SAP in its standard configuration doesn't provide a place to capture two specific types of crucial failure related reliability information - the Failure Mode and Detection Method. However, there is a way requiring no SAP customization to use SAP Notifications to document crucial failure related information.

During a Meridium implementation with a global leader of frozen food products, Ralph Hanneman, Meridium and Mark Scott, Sr., Vesta were looking for a solution making it easier for the company's operators and technicians to capture Failure Mode and Detection Method information while staying within the standard SAP configuration and hit upon a novel approach: The use of subject or coding field for both the Detection Method and Failure Mode.

This doesn't mean using one data field to meet both requirements but rather use the Code Group field for the Detection Method and the Code field for the Failure Mode. This works nicely because even though the codes used for failure modes are repeated in each code group, the typical values for failure modes are a fairly small set. The resulting data is easier to analyze in either SAP using standard reports or in Meridium using Strategy Analysis capabilities.

Having a simple and streamlined way to enter the detection method and failure mode makes it easier for operators or maintenance technicians to enter the correct discovery information for failure events when the failure first occurs.

For a free copy of the associated whitepaper and other supporting materials for this SAP tip, please visit the December 2010 issue of APM Advisor: http://apmadvisor.com/article.asp?id=223

Tip provided by: Ralph Hanneman, Senior Consultant, Meridium & Mark Scott, Sr., Consultant, Vesta Partners