release, which allows for auto-populating fields like Usage and Status with 4’s, but this may not be the case in
all systems. Ensure that these are set before executing, as well as check the Key Date to make sure this can be
used for backlog jobs if necessary.

When it comes time to execute the program, Order to Task List will copy over all data from the work order into
a fresh task list, creating a new counter in whatever group chosen, including operations, internal relationships,
materials, and PRTs. Depending on configuration, the program will either immediately save or offer the planner
a chance to review and edit the task list. If the latter is the case, the planner can make any adjustments needed
to commit the task list to make it even better for the next go-round. The planner will just need to make sure
they save the task list when they complete all changes and then will be taken back to the work order.

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This can be done for work orders in any state, as long as all needed changes are saved to the order. This includes
a work order that has been TECO’d and closed out previously. Planners can use any data, new or old, to build
their arsenal of task lists to promote efficient planning in the future.

Applying Task Lists to Work Orders

Corrective maintenance jobs often have repeatable steps that may be captured and planned using task lists as
opposed to planning each job in its entirety. If a task list exists that matches the job at hand, these may be
applied to a work order directly from IW32 using menu path Extras > Task List Selection and then selecting the
appropriate type of entry.

- Direct Entry – Typically only used when the exact task list is known, as the user must input the Task List
Group and Counter information, as well as selecting the reference object should they choose to apply a
functional location or equipment specific task list.
- To Reference Object – Pulls all functional location and equipment task lists associated with the reference
object from the work order to pick from. This will also look for any general task lists with an Assembly
assignment the same as the Construction Type of the reference object on the work order.
- General Task List – These are general purpose task lists and may be based on the Assemblies, the Object
Structure, or all general task lists that may be used anywhere. The user must fill in the selection criteria
to search and apply the appropriate task lists if searching for all general task lists.

After applying a task list, the planner will only need to make any necessary adjustments to the order and
operations, including materials and relationships. Task lists may be stacked so that multiple task lists can be
combined into a single order when necessary.

Additionally, settings allow planners to pick and choose exactly which operations within a task list are selected
for the job. Under the menu path Extras > Settings > Default Values, the user may navigate to the Control Tab
and denote Operation Selection for Task List Transfer.

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With this setting, the user will be able to select exactly which operations of a task list are applied to the work
order as needed. Planners can then create tasks lists based on the worst-case scenario and then only apply the
necessary operations when the time comes to perform the work.

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Execution and Close-Out
Planning Complete and Release Strategy
After a work order has been planned out in detail, the planner is then responsible for reviewing the entire work
order and ensuring it is ready to submit for final approval and release. The planner should update the user status
to from 2PIP – Planning in Progress to 3PCP - Planning Complete to denote that the order can be passed on for
approval and ranking.

While release strategies vary greatly between industries and companies, the key idea remains the same. The
Work Order must pass the proper approval gates based on the cost associated and be approved before it can be
released. The person in charge for releasing the work order will be concerned with the current planned costs,
the resource requirements, and potentially the material availability or wait time. For these reasons, having the
work order completely planned out is key to making sure the approver has all information necessary to make
the decision to approve and/or release.

Scheduling and Execution

After a work order is approved and released, the work now falls to the scheduler to manage the scheduling and
tracking of the work orders. This is done through a series of backlog reviews, ranking meetings, and scheduling
passes.

As ready work becomes a part of the backlog, the scheduler will review and maintain the available work. On a
regular basis, the schedulers should be meeting with operations, maintenance leads, and planners to discuss the
ongoing schedule, as well as understanding what is coming down the line. During this time, the scheduler will
bring to light the ready work that can be put onto the schedule at any time, denoted by the 3PCP - Planning
Complete user status, based on priority and age. Work that is agreed upon will be moved into the 4RSC – Ready
to Schedule status to be put on the upcoming schedule. Any work that falls off the current schedule will be
returned to the ready backlog as needed. All work targeted to be performed will be roughly set within the
timeframe maintenance and operations agrees to perform the work, and then the scheduler will take this into
consideration will building the out the schedule.

