Service Management Service Parts Staging

31 Jul
Its interesting, because as long as Ive been doing service, Ive always tended to be hands
off on this portion of the process. I left it to the MM or WM person to set this up. I wont
pretend to be an expert or go deep into the configuration, but the overall process is
something i wanted share. Lets start at the beginning. What am I talking about when I
say service parts staging? Im talking about the process of getting components that will be
used in a repair to the service storage location so they can be easily issued to the order
upon completion. It also serves to secure the inventor for service.
Now, several of the things I just said, require a little more explanation, and Ill get to them
to shortly. First, I need to digress a little and explain the 3 most common scenarios for
service inventory.
1. Service uses its own IM managed storage location. Any additional inventory is acquired
from an IM managed warehouse. This scenario is the most common and the most straight
forward. Inventory can be completely managed using material movements.
2. Service uses it own IM managed storage location. Any additional inventory is acquired
from a WM managed warehouse. This is somewhat common, but still happens in the
minority of facilities. In general, WM tends to be used only for large warehouse with a large
number of components. This scenario becomes much for complicated because any time you
deal with a mixed environment, you have to deal with material movements, transfer
requirements and transfer orders.
3. Service exists in the same WM warehouse as the inventory it may need. While this
sounds like an easy environment, its still a bit of a challenge because service management
has no integration with warehouse management. Now production orders can integrate with
WM cleanly (at least in this scenario).
Now, the heart of the issue come from getting the parts to the service order when its
needed. This inevitably means that service will need stock from somewhere else. It really
doesnt matter which of the 3 scenarios you are talking about, each presents its own set of
challenges. At the end of the day, we just need components in a location that the service
department can access them.
Now, lets take scenario 1 & 2 together. lets say we have a storage location called SERV.
This will be the SLOC that service uses. Now, the inventory that service and production
both use will be in a SLOC called INVN. Now for your service parts, at the end of the day, it
doesnt matter if INVN is IM or WM. To get the parts, you need to execute a material
movement, like 311, and then send the pick list over to the warehouse to pick the parts and
deliver them. If INVN is Warehouse managed, just doing the 311 movement will generate a
negative that can be converted to a TR/TO to actually move the parts from the bins of your
choosing using LB12 or some other variation to create the . Now, the major challenge is
creating the material list to transfer, and then of course performing the actual move. Now,
the good news is that the components are reserved because in SAP they have moved to
SERV, however the physical move still needs to happen, so its important to make sure the
pick list gets sent to the warehouse to complete the loop when using the 311 method in
advance.
Scenario 3 is actually quite a bit easier. Since it is completely within WM, SAP provides a
transaction called LP10, that allows you enter in the order and then select what bins to pull
the material from, and then deliver it to appropriate service order.
As you can see, getting components to the service order isnt as easy as it looks. There is
significant work, and this should play an important part in your blueprinting for service.
Determining if you want to deal with WM or IM in your service area is an important
consideration.
1. Execute Transaction BS12.
2. Double-click entry ORI.
3. Set the flag for business transaction RMLV.
4. Save the changes.
Execute transaction LP10