Overview: External and Internal Work Orders
The daily work of a utility company involves the processing of a large number of work orders. The orders must be accepted, planned, calculated, executed, and when necessary, billed to a customer.
In this process, a distinction needs to be made between external work orders relating to the customer services and internal work orders.
- External work orders are mapped using service orders from the Customer Service (CS) component.
- Internal work orders are mapped using maintenance orders from the Plant Maintenance (PM) component.
Integration of Utilities Maintenance Processes
The existing integration of utilities maintenance processes in the components Work Management (WM) and Customer Service (CS) can now be replaced with the standard SAP S/4HANA Service using the Maintenance Service Order (MSO).
The combined use of the features offered by SAP S/4HANA Service and Plant Maintenance (PM) provides enhanced capabilities in utilities device-related maintenance processes, and also keeps disruption of ongoing IS-U processes when converting to the new solution to a minimum.
One of the advantages of using a combination of PM and SAP S/4HANA Service MSOs is the fact that PM order numbers and 'Sold-To Party' information found in the transactions listed below are transferred or mapped from the order to the MSO. By the same token, the creation of an MSO automatically triggers the creation of a PM order, thus offering fluid editing options across transactions and a simplified administration of items due for maintenance.
The S/4HANA standard Service process supports Field Service Management for dispatching orders and the processing of device-related work orders in the following utilities processes:
- Aperiodic meter readings
- Disconnection/reconnection
- Device installation/removal/exchange processes
- Periodic device replacement
- Inspection lists (home installation check)
Leveraging of modern service processes for application in the utilities industry using the new maintenance service order (MSO)
Improved integration with the customer engagement and interaction center solution.
New service connection process using the maintenance service quotation (MSQ) and the maintenance service order from S/4HANA Service.
During these processes, MSQs deploy the creation of Plant Maintenance (PM) orders for planning and estimation, and MSOs create PM orders for execution, triggering a correlated flow of activities in various utilities-specific transactions: for example, when a quotation is accepted by the customer and it is released, it can easily be converted to a maintenance service order that can subsequently be processed and billed.
Billing takes place using the Dynamic Item Processor (DIP), and different billing modes are available: fixed price billing, resource-related billing (RRB), RRB with separate sub-items, or no billing. For more information, see the Billing chapter in the Maintenance Service documentation.
This figure shows the connection and the technical installation (of both pieces of equipment).
The connection is used to show the link between the supply grid and the connection object. In the "service connection" workflow template provided by SAP, the connection is created in one of the last steps and installed in the functional location, the SAP S/4HANA for Utilities connection object.
The connection is dependent on the division.
The technical installation is not absolutely necessary in the SAP S/4HANA for Utilities data model. It can be regarded as a supplement to the technical master data. It is used to map technical installations without having a direct influence on billing. Examples are large lighting systems, gardens, and so on.
The technical installation is dependent on the division.
A maximum of one technical installation can be created for each division in a premise. A piece of equipment is created in PM automatically.
The SAP S/4HANA for Utilities "inspections" process enables you to maintain technical installations regularly.
The standard Service process is also available for resolving implausible meter readings. The utilities-specific document flow for an order displays both the service order and the meter reading document that is causing the implausible data.
A control reading order can be scheduled directly from the implausible meter reading results transaction here. The Periodic Meter Reading Overview app, which is used to monitor meter reading data displays all relevant orders for the meter reading.
During integration with the maintenance service order, a PM order and a joint maintenance service order are created along with the new meter reading order. Since the PM order shown in the Serv.order field has an allocated MSO, both orders are interdependent, meaning that you can directly navigate from the PM order to the MSO and vice versa.
Service orders are the documents generated in the system which indicate the work to be performed, the location, the skills required, and the necessary tools to perform it, and other data. The service object defines one or more objects for which a service order is created, such as a device, a cable, or a piece of software. The service product is a specific variant of the service object and can for instance describe a service such as "service connection".