Tiered Scheduling
Tiered scheduling should be employed to develop an upcoming weekly schedule with minimal effort. At the end
of each tier, the scheduler will indicate all work within the upcoming window as status Scheduled. Additionally,
they will review the full schedule at intervals to see how much has been loaded and consider any opportunities
to optimize the schedule with similar work or items in the same area.

Tier 1 – PM’s
This level will include all Preventive Maintenance. These jobs are typically called at intervals and should only
require review and minor adjustment before indicating as scheduled. Small adjustments may be performed, but
no major rescheduling should need to be done at this point if the PM’s are properly staggered by design. All
PM’s within the time frame should be indicated as 5SCH – Scheduled.

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Tier 2 – Major/Fixed Work
This level will include all work orders that are a part of major events or are top priority for any reason. This could
be outage work, Safety critical work, Third-Party, or any other work that needs to stay put. These jobs typically
will already have fairly set target dates, therefore require minimal scheduling beyond placing into the
appropriate time slots. All these jobs should be indicated as 5SCH – Scheduled once they are set into place.

Tier 3 – Targeted Work

This level is where the scheduler will begin consuming the remaining capacity with targeted work. All work that
has been targeted for the upcoming week or so will be considered and placed based on the availability and
requirements. Priority and leveling are used to drive when work can be achieved. All work set within the time
frame and meeting capacity availability will be set to 5SCH – Scheduled status.

Tier 4 – Fill-in work

The scheduler may now choose to fill in any remaining capacity in the schedule using further out targeted work
that is ready to go now, or any other jobs that are able to be worked at any point. For any work that is sitting in
the backlog and is not targeted, the scheduler will want to consider priority and age. Indicate any fill-in work as
5SCH – Scheduled.

Reviewing the Schedule and Executing

After indicating all scheduled work for the upcoming time frame, the scheduler will conduct a schedule review
meeting with all necessary parties to confirm all work and make any small adjustments as needed. The result of
the meeting is an agreed-upon schedule that will then be locked moving forward.

Once a schedule has been defined, the maintenance technicians will be performing the work that has been
marked as scheduled. User statuses should be updated to determine which jobs are available in the queue. The
List Edit can be used to view schedules to input confirmations and updates.

Work Order Completion

As jobs are completed, the work order close-out process should be followed to capture the actual history of the
work order and the equipment. As before, this will include updating the notification items if these were not
completed initially and filling in the activities performed on the notification to document what took place. In
addition to the notification history, the following should also be completed as the physical work is done.

Time Confirmation
Time confirmations are entered per operation as work is performed. Time confirmations may be entered by
directly accessing the confirmation via transaction IW41, or via the list edit or planning board in Scheduler.

- IW41 – The user can enter the order and operation or enter the confirmation number associated with
the operation.

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- Scheduler List Edit – Users may select operations from the list edit and use the Operations menu at the
top of the page to enter time confirmations individually or select multiple operations and enter
confirmations in mass via Collective Confirmations.

- Scheduler Planning Board – Users may select operations from the planning board and use the
Individual/Collective Confirmation option via menu path Selection Actions > Operations >
Individual/Collective Confirmation. The user can also right-click on an operation in the Gannt chart or
Item Details section to input an Individual Confirmation.

