Overview of Maintenance in Supply Chain Management Business Processes

As a part of Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain Management, Oracle Maintenance plays an important role in supporting the following cross-functional and advanced fulfillment processes:

Outside Processing

Outside processing is a commonly observed business process where one or more operations of a work order are outsourced to a supplier who provides specialized services as required for maintenance activity. These services may vary depending on the type of asset and nature of the industry.

The first step is to create and release a work order with supplier operations in Maintenance. Work orders are scheduled using the unconstrained logic in Oracle Planning Central and Oracle Supply Planning. Once the work order is released, a request is sent to Oracle Supply Chain Orchestration to create a purchase requisition. Supply Chain Orchestration in turn creates a supply order and triggers the creation of a purchase requisition in Oracle Self Service Procurement. An outside processing purchase order is created in Oracle Fusion Cloud Purchasing using the details maintained in the outside processing blanket agreement.

The next step is to execute work order by reporting quantities as completed at the operation prior to the supplier operation following which, a request is sent to Supply Chain Orchestration to create a shipment line. Supply Chain Orchestration in turn creates a supply order line and triggers the creation of a shipment line in Oracle Shipping. A shipment is manually created for the shipment line which is then confirmed and closed. Based on the options set for the Ship Confirm Rule, the processes to print packing slip and bill of lading are automatically launched.

The next step is to receive the goods from the supplier in Oracle Receiving and deliver them to maintenance. You can optionally create an Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) in Oracle Supplier Portal or Receiving which can be used to create a receipt. However, ASN creation is mandatory in case of consecutive supplier operations. For a maintenance supplier operation, receipt and delivery of goods to maintenance work order results in automatic completion of quantities at the supplier operation. Supplier operations are then managed and tracked in maintenance. The receipt, delivery and operation transactions result in receipt and cost accounting in Oracle Cost Management.

For more information about Outside Processing, refer to the Implementing Outside Processing chapter in the Oracle Supply Chain Management Cloud Implementing Manufacturing and Supply Chain Materials Management guide.

Direct Procurement of Materials for Work Orders

During a breakdown maintenance and even in planned maintenance, post tear down, certain materials could be required which are difficult to be planned in advance. In such cases, getting those items through normal procurement process might delay the repair of the asset. In such scenarios, you can procure material directly for a work order by creating a requisition and then associating the requisition to the work order and the desired operation in Self Service Procurement. A purchase order is created for the requisition, and material is received and delivered directly to the work order. You can review the details of purchase requisitions, purchase orders, and receipts from the work order page. The receipt returns and correction are done in the Receiving.

Pick Materials for Work Orders

Materials are issued to work order from a supply subinventory, and generally called shop floor inventory. It is very common for the companies store the materials in a centralised warehouse and there is a need to bring the materials from warehouse to the supply inventory for the work order consumption. The picking process initiates the movement of material from warehouse to the supply subinventory for one or more work orders. A scheduled process creates movement request for materials required for a work orders either full or partial quantity based on the quantity on-hand in the warehouse. Finally after a pick is confirmed the material is transferred to the supply subinventory and later the same would be issued to maintenance work order by the maintenance technician.

Reservation of work order materials

Material availability for a maintenance work order is crucial for reducing downtime of the asset and adhering to the preventive maintenance schedule. Even with the best planning, maintenance managers prefer to have the material guaranteed for a specific work order in the near term before scheduling the work order for release.

It is possible to reserve a material for a maintenance work order demand from various supply sources, however common supply is the inventory on-hand. The reservation can be done either for an item quantity called high level reservation or for an item in subinventory down to serial and lot level called detailed reservation.

The high level reservation can be done automatically using action either in manage work order page or create reservation page. The detail reservation has to be created manually by navigating to the create reservation page from the maintenance work order page.

If the reservation is enabled for the maintenance organization, then reservation and picking process compliments each other. The detail reservation done before picking is honoured during movement request allocation process, meaning reserved serial and lot number would be allocated. And if the picking process is initiated first then after pick confirmation a reservation is automatically created for the items transferred to the supply subinventory

Project-Driven Supply Chain

Project-Driven Supply Chain is an end-to-end, integrated solution across Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Management and Oracle Project Management applications to support business processes of both manufacturing and asset-intensive companies. If your organization is project-tracked, you can perform project-specific maintenance by creating a work order, issue components from common or project-specific inventory, and complete the maintenance of the asset. You can also purchase outside processing services on project-specific work orders and import material and resource costs to the project.

For more details on setting up Maintenance, see the Implementing Manufacturing and Supply Chain Materials Management guide.