Kenny - we rebuilt as a result of a divestment of assets, and so some data mapping was more challenging than others.
For stock data this was relatively straightforward, as the key fields for both ITEM and INVENTORY (including costs etc) were similar and were a straight mapping, however it is important to know how Maximo works when migrating. For inventory, the mapping was written with a Maximo 4.1.1 mindset, whilst it was going into 7.6.0.8. This meant that reorder points and economic order units, and their place in the reorder process were not understood at the time. This led to major issues with running this report and required a bit of rework of the data for the 7000 lines of stock held to make this work correctly. An example was minimum level for reordering - this is the figure that the balance falls
below in 4.1.1., whereas since approx. 2004 this has been the level the balance
reaches. Get that wrong and the reorder will try and reorder far more than it needs to.
If this was purely a Maximo - Maximo migration this probably would not have happened.
Where we did have issues was the inability to take previous PO history, and set stock usage figures. Several years in we now have the last three years of data to use, but still no record of when (or why) we bought some stock. We are working through it but as time passes memories fade and people retire. Stock management is often seen as the Cinderella part of Maximo, but my view is that if it was important enough to buy in the first place, it is important enough to hold clean data on.
With divestments there are always some politics at play, and knowledge sharing may not always be as open as it should be - certainty something to be aware of for anyone involved in a change like this, and getting the right people in the right meetings is crucial. The second challenge is ensuring that those responsible for a certain area understand the new functionality and test it thoroughly!
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Brian Williams
Maximo System Administrator
Ineos FPS
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Original Message:
Sent: Fri July 16, 2021 03:23 AM
From: Kenneth McAneaney
Subject: Materials Management - Inside or Out?
Hi Brian,
What was the dataset like to translate for Maximo? Was it pretty much one to one for fields or did you have many to configure. I appreciate for every organisation it will be slightly different.
We are doing a bit of a rebuild of Maximo ourselves and it is always good to hear what others are doing.
Regards
Kenny
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Kenneth McAneaney
NIE Networks
Original Message:
Sent: Thu July 15, 2021 07:26 AM
From: Brian Williams
Subject: Materials Management - Inside or Out?
Kenny
I've worked with both scenarios for several years, and personally I found the Maximo-SAP split to be least user friendly for the people trying to actually order the items, which begs the question of who is the system for?
Having had the opportunity to rebuild, we now master our stock in Maximo using pretty much the out of the box functionality. This allows users to see more data than when SAP was the master e.g. if stock has a replenishment order in play it can be seen via the Stock Availability view. We can also attach images to the master. As these are blob files it may be possible to integrate them. Maximo is of course more flexible too so there are many options available to customise if required.
The stock reorder process in Maximo again works pretty well - it relies on your data being correct of course, and users understanding exactly how the reorder logic works.
PRs and POs as well as contracts are also mastered in Maximo which allows a very joined up process. PO and receipt data is sent to SAP where the finance side is dealt with but personally that's as much as I'm comfortable with.
regards
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Brian Williams
Maximo System Administrator
Ineos FPS
Original Message:
Sent: Wed July 14, 2021 03:36 AM
From: Kenneth McAneaney
Subject: Materials Management - Inside or Out?
Hi all,
We have some good discussions in the last user group meetings. One for me was materials management.
We currently use SAP to manage our materials with a plan to further integrate the systems. What is the trend in the community, do you carry out materials management within Maximo or like us, do it outside with some integration?
What has worked well and what lessons have you learned?
Thanks
Kenny
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Kenneth McAneaney
NIE Networks
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