Effective asset management keeps industrial companies running smoothly, ensuring asset reliability and upkeep. By prioritizing asset health and maintenance, enterprises avoid costly production disruptions and project delays. But asset management is more than simply ensure asset health; it also means includes ensuring safety compliance.
“Regulations, generally speaking, are tighter than ever and we see safety as the foundation of operations,” Ryan Jones, Product Marketing Manager at SAP, said during a recent ASUG webcast.
Jones’s team is focused on connected asset management processes, specifically closed-loop business processes, consistently learning from data to make meaningful decisions. Along with AI capabilities to give end users more context for decision-making, improved processes have the potential to increase operating margins, he said.
Critical to running all of these intricate asset management processes is SAP S/4HANA Asset Management. Jones spoke about the upcoming software improvements in an ASUG webcast, "Updates in SAP S/4HANA Asset Management," covering new SAP Fiori applications, embedded analytics, and AI enhancements that were released with the SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS03.
Here are some key insights from the event:
Incorporating SAP Fiori Applications
Many SAP S/4HANA Asset Management customers use applications, Jones said. But, many of these apps are not truly SAP Fiori enabled—having gone through the specific processes for creating or modifying the apps for Maintenance Order, Maintenance Notification, and Technical Object operations.
Jones said these are areas that SAP is strategically investing in so customers can benefit from SAP Fiori features, such as embedded analytics on the application, simplified user status and visibility, and viewing schedules for Technical Objects. System Object will integrate with SAP Asset Performance Management to model complex systems, putting together unique interdependencies for assets.
Maintenance orders have historically used GUI screens for editing, but the new Maintenance Order app with SAP Fiori allows for editing on the operational level for materials, along with advanced visibility of order status and quick, visually intuitive analytics.
Manage Inspection Checklists have also been introduced, allowing technicians to submit inspections in checklist form. The inspection checklists integrate the qualitative and quantitative capabilities of quality management with inspection lots into maintenance processes, so users can have this integrated with their maintenance orders and operations, Jones said.
Optimizing Asset Performance Management
SAP is investing heavily in improving the integration of SAP S/4HANA with SAP Asset Performance Management, Jones said, with the ultimate goal being optimizing the performance and reliability of asset management practices.
Jones shared an example of supervisors screening maintenance requests. They can now use tailored recommendations generated in SAP Asset Performance Management to select task lists and assign directly within the maintenance request.
One area that solves many grievances, Jones said, is the ability to mass edit when it comes to asset management. For things like selecting several maintenance orders and changing the priority, that can now be done on a macro level, saving users time and effort.
Work Clearance Management is housing the documents for controlling work execution, providing formal authorization to perform a job and considering all its safety conditions. Many SAP customers require specific work permits, and being enabled by SAP Fiori applications allows for these permits to be created directly in the maintenance order. This process better centralizes the necessary documentation and work, leading to more time saved.
Since some jobs require a safety certificate to be in place first, this application is now using a phase-based maintenance approach to track overall progress. Workflows can allow for only compliant work to proceed, or users can set up an approval process. These digital controls and workflows only speed up processes when it comes to safety and compliance.
A new concept in SAP S/4HANA is planning buckets, which allow users to group maintenance objects and items into manageable groups, such as time, different attributes of the maintenance group, and more. The statuses are very visual, so the user can quickly understand if a project has the components and services that it needs.
SAP S/4HANA Asset Management for Resource Scheduling can also have a phase-based approach, and it can be integrated with SAP HR and SuccessFactors, providing visibility into working times. Users can now also assign a person responsible for a job, as well as see the service order.
Generative AI and Agentic AI Capabilities
Joule is embedded in SAP S/4HANA Asset Management, both private and public cloud editions, using a unified asset data thread to unlock continuous optimization such as simplifying and automating workflows. Along with agentic AI, Jones said there are many benefits and capabilities coming to end users.
Agentic AI is intended to solve multistep problems and plan ahead. In the context of SAP S/4HANA Asset Management, its goal is to create maintenance plans.
For maintenance notifications, AI can look at different attributes and indicators for object match and logic match to recommend maintenance orders. It provides a score of how well the request matches past orders, providing fast solutions to complex problems.
The AI-imbued solution promises to save multiple steps of tedious processes. If a user types in a prompt to Joule—SAP’s generative AI copilot—asking it to assign notifications and orders, the workflow saves about 16 steps, Jones said. Recommendations for upcoming maintenance plans save around 26 steps. For a supervisor processing hundreds of maintenance orders at a time, tools like this significantly lessen the load.
Using Business Data Cloud at the core of the AI capabilities, the second half of 2025 will feature further enablement and efficiencies on more applications.