Traceable, Verifiable & Complete:

Implementation of GIS-SAP, LAM & GEF for Material

Traceability
Jean Melton, Business Applications Consultant, NorthWestern Energy
Cyndra Fulton, Business Applications Technologist, NorthWestern Energy
Martin Stenzig CTO, Vesta Partners
Session ID 84403

May 7 – 9, 2019
About the Speakers
Jean Melton Cyndra Fulton
• Business Applications Consultant, • Business Applications
NorthWestern Energy Technologist, NorthWestern
Energy
• Project Manager for the Gas
Transmission LAM • Materials lead for the Gas
Transmission LAM
implementation in 2018. implementation in 2018.
• With NorthWestern for 25 years • With NorthWestern for 2 years in
spending 16 years in accounting, IT with 12 years experience in IT
enterprise risk management, and and Accounts Receivable in her
internal audit before joining the career.
IT department.
About the Speakers
Martin Stenzig
• CTO, Vesta Partners.

• Involved in several GIS –

SAP integrations (i.e. PG&E)

• Worked with SAP to scope

the Geo Enablement
Framework (GEF)
Key Outcomes/Objectives
1. Batched vs. Serialized Material

2. Power of LAM & GEF

3. Things to start early on

Agenda
• Introduction
• Current NWE Landscape
• What is Material Traceability, LAM & GEF and why Implement
them
• GIS – SAP Integration
• Materials
• Batched Materials
• Serialized Materials
• LSMW’s
• MIGO
• LAM/GEF
• Lessons Learned
INTRODUCTION
Current NWE Landscape
• NWE has been using SAP since 2000
• MPC live on 4.5b version in May 2000
• NWE – SD/NE operations live June 2002
• Progressive Upgrades Since
• Currently on ECC 6.0 – EPH8 – SP08
– FI, HR, MM, PM (CU/OAA), SD, PS, WM, BW, CLM, GEF
• ESRI ArcGIS 10.3.1
– With Linear Referencing for Gas Transmission
What is Material Traceability, LAM & GEF and
why Implement them
• DOT’s PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) Compliance Advisory
– Issued in 2011 and 2012
– Gas Transmission companies are responsible for tracking material down to the lot and serial
number for items that are both in the ground and in stores.
• LAM
– Enables flexibility for a multitude of linear characteristics within standard SAP classification.
– Provides standard reference fields needed to support Linear Referencing.
– With OAA, allows costs (both planned and actual) to be split between multiple activities.
• GEF
– Spatial analysis of work priorities as well as proximity of work.
 What is Material Traceability, LAM & GEF and
why Implement them
• LAM is functionality within the SAP Plant Maintenance suite that allows assets such as pipelines to be managed as
linear objects.

• Key Elements
• Linear Fields – Start Point, End Point, Length, Unit of Measure,
Offsets
• Linear Reference Pattern (LRP) – relationships to FLOC and EQ,
Marker Types, Physical Field References
• Linear Distributive Characteristics (LDC) – what changes across the
length of the asset (i.e. Physical changes, Boundaries, Operating
conditions, etc.)
• Reporting – LAM fields in Selection criteria and Report Output.
What is Material Traceability, LAM & GEF and
why Implement them
• Geo Framework is Map-based functionality within SAP that provides Spatial Analysis Capability of Assets and
Work Management
• Fiori or SAP GUI

• Geometries stored in HANA DB

• Points, Lines, Polygons

• Business and Reference Layers

• Enterprise Search

• Business Actions

• Optional Base Maps

 GIS – SAP Integration
Vesta “Mercury” is a software framework for the integration of SAP plant maintenance
(PM) with geographic information systems (GIS) such as ESRI and GE Smallworld. It
represents Vesta’s collective experience from multiple industries distilled into the essential
building blocks of a bi-directional asset management interface for technical objects,
characteristics, geometry, and linear data. Compatible with ECC and S/4HANA platforms.

WHAT IS MERCURY?