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Selecting Individual Confirmation using either method will bring up the confirmation page, with defaults brought
over from the operation, including Work Center, Activity Type, and Work Start. The recorder is responsible for
inputting all correct information. Key fields include:

- Work Center – Craft that performed the actual work. Should be the same as planned.
- Actual Work – Number of man hours spent on the task.
- Activity Type – Activity Wage code. Should be defaulted from the plans.
- Work Start – Date and Time craft began the actual work. Auto-filled by the planned Earliest Start
Date/Time or the end date/time of previous confirmation if one exists by default.
- Work End – Date and time the craft ended working on the job. Auto-filled to when the user entered the
notification page by default.
- Remaining Work – Number of man hours remaining on the job, if any.
- Final Confirmation – Should be checked only if the operation step is complete. If any work remains, this
should remain unchecked.
- Reason Code – Indicates the reason for the hours being charges, most often used for delay codes for
tracking purposes.
- Confirmation Text – Short and Long Descriptions of any feedback in relation to reason code or the job
completion.

Selecting Collective Confirmation will bring up the selected operations in the collective confirmation page
(IW44). The user can input the necessary information, such as Actual and Remaining Work, and check the Final
Confirm., Clear Reservation, or No Remaining Work checkboxes for each operation. Pressing the Select All Icon
and then the Check Confirmations icon will apply any entries from the Default Values section at the top of
the list to every confirmation below. These values can be saved by pressing the Save Default button .

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After inputting all relevant information, verify and save the confirmation to charge the appropriate time to the
operation. The operation will now bear system status PCNF for a partial confirmation or CNF for a final
confirmation. Update any user status at the order header as necessary if field complete or other updates need
be made based on feedback.

Technical Completion
After all operations are final confirmed (CNF), the Order Header User Status is indicated as 7CMP – Complete,
and the history has been updated on the notification, a Technical Completion is used to close out the job and
indicate as complete system-wide. This is done by selecting the Complete (Technically) icon in the IW32 icon
Tray.

Once selected, the user will be prompted to input a posting date for when to indicate the job as complete,
defaulted to current time, as well as notification completion details if available.

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If the notification has not already been updated completely, the user is able to input the Malfunction End times,
Damage and Cause Codes, and update any notification dates as necessary before confirming the TECO. These
should all be completed before completing the Order and the Notification, such as indicating exactly when the
malfunction was over (when all invasive work was complete) and indicating when the job was signed off in the
Reference Date. After confirming all entries and hitting the Continue icon in the bottom right of the dialog box,
the user will need to save using the standard Save icon to update the order and notification appropriately.

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Analysis and Tracking
As with any part of the business, it is important to measure ourselves and see if we are improving and where
further improvements could come from. There are many ways within SAP and Prometheus to directly pull this
information in both tabular and graphical method.

Analyzing Equipment History

As previously discussed, the equipment history exists completely on the notification, therefore we can pull a lot
of equipment history information from the various notification reports in SAP. These lists can be used to get
further into the details of Failure Mode Analysis (FMEA) and to help determine other things like PM effectiveness
and strategies. Lists include:

• IW64 – Notification Activities – Review and analyze corrective actions performed

• IW66 – Notification Tasks – View open and completed tasks
• IW68 – Notification Items – Review damage and causes
• /PROGROUP/NHR – Notification History Report – Review all notification codes in a single list edit,
analyze cost breakdowns, and report long text details for full history from the notifications. This was
previously a part of Prometheus Unity for PM but is now a standalone report from Prometheus Group.

Since each of these lists can generate a different output or way to understand the results, it is important to know
what each will provide and how these can be incorporated into business practices. Utilize these tabular reports
to dive into the details of the equipment and better understand the overall history to improve planning and
maintenance strategies.

History Tracking and Learning from the Past

After work has been completed, it is important to remember this data still exists. Reviewing notifications and
work orders allow decisions to be made moving forward, ranging from how to plan the next job, to replacing
versus repairing problematic equipment, and maintaining maintenance plans long term. The various Notification
reports within SAP, as well as some additional reports form Prometheus, should be taken into consideration
when performing root-cause analysis, failure reports, and more.

