When Safety Comes First: SAP WCM
When maintenance of technical systems becomes hazardous, those who play it safe rely on a less well-known SAP tool in the digital approval process: SAP Work Clearance Management. We present it.
Industrial production is harsh. Whether huge mechanical machines or robots, whether dealing with flammable or toxic substances, or working in cramped, difficult conditions – for things to progress in Austria, it must crash, roar, steam, and rattle. And to keep it that way, critical systems also require maintenance.
However, a simple call to the technician is often not enough. At dangerous workplaces like these, high occupational, environmental, health, and fire protection measures must be adhered to. The primary goal is always to minimise the risk to life and limb during maintenance.
This is where an SAP module comes into play in today's digital maintenance world, which still often leads a shadowy existence in the area of SAP ERP or Plant Maintenance (PM): SAP Work Clearance Management, or simply SAP PM-WCM. But what is behind it? And how is it optimally used?
SAP WCM – Preparation as the Key
Behind SAP WCM lies an application that allows for the management and control of safety measures in maintenance to ensure a smooth, continuous digital process for approving work in critical environments. This ensures that not only are all necessary measures taken to protect technicians, but that the individual steps are transparently displayed and can be checked in real-time. The documentation for each task is also simplified through digitalisation. The WCM module is directly integrated into SAP PM and has interfaces to the most important ERP data needed for planning maintenance work.
Thorough planning and preparation are essential when introducing WCM. Various legal requirements and countless individual variables depending on the company must be considered and implemented in the flexibly adaptable application – from the specific maintenance task to the required qualifications of both internal and external technicians, as well as the technical specifications of the systems.
WCM in Action: Faster Maintenance
I will illustrate how this can look in everyday work with WCM using an example: A renowned Austrian company sought a digital solution for maintenance work in protected facilities during its modernisation to SAP S/4HANA with SRB. Before any technological adjustments were made, the approval process had to be broken down into its individual components.
It always starts with a specific work request. The system must input area and location (via an integrated map), exact activity, required tools, and other individually set variables necessary to create a complete picture of the respective task and assess the actual risk. The level of risk then determines who must ultimately approve the order.
Approval and release lists included in WCM additionally help make the right decision for or against the approval of maintenance. Because despite all the digital 'SAP helpers', it is still a person who must ultimately approve based on personal experience and discretion. Thanks to WCM, this is digitally supported and provides important data and comprehensive information at a glance.
WCM Cloud: Easily Mobile and Intuitive Approval of Orders Thanks to SRB
The biggest challenge and one of the main reasons why SAP WCM is not well known, in my view, is that the application is 'only' available on SAP GUI in the frontend, making its use quite cumbersome for many. That’s where we come in.
With SAP Fiori, we have not only digitised the approval process for the mentioned client but also made it clear, user-friendly, and mobile across all browser-equipped devices.
The result was clear: Due to the previously manual process, the SRB client often faced issues where external companies did not accept tasks such as the tedious filling out of forms and applications. All of that is now a thing of the past. Through digitalisation with SAP PM-WCM, approval processes have been significantly accelerated, response times shortened, and ultimately costs saved.
Benefit as well
If you also operate systems in particularly critical environments and want to benefit from SRB's SAP expertise,
simply contact us without obligation
. We promise: We optimise your SAP! With and without WCM.
