Structuring Linear Assets

As part of the optimization of business processes in your SAP S/4HANA system, you want to map technical assets that comprise of a linear structure in the system. Additionally, in maintenance processing, you want to refer to the linear data of your assets. For this reason, a project team evaluates the functions of linear asset management.

Linear assets are technical systems with a linear infrastructure whose conditions and properties can vary from section to section.

You can enter the following information as linear data for displaying, managing, and maintaining your linear assets:

• Start and end points

• Length and unit of measurement (such as kilometers or miles)
• Information about markers (such as start and end points, the distance between a marker and a start point, the distance between a marker and an end point) and unit of measurement

• Information about the offset (for example, horizontal or vertical offset) and unit of measurement

Examples of linear assets include the following:

• Pipelines

• Roads and railways

• Overhead power lines and cables

You can create linear assets as technical objects, such as functional locations and equipment, and store linear data.

You can also execute maintenance tasks for these technical objects, which result in notification, maintenance orders, and measurement documents, among other items. These maintenance tasks enable you to do the following:

• Manage the conditions your linear assets.

• Identify where there is damage or a defect, using the start point, end point, and offset.

• Manage all types of maintenance tasks (planned, unplanned, and preventative).

Offset is the distance or displacement of an object to the reference line of a linear technical asset (for example, the distance of a single mast from the track center, or the distance of a manhole cover from the road). Offsets can be used to describe the exact position of a technical object.

The type of offset, such as horizontal offset or vertical offset, can be defined in Customizing.

In Customizing, you need to define a view profile containing the subscreens for linear asset management, both for functional locations and equipment.

The following objects have been enhanced with linear data fields for technical objects:

• Functional locations

• Equipment

• Measuring points

You can display the absolute distance between the Start Point and markers. This simplifies the selection of markers closer to the start and end points.

The linear data from a superior equipment or superior functional location will be inherited by the child equipment or child functional location. You can also view the origin of the linear data. This will help you identify if the linear data has been specifically maintained for the technical object or if the linear data has been inherited from the parent technical object.

Whenever there is a change in the linear data of a superior functional location or a superior equipment, the changes are also inherited by the child functional location or child equipment if the data origin is set to H (inherited).

The following objects have been enhanced with linear data fields for maintenance processing:

• Maintenance notification

• Work order header

• Work order operation

• Work order confirmations

• Measurement documents

• Maintenance plan item

• Relevant list reports

An existing Functional Location structure with assigned linear data, mapping a linear asset - for example, road, pipeline, can be split up into multiple segments. Alternatively, Functional Locations can be merged.

The following features are available:

• Split of Functional Locations: Adjusting current and historical notifications without LRP and without any maintenance order assigned.

• Merge of Functional Locations: Adjusting current and historical notifications without LRP and without any maintenance order assigned.

If you create a maintenance notification for the top node of a Functional Location structure, Notification Items are created for the Functional Locations with assigned linear data at bottom level of the hierarchy.

If you split one of the Functional Locations at bottom level of the hierarchy, new Notification Items are created for the new segment.

You can create an equipment task list or a functional task list for a linear asset. The linear data is added on the header level and operation level of the equipment task list and the functional location task list. If you create a maintenance order from a task list, the linear data from the task list is copied into the maintenance order.

You can define Rules for Copying Linear Data in Task Lists. For example, you can specify if the linear data can be copied from a task list header.

Linear data will be copied from task list operation to maintenance order operation when it is either assigned manually or released from maintenance call.

By using object links, you can represent the links that exist between various technical objects or systems (pieces of equipment or functional locations). Such links exist, for example, between production units alone, between production systems and supply systems and between supply and disposal systems. You represent an object network using the object links. You can therefore structure your technical systems horizontally.

You can model your linear assets as object networks by combining several object links that were created either between functional locations or pieces of equipment. In a first step you have to create the nodes of the network as well as the links between them as technical objects. In the current example, the nodes and the links (f.ex. water pipes) of the water supply are modeled as functional locations.

In a second step, you define the object links to represent the network structure of the water supply.

In a third step, you define the following objects that are necessary for a detailed description of a network:

To maintain object networks you need to activate Business Function LOG_EAM_LINEAR_2.