In addition to reading the historical data, the planned versus actual comparison of the work orders to
confirmations will allow for necessary adjustments of job plans and task lists. Confirmations may be listed via
transaction IW47 and this information may be further leveraged to adjust any task lists and job plans currently
in use. This information can also be made available via the Scheduler list edits using planned and actual
information per operation, as well as using the KPIs with Man Hour Compliance. Perfecting task lists and
repetitive work will reduce the time spent planning these jobs and free up more time for the larger tasks ahead.

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Your Plan
In conclusion, we have looked at the different aspects of Notifications and Work Orders, and what they provide.
Now it is time to put these to work. On the first day, you stated your goals for this course and what you want
your maintenance team to gain from SAP within the next year. Now it is time to put that into action. What are
you going to do moving forward to take advantage of SAP and Prometheus to further enhance your maintenance
planning strategy? In the space below, state your plan with the following milestones in mind: Next week, 6
months, and 1 year.

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Appendix
Accessing Transactions
SAP is governed strictly by transaction codes that dictate what you can do and where. To perform a function,
you must access the proper transaction code. There are three different ways to access a transaction code within
SAP: the Easy Access menu path, Favorites Lists, and Manual Entry.

Easy Access Menu Path

Any SAP transaction may be accessed through the SAP Easy Access menu path. These are set up in a folder-style
format where the user will expand out the necessary groups to navigate to the desired transaction based on the
functions and parent grouping.

Favorites List
The favorites list allows users to collect a personalized list of transaction codes for later use. These can be added
from the SAP menu or directly to the list using the transaction code. These may be logically grouped into custom
folders or listed out by themselves at the user’s discretion

Options for adding a Favorite from the SAP menu path after locating the function:

1. Select the function and click on the “Add to Favorites” button, , in the icon tray

This will add the function to the favorites list and display the folder path

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 2. Select the desired function and drag it to the favorites list.

This will allow the user to place the favorite into an exact location, including any sub-folders created in
the favorites list.

Options for adding a Favorite directly to the list using the transaction codes

1. Using the menu path Favorites > Insert Transaction, the user may input the transaction code they want
to add to the favorites list.

This can also be used to insert a new sub-folder to the favorites list for organization using the Insert
Folder option.

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 2. Right-click on the Favorites menu and select Insert Transaction. You must then input the desired
transaction code.

This method can also be used to insert a new sub-folder or insert a transaction into a sub-folder.

Manual Entry
Users may manually enter known transaction codes into the Command field in the top-left of the SAP screen at
any time. Depending on the desired action and current location, the following options will allow the user to
navigate as desired.

When in the Easy Access screen, the user may directly enter the desired transaction code into the Command
field and press enter. They will be taken immediately to the desired transaction.

If the user is not currently in the Easy Access page, they may still access transactions by first typing one of the
following commands before the transaction code:

1. /n – This command will end the current transaction and direct the user to the new desired transaction.

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 Note: This is also required for all transaction in a non-standard SAP namespace, including from the easy
access page, such as the Prometheus transactions with the /PROGROUP or /PGPNL namespace.

Warning: This method will end the current transaction completely and will not save. Make sure there are
no unsaved changes before using this function.

2. /o – This command will create a new SAP session and direct the user to the transaction code desired.
This will keep the current session active and allow the user to use both simultaneously.

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Selection Screens
Many SAP transactions are designed to run various reports, but to generate the desired report, the user will
need to first fill out the selection screen based on the desired information. This is where users must explicitly
tell SAP what they are, or are not, wanting to see, such as notifications types, plant codes, and work centers.

Selection Criteria
The selection screen lists all fields relevant to the report. The user will need to input the criterion that defines
the data set they wish to see as explicitly as possible. This includes Plant codes, planner groups, work centers,
dates, etc. that completely define what the user is looking for. Users can select single entries, define ranges, and
exclude values, based on the desired output.

Multiple Selections
Multiple selections allow users to define multiple criteria for the same selection field to piece together a search.
This is used if there are multiple exact options that a user wants, but a range would pull in unwanted criteria, or
if there is a large range desired, but only a few exceptions that can be explicitly excluded. Press the Multiple
Selection icon to the right of the field desired to fill in the desired criteria.