Mercury
Mercury isis aasuite
suiteof of applications
applications with
with two Mercury
Mercury has ahas a graphical
graphical user interface and
user interface
essential
two Mercury components:
essential is acomponents:
suite of The
applications
Connector,
The with two andworks
works “out-of-the-box” or with some level
“out-of-the-box” or with
andessential
Extractor.
Connector, components:
andTheExtractor.
Connector
The Connector,
processes
The some level of enhancement to create
inbound
and Extractor.
transactionsThefromConnector
GIS to SAP,
processes
of enhancement to create a perfectly-
Connector processes inbound a perfectly-tailored data processing
while
inbound
the Extractor
transactions
processes
from GIS
outbound
to SAP, tailored data processing flow
flow
transactions
data
while
fromtheSAP from
backGIS
Extractor thetoGIS
SAP,
toprocesses while
outbound
the data
Extractor
from SAP processes
back to the outbound
GIS
data from SAP back to the GIS

WHY MERCURY? WHAT’S INCLUDED?

• Supports linear, point, and polygon geometry

• Near real-time synchronization between SAP & GIS keeps SORs in aligned
• Uses certified SAP BAPI functions to handle asset master data
• Eliminates need for dual asset maintenance of SAP and GIS
• Internal libraries can be mixed-and-matched for different feature
• Significantly reduces interface development time and TCO
requirements
• Runs on ECC or S/4HANA platforms with no need for middleware
• Essential components: Connector, Extractor and Message Viewer
• Mercury is optimized for speed and minimal system resources
• Job timing, monitoring and control with SAP O/S process queue
• Web services (SOAP) can be can called from essentially any GIS
platform
• Uses standard SAP security mechanisms and protocols
Materials
• Creating the master for the materials to be used is critical to the “what is in the ground”
concept.
• Things you’ll need to begin:
– Complete list of all materials associated with the project.
– Decide what materials will be batch managed or serialized.
– Classes that will correspond with each type of materials.
– Characteristics that pertain to each specific material.
– Create 2 serialization profiles; one for the materials and one for removing
serialization should that request come about during the project.
• Organize materials in a spreadsheet
 Batched Materials
• Batched managed materials cannot
have inventory in the current or previous
posting period.
• Batched materials requires there be no
inventory or purchase orders for the
batches to be archived and batch
management to be turned off.
• Check the batch management box to
turn on the batching process for that
material.
• A batch can have a quantity of one or
multiple for the same material.
Batched Materials 001
Batched Materials 022
Serialized Materials
• Serialized materials are those
materials that will also receive an
equipment number/record. This option
can be set during the material creation
process and can also be set for
existing materials.
• Serialization can be turned off using a
dummy profile and marking the
equipment records for
inactive/deletion.
• Select the desired profile in the Serial
no.profile field. This turns on the
serialization process for that material.
Serialized Materials
LSMW’s
• We created an LSMW to do the initial load for creation of new material for both batched and serialized
materials
• For materials that had no history or inventory, we were able to use mass change to set the batch flag and
Serial No. profile
• We created an LSMW for the loading of classes and characteristics
– Three LSMW runs were used to upload all data

1. Create characteristics and their values

2. Create classes and assign characteristics to each class
3. Assign class and characteristic values to each material
master
• We also created an LSMW for copying the 001 class type to the 022 class type for batched materials for
the material master record.
MIGO
LAM/GEF
• Created GTS Launchpad (using Liquid UI).
• Created a new O&M Notification Type (GP) and Catalog Codes to go
with it.
• Created a new OAA order Type (GT26).
– Created 4 new Service Products to go with the GT26 order
• They automatically populate the Operation Activities
– These mirrored the activities that were used with
networks.
• Linear enablement is not available for network activities.
– Automated the process of applying settlement rules to each
Operation Activity.
LAM/GEF
Lessons Learned
• Start early on:
– Determining what characteristics will be assigned to each ESRI
Feature Class.
– Reviewing material characteristics that will be on the material
master vs. batch or equipment record.
– The label printing process within SAP for the labels that will be
applied to all materials.
– The review of Functional Locations in SAP vs. Locations in ESRI.
• If possible start your project out on at least SAP Partial Run Time SAP
HANA.
Take the Session Survey.

We want to hear from

you! Be sure to complete
the session evaluation on
the SAPPHIRE NOW and
ASUG Annual Conference
mobile app.
 Presentation Materials
Access the slides from 2019 ASUG Annual Conference here:
http://info.asug.com/2019-ac-slides
 Q&A
For questions after this session, contact us at [email protected],
and [email protected],
or [email protected].
 Let’s Be Social.
Stay connected. Share your SAP experiences anytime, anywhere.
Join the ASUG conversation on social media: @ASUG365 #ASUG