SAP PM Maintenance Planning Questions and Answers

Q: Create a single cycle plan, how do you proceed?
A: Planned maintenance>maintenance plans>create>single cycle plan, transaction IP41. The single cycle plan is used in the situation where you need to perform a singular frequency of maintenance. The plan contains data and functions similar to that of a normal strategy based plan but does not have a relationship with a strategy or maintenance packages.

Q: In a strategy based plan what scheduling parameter settings are available?
A: Early, late shift factors, early late +/- tolerances, cycle modification factor, factory calendar, call horizon, scheduling period, unit of scheduling period, requires confirmation indicator, scheduling indicators for time, time key date and factory calendar. Where a plan is created with relationship to a maintenance strategy the scheduling parameters in the strategy are copied as a default to the maintenance plan, the scheduling period, unit and requires confirmations are not active in the strategy. When creating the plan from scratch you can also specify a start date to prompt maintenance scheduling.

Q: What are the available standard maintenance plan categories, what is the purpose of the category?
A: The available maintenance plan categories are: MM for services which places a call object of a service entry sheet and PM for plant maintenance which calls a maintenance order, a notification can also be a call object. The category links the plan with the call object that is to be produced.

Q: How must the scheduling parameters in the maintenance plan be configured so that the call date falls exactly on the planned date?
A: The call horizon must be set to 100%. The call horizon dictates when the order should be called.

Q: To start scheduling a strategy maintenance plan what are the options?
A: Start @ recent or current date and start in cycle at last known maintenance package – start in cycle utilises an offset of number of days in starting the plan in cycle of maintenance package. When the maintenance plan is scheduled the option to restart is made available.

Q: Describe the process for attaching multiple notifications to one work order?
A: Plant maintenance>planned maintenance>maintenance planning>maintenance plans>change. Enter selection criteria as required and execute, select the required notifications and press the button create order.

Q: What function (transaction) schedules and generates orders for maintenance plans?
A: Deadline monitoring offers this facility, transaction IP30 can be used to schedule and generate orders for maintenance plans, this function can also be set as a automatic batch job.

Q: Define the structure and options of a maintenance strategy?
A: The strategy comprises of a header and contains the following scheduling parameters, early, late shift factors, early late +/- tolerances, cycle modification factor, factory calendar, call horizon, scheduling indicators for time, time key date and factory calendar. The strategy also has a relationship with maintenance packages; the maintenance packages are the cycle of frequencies at which maintenance inspections are required. The package options: cycle length; unit of cycle length; offset, prelim and follow up buffers and also in hierarchy that dictates when each is called.

Q: What is the purpose of the preliminary and subsequent buffers in the maintenance packages of a maintenance strategy?
A: The preliminary buffer is the lead float in a number of days that affects the order start date in the order. The subsequent buffer acts as the follow up float days again a number of days that you specify which will affect the finish date in the order. The calculated order start and finish date is a default value that can be overwritten by the ordering scheduling value, this is dependant on the setting for order dates in customising.

Q: In the scheduling of maintenance plans what options are available for the manipulation of calls placed on the scheduled call board (tab)?
A: The following options are available: release call (immediate release to create order) fix call (change date of call) skip call (cancel call) restart (restart scheduling of plan) manual call (place a manual cal)

Q: How can you lock a maintenance plan for scheduling?
A: Within the transaction IP02 change>maintenance plan, the function to make the make the plan inactive.

Q: What is the function of a cycle set?
A: The cycle set is used as a copy reference for cycles when creating a multiple counter plan. The cycles can be changed in the maintenance plan, without the cycle set being affected.

Q: What is the difference between a cycle set and a strategy?
A: The difference between a strategy and cycle set is that a strategy always has cycles of the same dimension, whereas a cycle set can have cycles of different dimensions.

Q: What transaction is used for creating a maintenance plan for services?
A: Plant maintenance>planned maintenance>maintenance planning>maintenance plans>create>create>for contract item. Also customer service>service agreements>environment>sales & distribution>service products for maintenance.