Use the different tabs to choose between selecting single values and ranges or exclude them. After all entries
have been made in the multiple selection, the Copy button will store these values into the selection and the
Multiple Selection icon will light up green to indicate it is Active .

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Boolean Selections
Boolean selections allow users to input greater than, less than, or equal to, as well as all positive and negative
variations of these. These are often useful for date range selections and finding blank values.

Create a Boolean search by double-clicking on the desired selection field or in the multiple selection “Select
Single Values” tabs. These may only be used for single selections and are not available for ranges. The selected
operator will appear to the left of the input field once selected.

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Search Helps
SAP provides search helps in most fields. These provide the user with the ability to search and find the
appropriate entry for a selection field or an entry field in forms, such as notifications and work orders. Each
search help is unique to the field being used, but most will provide basic selection options to choose the relevant
entries.

A search help is accessed by pressing the white Search Help icon on the right side of the selected field. This
will open a new dialog box that will allow the user to search for appropriate entries or provide a specific list of
possible entries based on the type of field and the possible values. Two potential options are displayed below:

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Personal Lists
For search help, the user may only need a few of the many possibilities on a regular basis. This is where the user
may choose to employ a personal list to limit the amount of options available. Personal lists allow the user to
define the common entries that they will use, and this abbreviated list will be provided to them from that point
forward when selecting the search help. These are commonly used for search helps with extensive options, such
as Dimensions and Statuses.

To add entries to a personal list, select the desired entry and press the Add to Personal List icon, , in the icon
tray at the top of the dialog box.

After an entry is made, the user may go to the personal list via the Personal List icon to see the entries. From
this point forward, this list will be displayed by default when using the search help.

If the user ever desires to return to the full list of options, the Global List icon may be selected from the icon
tray. The user will then be able to select any other options or add them to the personal list for later use following
the same method above.

Wild Cards
Wild cards are used as place holders in SAP searches and filters to allow SAP to find all applicable entries. Wild
cards are placed before, in the middle of, or after selection inputs as place holders.

There are two different types of wild cards:

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 - * (Asterisk) – This style of wild card is an “any or none” wild card, meaning SAP will search for any
number of characters, including none, in its place.
- + (Plus sign) – This wild card is used to indicate exactly one character, including a space, that will be in
its place.

Wild cards may be used as selection or filter criteria at any point. Users may use multiple wild cards in the same
selection or filter if desired, such as before and after a string of characters, or also multiple inclusions in the
middle. These are effective for searches and filters based on fields like statuses or descriptions.

Saving a Selection Variant

Selection criteria may be saved for later use to avoid repeatedly filling in search criteria. This is done by saving a
variant from the selection screen. Variants are saved after the user has filled in the desired selection criteria by
pressing the Save button at top of the page, or using the menu path Goto > Variants > Save as variant…

The user will now be faced with a new screen to save the selection as a variant. The following fields must be
filled in to successfully save the variant:

- Variant Name - This is what the variant will be saved as and is limited to 14 characters. This should follow
a standard convention for ease of searching and finding later. A variant name is unique to the
transaction; therefore, a name may only be used once per transaction.
- Description - This is a description of what the variant represents and is slightly longer than the variant
name at a 30-character limit. This should be used to tell any user what the variant is searching for or
what the report will provide.

Once complete, the user will want to press the Save button at the top of the screen to save the variant for later
use. If the variant name already exists, the system will ask you if you would like to overwrite the variant. Only
do this if this is your variant or if you intend to change the original.

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Protecting Variants
Variants may be protected from being overwritten by other users by selecting the “Protect Variant” checkbox in
the save variant screen. The user who saved the variant will still be able to maintain the variant later, but other
users will not be able to overwrite it.

