When would you create a Work Order without a Notification?

[sapatsea]

I'm new to SAP and I'm trying to understand the fundamentals.

In principle, in Plant Maintenance (let's say for maintaining a fleet of trucks or boats), what would be an example of a case when a user in an organization should create Work Order without a Notification?

I appreciate the usual answer to such questions is usually something along the lines of "there is no right or wrong" or "depends on the organization" etc. but I would appreciate a sensible example from a standard fictional company with standard procedures.

It is my understanding that all Work Orders should have Notifications. Otherwise, where would you record the details? I could create a Work Order without a Notification temporarily if I'm going to connect Notifications to it later but still - the Work Order is eventually accompanied by a Notification.

Making a Notification without a Work Order is appropriate for cases when the Notification is only recording a Maintenance Activity and no work is required...I think.

However, I am struggling to come up with an example of a case where the "correct" approach would be to ONLY create a Work Order, create a Purchase with it (or not), close it out and never create a Notification related to the Work Order.

[Oscar_DC · Accepted solution]

Good question - We need more questions like this.

Let me give you an example and my personal opinion

If you think about maintenance in general, it can be either corrective or preventive.

• For corrective maintenance, I think you should always create the notification. Keep in mind that the notification can be created before the maintenance order and go through a screening process, or you can configure SAP in a way in which the order and notification get created at the same time.
• For preventive maintenance you can create a notification, but you do not have to. Personally, I prefer not creating notifications for preventive maintenance. Since it is preventive maintenance, I don't have to record any object, damage, cause, etc. If during the execution of the preventive maintenance order, the technician finds something which needs to be fixed, then a new notification and order must be created for it. There is only one exception for this rule - if you need to perform a quick inspection on an equipment and that might or might not lead to an order (For example, manually checking the status of a filter). If you're doing this kind of work I rather the maintenance plan create a notification and only create the order if actions need to be taken. There are folks who always create notifications (even for preventive maintenance), this can be confusing for the technicians as they might not create a new notification when they identify a new issue.

I'll be curious to know what others think,

Thanks

[sapatsea · Accepted solution]

That makes sense and it seems obvious now that you mention it.

A colleague also mentioned that the only time he came across Work Orders without Notifications was when there was an inspection. So a PM04 Work Orders would be generated from the Maintenance Plan and the user could complete the task and close it out.

However, if they felt the need to add more information, then they would create a Notification from the Work Order.

[Oscar_DC · Accepted solution]

Your colleague raises a good point - It is often times easier for folks who dispatch and execute work to always have a work orders assigned to them. This becomes clearer when you have Work Manager or Asset Manager and you have a well defined process to assign work to technicians. (It's quite hard for some folks to deal with notifications and orders)

If you have a scenario like that - then my "exception" is no longer valid. In that case you would create the order directly without a notification. If they find something wrong, then the could create a new notification.