Maintenance Planning is not just about learning what to click in SAP screens.  Often a Planner is thrust into an SAP Maintenance Planning and Scheduling role without any professional instruction and coaching.   Often it is a “fly by the seat of your pants” or “the blind leading the blind” scenario.  You may be an excellent Maintenance Planner, but learning how to plan and schedule in SAP requires to really understand the integration of Maintenance Processes and Theory to the options available in SAP.  Aligning Maintenance Theory to SAP, following Best Practices or Common Practices to achieve a state of the art Maintenance Reliability Program.   

Introducing the New Online Course “SAP Maintenance Planner Master Class”. Usually this type of course is an intense full week of lessons, for $4,500 plus your expenses to get to the location, hotel, rental and meals. I have delivered many sessions like this in Boulder, Colorado.  This Online Master Class is much less intense, you learn more at your own pace and available time.  The investment in time and money is a lot lower and you still get personal and group mentoring support with Greg Olynyk.

Some details you may not be aware of;

Did you know not to use the spacebar to get field dropdown history?

Did you know to use Assemblies and sub-Assemblies for parts and consumables inside Assets as Construction Types?

Did you know that you should almost always create objects by reference or copy?  This applies to Functional Location Structures (using Reference FLs), Equipment Templates, Document Templates (in DMS) and Task List Templates.   

Did you know to avoid alternate BOMs?

Did you know how to list related TCODEs in the SAP Menu?

Did you know how to copy areas in PDFs or even convert locked PDFs to Excel, mapping OEM Part numbers to your SAP Material Masters, to do mass Requisitioning in minutes instead of hours?

Did you know how to setup defaults in Global Variants, aligned to your Business Processes?

Did you know how to setup defaults in your Profile as Parameter IDs as well as in Work Orders and Direct Requisitions?

Did you know how to pre-validate measurement readings prior to mass loading into SAP?

Often, I see Planners doing things repetitively, manual methods that not only waste a ton of time but cause errors and omissions that can have drastic consequences.  

Learning SAP is not just learning what to do and why but also what NOT to do and why.  

Here are some of the things you will get;

Planner Role Favorites Menu to upload and append to your current SAP. (value $197)

Planner PIDs (Parameter IDs) to set defaults that most Planners benefit from. (value $30)

Planner TCODEs, not just a list, but explained function as well. (value $197)

Tech Support Sheet, to enable Technicians to do the right processes. (value $197)

Weekly Support Webinar (FAQs, etc.) (value $695) and Recordings of Sessions

Private Planner Support Group 24/7 (value $200)

Personal E-Mail support with Instructor (value $400)

Added Bonus; 1 hour Personal Live Zoom Consulting Call (value $197) FREE

This program (“SAP Maintenance Planner Master Class”) is almost $4,000 in Value , but you won’t pay this full rate…stay tuned…

I share horror stories from my experiences over the last few decades that Managers and Planners still stumble on to this day, unless they had me as an SAP Instructor!  