User Default Variant

Users are able to define a user-default variant for any transaction with a selection screen such that this variant
is automatically called when the user runs the transaction code. This is performed by naming the variant using
the U_(SAP Logon ID) naming convention. This means that if John Smith’s username was JSMITH, John would
save his user-default variant as U_JSMITH. When he then runs the transaction code, this selection variant will
automatically load the saved criteria into the fields. A user may have one user-default variant per transaction
code.

Dynamic Variants
Variants may be created with rolling dates based on when the variant is run. This allows users to set a moving
timeline, but always look at the same window of days without having to overwrite the date fields. These are
created in the Save Variant screen in the bottom half of the page.

To create a dynamic variant, first locate the desired field in the screen objects list.

Once located, use the check boxes to select “Save Field without Values” to make sure SAP always calculates this
field.
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Next, scroll to the column Selection Variable, and in the corresponding cell use the drop-down to select Dynamic
Variable.

Once selected, the Name of Variable column will allow the user to select the exactly how the dates are going to
be set. Use the options from the dropdown list to select the rules for the calculation. SAP will then prompt to
enter any values necessary for the selection, such as giving values for “Current Date +/- ??? Days” for a single
date or setting the “From” and “To” dates for comma separated options.

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Press the save button to store this dynamic selection against the saved variant.

Finding a variant
In the event the user is not using a user-default variant, other variants may be located using “Get Variant…” icon,
, located next to the execute button, or using the menu path Goto > Variants > Get… The user will then be
able to search for a saved variant based on the variant name, the creator, or other criteria.

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List Editing
List edit reports are the output of an executed selection. The list edit can be set to show as much or as little
detail as necessary for the report, as well as sort, filter, and total to generate different types of reports. The same
exact data set can be used to generate multiple reports based on the layout.

Managing a Layout
The layout (also known as a Display Variant) can be managed and adjusted as much as necessary by adding and
removing fields, organizing the data in a new format, or creating filters and totals. These actions may be
performed directly from the list edit as one-offs or all at once using the “Current…” icon, . The following
actions may be performed:

Add, Remove, and Organize Fields

From the change layout screen, the first tab allows the user to add, remove, or organize fields displayed in the
list edit. The left side represents the visible columns and the vertical order in the list matches the left to right
order in the list edit screen. The right side of the screen lists all of the columns not currently visible in the list
edit.

Clicking on the “Column Name” header at the top of the column set on the right side will sort all of the fields
alphabetically to make browsing easier. To add a field to the list edit, locate and select the field from the left
side and press the Left Arrow “Show Selected Field” icon , , in between the two lists to add this to the
displayed column list.

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Double-clicking the fields or selecting and then dragging and dropping the fields into position on the left side are
also acceptable methods of adding to the displayed column list.

Fields in the displayed column list may be removed by selecting the field and hitting the Right Arrow “Hide
Selected Field” icon, , in between the two lists. Like adding fields, fields can also be removed using the double-
click or drag-and-drop method.

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Fields may also be reorganized directly from this screen by selecting the field in the displayed columns list on
the left and using the up and down arrows to organize them. The double-up arrows will move the field to the
top or bottom of the list as per the direction they point, while the single arrows will only move it one position.
Selecting a field and then dragging and dropping can also be used to reorganize.

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Sort Order
The second tab of the Change Layout screen allows the user to set up the way in which the data is sorted within
the list edit. The user will select fields to sort by from the column set on the right, move them over to the left
side, and then choose ascending or descending order.

Multiple sorts will create a sort hierarchy, meaning that the list will first be sorted by the first listed criteria, then
the second, and then the third and so on. This allows the user to set up the data set exactly the way they would
like to see it for prioritization, by area, or by any other means necessary. Also the sorted fields do not have to be
visible in the list edit in order to sort to take place, though this may cause potential confusion if it is not visible.

