Managing Customer Items and Installations: The Customer Installed Base

Chapter33
Managing Customer Items and Installations

Highlights
Servicable items can be represented individually and as types. The SM component of the R/3 System allows you to structure complex customer installations
flexibly and in detail. Serial number management allows serviceable items to
be tracked. Serviceable items can be classified, and configured with respect to
technical data.
The Customer Installed Base

A prerequisite for servicing the customer using an effective service management
system is that the customers installation (often referred to as the installed base) is
set up and structured logically. A customers installed base can be structured in a
variety of ways. For example, it could be set up as a summary list of the serviceable items installed. Or the items could be structured in a more complex way, such
as belonging to a network or hierarchy. More complex structures are useful if several customer installations need to be serviced and if large numbers of different
items are installed. Updates to the structure of the installed base can be made
automatically through the sale or shipping of individual serviceable items, or performed by separate installation functions. Products from another manufacturer,
which are also serviced by the service provider, can be managed in exactly the
same way as products produced by the service provider himself.
Representation of the
Customer Installation
Each serviceable item installed at a customers site can be used not only to manage technical data, but also as a link to a customers employees (for example,
contact persons, operators, responsible department) and to other SAP organizational units.
Management of Individual Serviceable Items

If it is not necessary to set up a customers installation in the form of a structure,
but simply to register the individual serviceable items installed, then these individual items can be assigned to the customer directly. You can either make this
assignment manually or you can generate it automatically when the customer
order or delivery note is created. A check on individual items is necessary if, for
example, tracking is needed in the event of product liability or warranty claims.
The system uniquely identifies individual serviceable items:
With a unique and neutral number (equipment number)
Serialized Products
and Individual Items
With a product serial number (material/serial number)

The identification of an individual serviceable item through equipment and serial
numbers can be used for servicing products from external firms as well as a service providers own items.
3-1
Serialization helps you track individual items as they pass through the logistics
business chain. Individual transactions include procurement, goods receipt and
issue, sales and shipping, as well as delivery to the end customer. The data that is
managed for each individual item can be either restricted to identification data
(for example, the material or serial number) or broadened to include detailed information (for example, operating times, measurement points, counters, documents, or additional text).
Equipment Hierarchies
When a serviceable unit consists of more than one piece of equipment, you can
structure it as an equipment hierarchy. This is useful, for example, with complex
systems in which several equipment parts need to be identified and tracked individually for usage and service.
Fig. 3-1: Installed Base as a Summary of Individual Serviceable Items
Classification and Configuration

Categorizing Large
Quantities of Installed Items
Characteristics,
Flexible Groups
Standard Products and
Configuration
3-2
The R/3 System has a classification system that categorizes serviceable items
according to a range of criteria. This classification system is provided as standard functionality and can also be used in many other parts of the system.
The classification system provides you with the option to define characteristics
for grouping objects. For serviceable items, this lets you search for similar items
and carry out statistical evaluations.
By using variable characteristics, you can also individually configure standard
products with many variants without having to create a material master record
for every combination of characteristics. The configuration characteristics are
passed on through the processes of the supply chain, from order entry, to requirements planning, to production. Apart from products, you can also configure services using characteristics. Pieces of equipment or serial numbers can refer to the
configuration of a customer order item or product variant, or they can have an
individual configuration. The configuration characteristics are taken into account
during bill of material and task list explosion, costing, and pricing.
Fig. 3-2: Configuration of Individual, Serialized, Serviceable Items
Management of Complex Customer Installations

Functional Locations
You can use the SAP structure element functional location to set up a customer
installation using spatial, functional, or technical criteria. For example, you could
set up a customer using functional locations for buildings with other functional
locations representing the rooms within the buildings. This makes it easier to navigate through complex customer installations and gives the service organization
additional functionality. By linking functional locations to each other, you can set
up a customers installation on multiple levels. Individual serviceable items can
be assigned to each functional location to identify where the items are installed.
For example, the PCs installed at a customer site could be assigned to the functional locations as pieces of equipment.
Functional Locations as
Structuring Elements
Functional locations can be set up as a hierarchy. The entire customer installation

can be represented hierarchically and master data can be transferred from higher
levels to lower levels.
Structure of Functional
Locations
Structuring According to Assemblies and Materials

If necessary, you can further subdivide the individual serviceable items using
bills of material for assemblies and materials.
3-3
Networking of Objects
The R/3 System also enables the definition of complex networked structures consisting of functional locations or pieces of equipment. This allows you to identify
the dependencies between the different elements of a customer installation.
Fig. 3-3: Complex Customer Installed Base
Efficient Searches
Various search methods allow the service employee to quickly access information
about the serviceable item, such as history, contracts, current orders, warranties,
costs, documents, and service tasks.
You can search for a particular serviceable item by:
Various levels of structuring
Technical attributes or characteristics
The address given to the serviceable item
Customer or partner information
3-4

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Chapter33

Managing Customer Items and Installations

Managing Customer Items and Installations

The Customer Installed Base

Management of Individual Serviceable Items

With a product serial number (material/serial number)

Managing Customer Items and Installations

Fig. 3-1: Installed Base as a Summary of Individual Serviceable Items

Classification and Configuration

Managing Customer Items and Installations

Fig. 3-2: Configuration of Individual, Serialized, Serviceable Items

Management of Complex Customer Installations

Functional locations can be set up as a hierarchy. The entire customer installation

Structuring According to Assemblies and Materials

Managing Customer Items and Installations

Fig. 3-3: Complex Customer Installed Base

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