1. Exporting Material Masters – blank column was root cause of sorting issue that destroyed weeks of data cleansing efforts, also the use of Excel requires skills and safeguards.
2. Annual Shutdown file on Manager’s desktop, no backup, unskilled Planner sorted and destroyed months of effort.  Root cause was not just lack of Excel skills, but no backup and process of manipulating data outside of SAP is not good practices.
3. Entering bad measurement readings resulting in hundreds if not thousands of Orders to be created.  Either entering an old reading after a new reading (just a few days difference) caused meter over-reading trigger in SAP, creating hundreds of useless work orders that were improperly “cancelled” by Release and TECO, causing supply chain nightmares as well… Should have mass cancelled…  Also, the root cause can be date format mis-match of SAP and EXCEL LSMW Mass Load. We have also seen readings entered without decimal point, 23,789.78 entered as 2,378,978  - triggering thousands or work orders if not caught.  Best practices is to have meters connected to SAP and send daily run hours or odometer readings, but many companies cannot afford this integration with old equipment. Alternative is to have a system of pre-validation prior to mass loading readings.
4. Planner ran Deadline Monitoring for entire site, open ended, causing thousands of work orders to be created, with auto-PO setup, causing auto-released PREQs to create Pos to Vendors.  This catastrophe cost the company a lot of wasted time and money for parts ordered accidentally.
5. Planner accidentally ordered 10,000 Conveyor Roll Assemblies (each cost thousands of dollars) when he wanted only 10, root causes were heavy finger, went un-noticed by Planner and Manager approved.  Realized issue as truck loads of Conveyor Rolls arrived on site, no returns possible…
6. Tech cannot find correct motor in SAP, poor skills and poor descriptions, so he orders 3 types, installs the correct one and tosses the others into the metal bin (huge expense).  Tech is seen at first as the hero, eventually the Corp realizes this is going on at multiple sites, millions of dollars wasted and resolved it.  The root causes were many; poor descriptions, lack of search skills, no training on return process as well as a difficult return process.
7. Planners all wasting time and money (no options for Vendor deals) by doing all external purchases as Direct Requisitions to Vendors! (also called “free-text”) They were unaware that SAP Material Masters can be created for non-stocked items as well, saving time purchasing, allowing parts in BOMs of Assets as well as linked in Task List Operation components,  as well as having history of purchases to enable better pricing from Vendors.   Solution implemented was to make the Part Number field required, so supply chain would catch these repeat purchases and create material masters for them and inform the planners.  This was better than forcing Planners to fill in forms to request new Material Masters (their forms were very un-friendly).
8. Planners wasting hours of time searching OEM part numbers from locked PDF quotes in SAP to purchase, and typing data into SAP Work Orders to make the Purchase Requisitions. Solution ended up taking only a few minutes, Converting entire locked PDF to EXCEL, auto-mapping OEM part numbers to all SAP material masters, cleansing prices and loading all columns into SAP Work Order Component tab, no more pop-ups and so much faster and more accurate.
9. Planners creating BOMs, accidentally creating Alternate BOMs, wondering where all the parts went that they added, so they add all over again, one planner created 5 alternate BOMs in one Asset!  What a waste of time!
10. Similar issue, planners were unaware, even in their old legacy software, that similar assets (same Manufacturer, Model and Function) can have the same BOM (Assembly as Construction Type), so they wasted time trying to keep multiple BOMs updated, resulting in errors, omissions, obsolete parts in BOMs, inconsistencies.   
11. Planners often do not know that the General Task List Assembly on the Header allows the Components to be easily selected and thereby linked to that Asset Assembly or sub-assembly, allowing easy mass changes to Asset BOMs and Task List BOMs, as well as allowing the Task List Component List to be able to be copied when copying the Task List. Now we need to fix all these Task Lists and locate ones missing components.

These are just a few stories off the top of my head, I’m sure you have heard or seen a few yourself.

Corporations spend millions on implementing SAP, neglecting simple configurations and defaults to prevent some of these issues as well as neglecting up-skilling their employees adequately, with available super-user network for coaching and on-boarding existing and new employees.

Automating and outsourcing Coaching and Instruction is a sustainable and required investment into your people.

As a Planner, you should demand support, we can help you make a case study to illustrate the value and cost savings of having you skilled up to be the most efficient Planner you can be.

Often people don’t even know what they don’t know, like how to see all Requisitions, Purchase Orders and Time Confirmations in a Work Order with one click on one button!   Document Flow!

One Planner I met on a plane, told me he hated SAP, 12 clicks to get a PO number…  After I explained this Icon, he said “why the heck did they not teach him that?”  My reply,   “not all SAP Instructors are created equal,  I teach the quick and easy methods first, then build on that, called “Spiral Instruction”, and some SAP Consultants are more generalists, not specialists in SAP PM, like me.”  

So, do you want to get into the fast lane? Even if you are already a skilled SAP Planner, you may want to “fill in the gaps”, let me help guide you on your learning journey.

Recap of your Investment with “SAP Maintenance Planner Master Class”;

• Planner Role Favorites Menu (value $197)
• Planner PIDs  (value $30)
• Planner TCODEs (value $197)
• Tech Support Sheet (value $197)
• Weekly Support Webinar and Recordings (value $695)
• Private Planner Support Group 24/7 (value $200)
• Personal E-Mail support with Instructor (value $400)
• 1 hour Personal Live Zoom Consulting Call (value $197)
• “SAP Maintenance Planner Master Class” $4,000 in Value

Early-Bird special, limited to the first 6 Planners = $497

See you on the inside!

Greg Olynyk