Total and Subtotal

Numeric fields may be used to create totals as long as their total gives value to the report. This would be fields
such as work, duration, or downtime that would allow totaling, while other numeric fields like dates or order
number would not add value if totaled. Fields that may be totaled are indicated in the Displayed columns list by
a checkbox under the summation symbol, , which is only visible if a total-able field was already within the
list.

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The total will be displayed at the bottom of the list edit by default. The user may choose to change this to the
top of the list using the Display tab of the change layout screen and selecting “Display totals lines above the
entries”.

Multiple fields may be totaled at the same time. If a field is added to the list that the user would like to total, but
the Summation column is not visible in the change layout screen, press the Green check, “Transfer”, button in
the bottom right corner to add the fields, and then go back to the Change layout screen and it should now be
visible. Additionally, fields may be totaled directly from the list edit by selecting the desired field and pressing
the “Display Sum” icon, , in the icon tray. This icon will only be visible if there is a field within the layout that
will accept the total.

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After a total has been made, the subtotal feature becomes available from the list edit and from the Sort Order
tab of the change layout screen. This acts like a sort, only it also breaks the totals down into the groups as well,
grouping the criteria together, such as work by work center.

Like Sort Order, the Subtotals may also be set up in a hierarchy format and are based on sorting and grouping
the data set. Subtotal adds the additional ability to collapse sections of the list edit by the groups and see a high-
level overview of the data before expanding and viewing further.

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Filter
In addition to changing the way the records are viewed in the list edit, the user may also choose to omit portions
of the data as per the desired report using filters. The Filter tab of the Change Layout screen will allow the user
to select fields from the column set and set positive or negative filters. Create filters by selecting the field in the
column set and adding it to the Filter Criteria on the left.

To set the filter criteria, select the filter icon, , in the bottom right corner and a small selection screen with
just the filter fields will be displayed. Enter all necessary filter criteria here and press the green check. The filters
will be applied to the layout.

By default, any selections added to a filter are positive filters, meaning only records that meet these criteria will
be displayed. The multiple selection and Boolean operations are also valid for Filtering.

Filters may also be added to the list edit directly by selecting one or more columns to filter and pressing the
Filter icon, , in the icon tray.

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Saving Layouts

Layouts may be saved at any time for later use or to be applied to the selection variant via the Save icon, , in
the bottom right of the Change Layout screen or from the list edit using the menu path Settings > Display Variants
> Save as Variant. There are two fields that will need to be filled in to save the layout:

- Save Layout – This is the name that SAP saves the layout as and is limited to 12 characters. This is the
field used to search for a layout or call one from a selection variant.
- Name – This is the description of the layout, such as particular sorts/filters being employed, and is
limited to 40 characters.

Much like variants, layouts are unique to the transaction itself and do not cross over transaction codes. Layouts
may be set as Global or User-Specific. If a global layout is desired, the name must begin with “/”, but if a user-
specific is desired do not use the /, and instead check the box below the description for “User-specific”. The
users may choose to make their own layout their default, though, by selecting the “Default Setting” checkbox
before hitting the green check to save.

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User Statuses
Below are the statuses being used for this PGU Course and what they represent. These are suggested statuses
based on typical business requirements. Everyone’s statuses may be slightly different, but the ideas are the
same.

Notification User Statuses

Numbered Statuses
Numbered statuses are used to depict the approval phase of the Notification. Only one of the numbered statuses
may be selected at any time.

• AWAP: Awaiting Approval – The default status of the notification, indicating that approval is required
before it can move on.
• RJCT: Rejected – The notification has been rejected by the review process. This is typically coupled with
notes in the long text for why it was rejected, as well as closing or deleting the notification.
• APPR: Approved – The Notification has been approved by the review process and is ready to be passed
along for planning.

Non-Numbered Statuses
Non-numbered statuses represent additional key information, but are not specific to a particular phase. These
may be added and removed as needed, and as many can be selected at once as necessary.

