Maintenance on non-serialized material

[former_member422246]

Hi,

We are having a big problem today when we try to manage our non-serialized materials that we keep in stock.

For serialized materials we use maintenance plans and that works great.

We also have a lot of non-serialized materials that we keep in stock over a long time. It could be up to 10 years. During this period we have to check the status of the material but PM does not handle Maintenance on non-serialized materials so the question is how do we solve this?

Scenario1:

We need to store a material in stock over time and every 4 year we need to check that the material is still ok. We go out in the warehouse and check the material and if it's ok we set an inspection sticker for when it was checked. If it's not OK we repair or scrap the material.

I understand that this is not possible in SAP standard but my question is rather how to build a solution that can handle this? I have looked at stability studies and the functionality is interesting but I'm afraid that it's too complex with too many steps. We have a lot of materials and a small number of personal handling these inspections. I like the idea of combining QM and PM to solve our problem. I have also looked at the calibration scenario in QM but then the material needs to be serialized.

Scenario 2:

We need to take some of the quantity that we have in stock and move it to another warehouse. The majority of the quantity is still in the initial warehouse but a small part of the quantity is moved. Now we need to check the material in two different locations and at two different intervals.

I know that this might be an unusual requirements and I understand that there needs to be a lot of development on our part but it would be really helpful to get some input if anyone of you out there have had a similar requirement of if you have done some development for other reasons that involves both QM and PM and the transision from QM over to PM an particular PM maintenance plans.

[former_member42743]

I'm not sure what you mean that the functionality is not available. To make it available, you would need to batch manage these types of materials. You could just choose to use an agreed upon generic batch number for all your non-serialized materials. Then use QM to reinspect the items every 4 years. Or whenever. Downside is you need to enter the generic batch when doing material movements. You might be able to reduce the impact of this by using a PID to define the generic batch number. As well as using screen variants to default in the generic batch number.

What it sounds like is you want to actually inspect by BIN. Not sure how you would accomplish that. Even then, what if you have two units on hand and purchase two more, (maybe you hit the safety stock). When you inspect the bin are you just going to inspect all that are in it? How would you prevent inspection of the two new units if you don't batch manage?

Craig

[former_member422246]

Hi Craig!

I was not aware of the recurring inspection function but now I have looked into that functionality and it might be an alternative for us.

I think we have to figure out how we should handle the batch numbers in the best way possible. We will move some of the items in the batch to another location and there will come in new items to the main warehouse. The items that we have in stock are moved around in the country from time to time (I know, this is a really strange process). Is it possible to split batches and also to combine different batches to a new batch?

[former_member42743]

Absolutely. Yes, you can combine batches and split batches. You can put in WM picking strategies with batches such as FIFO, FILO, etc. You can set up re-inspection intervals as well as expiration dates on batches and have stock automatically blocked when expired (QA07 transaction).

More than likely you'd have to adjust your labelling process to add a batch number onto the parts and label them as you purchase them. And since you move these products around the country you might want to consider batch management at the client and not at the material level. You'd also want to use the batch restriction status functionality.

Those above two paragraphs could be a major project!!!

Craig