Configuring and Creating Functional Locations

Use functional locations to structure your systems if the following conditions exist:

• You want to represent the structures of the technical systems in your company according to functional criteria.

• You need to perform maintenance tasks for the individual parts of your technical system, and this work needs to be recorded.

• You need to collect technical data for certain parts of your technical system and evaluate it over a longer period of time.

• You need to monitor the costs of maintenance tasks for certain parts of your technical system.

• You want to perform analyzes for the influence of usage conditions on damage susceptibility for the pieces of installed equipment.

Functional location labels (previously, numbers) are created using the structure indicator. The structure indicator consists of two input fields:

• Edit screen
• Hierarchy levels

You can use Edit screen to control the characters that can be used when you assign a label (letters, numbers, or both) and designate how these characters are grouped or split. You can use hierarchy levels to define which level ends at which character and how many hierarchy levels the structure can contain.

The label for a functional location can comprise of a maximum of 40 characters (maximum length of the coding template).

You can enter a master record for a functional location only when the following prerequisites have been met:

• The structure of the system to be represented in the system has been defined.

• The table settings for structuring functional locations have been entered in the system using the Customizing function.

• You know which level of the functional location to create so that you represent its hierarchical structure correctly in the system.

  Apply the top-down principle, entering the uppermost level and then the respective subordinate levels.

• You know whether the description of the functional location needs to be entered according to a particular, company-specific system to simplify search operations.

If you create a functional location, the system uses the structure indicator to assign it automatically to the corresponding place in an already existing hierarchy with the same structure indicator.

It's also possible to support the transfer of data from superior functional locations to subordinate functional locations, even if the generic structure of the location numbers has not been used within the location hierarchy. To complete this action, assign the directly superior location manually when you create a functional location, overriding automatic determination of the superior location.

This action is particularly necessary if individual units of a technical system in your company are identified by a label that describes the position of the unit in the system as a whole. These tag numbers often consist of a letter that stands for the equipment category (for example, M for Motor or P for Pump) and a sequential number (for example, pump station 0115). This identifier is only unique within a plant or technical system.

To represent a location structure that already exists in a similar form in the system, use this structure as a template for the new structure. You can use this function if the data of the similar structure has already been saved, and you can use this function to access the database and select the objects to be copied.

If the functional location that you are using as a template is based on a reference functional location, then this reference is copied at the same time. However, the superior functional location in the location structure is not copied by the system for the new functional location, but searched for again automatically.

If the location used as a template is classified, you can also copy its classification into the new functional location. If the location used as a template has assigned measuring points, you can also copy these measuring points into the new functional location.

The Change structure function facilitates the entry of similar structures within a functional location or reference functional location. You can use this function to change and insert a structure branch whose label only deviates at one level from the branch that is already entered. Use this function only if you have not saved the data of the similar structure to which you are referring. You cannot use this function to access the database.

Information about technical objects that need to be maintained can exist in the form of documents (for example, construction drawings or photographs).

Documents are managed, visualized, and archived as master records in the Document Management System. Document management is one of the central Logistics functions.

Since documents are often required when executing maintenance tasks, you can link the document master records directly to the master record of the technical object. You can make almost every type of document available to technical objects using the display program (viewer).

Several documents can also be assigned to a master record for a technical object.

You can now display the maintenance task list data and the maintenance plan data in multilevel lists (transaction codes IL07 and IE07), including the following:

• Operations
• Maintenance items
• Maintenance packages
• Maintenance dates

Using the alternative labeling of functional locations, you can change labels for functional locations.

This change can renumber a functional location (changing the primary key) or the definition of an additional view that displays the object using a different numbering scheme. When the primary label is changed, you are asked whether the renumbered functional location should be classified in a new hierarchy (if available).

The alternative labeling of functional locations also allows you to use different labeling systems for the same hierarchy. For example, the manufacturer of a technical system can work with a labeling system that is different from the one used by the customer.

Although alternative labeling systems are available through an internal structure indicator, they do not affect the structure of the object. The structure is determined by the primary labeling system.

The labeling system is defined in Customizing. The selection of the appropriate labeling system is controlled by a user profile, in which you can create and activate the required views.

Three apps are provided for processing a technical object: Create Technical Object, Change Technical Object, and Display Technical Object. As a maintenance planner, you can create and change technical objects to efficiently manage and evaluate technical assets and maintenance objects, and to monitor the costs involved. You can specify general data, location data, organizational data, and structure data. You can also edit classification data and characteristic values, and assign documents.

Additionally, you can use various SAP Fiori apps that support the management of technical objects.

With the SAP Fiori app, Find Technical Object, you can list the technical objects in your system. You can find the one you need by filtering the list according to various properties or by using a free-text search. You can display a single technical object to view its properties, its assigned notification and operations, and its attachments. You can activate links so that you can navigate, for example, to the Asset Viewer to display technical object structures.

When the data of a master record is changed and this change is to be copied into other master records using data transfer, it can be the case that the objects in question are locked by another user at this time. In this case, the system displays an overview of the objects to which data could not be transferred as well as the names of the users who are blocking the objects.

The employee responsible will not always be able to process the list of locked objects immediately. For this reason, the system stores a list of the objects that were locked during the data transfer in a separate database table.