• ENG: Engineering Required – Engineering will need to review the notification and develop any
modification, documentation, or other requirements for the job before it is turned into a work order
and planned per engineering requirements. Typically coupled with Engineering Tasks to be performed
and completed in the Tasks tab.
• INFO: Need More Information – More information is required from the person who reported the
notification before any approval can take place. The reviewer may want to document any comments or
requested info in the Long text to inform the user what needs to be updated for final review.
• MOC: MOC Required – Management of Change process must be performed and documented before
the notification may be turned into a work order and planned as per MOC requirements. Generally
coupled with MOC Tasks to be performed and completed in the Tasks tab.

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Order User Statuses

Numbered Statuses
Numbered statuses are set to depict the planning/scheduling phase of the work order. Only one of the numbered
statuses may be selected at any time.

• 1NEW: New Order – This indicates that the work order has been created but is sitting in the planner’s
backlog waiting planning.
• 2PIP: Planning in Progress – This status indicates that the planner is currently working on planning the
job. This status should be set as soon as the planner begins working on it, including starting the walk-
down process.
• 3PCP: Planning Complete – The planner has finished with all planning functions and the order is now
moved to the backlog to approval, review, and ranking. This will also be used to represent ready work,
depending on material availability.
• 4RSC: Ready to Schedule – The order has been approved and selected from the backlog to be placed on
an upcoming schedule. Only jobs that are being or about to be actively scheduled should have this status.
• 5SCH: Scheduled – The order has been set within the schedule for execution based on requirements,
availability, and approval.
• 6PRG: In Progress – The work is currently under way. Typically set by the tech or supervisor when the
craftsmen go out to start the job and remains if the job is being actively worked. Necessary for jobs that
span multiple days or weeks.
• 7CMP: Complete – The field has performed the work and indicating that all physical work for the entire
work order has been performed, i.e. Field Complete. Only final recording and sign-off should remain
when this status is set.

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Non-Numbered Statuses
Non-numbered statuses represent additional key information, but are not specific to a particular planning or
scheduling phase. These may be added and removed as needed, and as many can be selected at once as
necessary.

• APPR: Approved – The work order has been approved by the appropriate approver level and is ready
for release and scheduling.
• BRKA: Break-in Approved – The work order is an identified break-in that has been vetted and approved
by the appropriate level to break into the schedule. Often associated with an authorization so that only
certain roles can approve break-ins in this manner.
• CANC: Work Cancelled – Identifies work that has been cancelled after it was created. This is assigned as
a non-numbered status in order to preserve the point in the process at which the work order was
cancelled.
• ENGR: Engineering Required – Indicates any point where a job is on hold until an Engineer can review,
modify, or document something on an order after the order is already in planning or beyond.
• HOLD: On Hold – General hold for any criteria that would cause a job to be postponed indefinitely for
any reason not listed in other statuses.
• MOCR: MOC Required – The job is on hold until the proper Management of Change process is completed
after the work order is already in planning or beyond.
• PRTA: PRT Assigned – Indicates a Production Resource Tool has been added to the job to alert those
who are printing or executing to be aware of these additional requirements that may be hard to find.
This may also be added to the operation to indicate exactly which line carries the PRT.
• WMAT: Waiting for Materials – Some of the materials required for the job have not arrived yet or are
not currently available.

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Work Centers
For this course, users will have access to their own work centers that they may use or modify as desired. These
are based on the last two digits of your planner group number, therefore you can replace the “##” in the below
list with your last two digits, e.g. planner group P01 would use Civil work center 01-CIVIL.

##-CIVIL – Civil Crew ##-CONT – Contract Services

##-ELEC – Electricians ##-INST – Instrument Techs
##-MECH – Mechanics ##-OPS – Operations
##-PIPE – Pipe Fitters ##-SCAFF – Scaffold Builders

Copyright © 2019 by Prometheus Group

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior
written permission of Prometheus Group.

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