To Delete Work Orders in Oracle EAM

The Oracle EAM is based on WIP and Inventory modules, So Period Closing is used on EAM organizations.
EAM Work Orders can be purged by using "Purge Discrete Jobs" feature. But this program will purge only WOs which are closed in already closed periods. (there are some validations which are not allowing purging of active work orders or WOs which are not in closed periods) Also you will have to run Inventory Transactions Purge program before being able to run WIP Purge.

There is no special program to purge only EAM Work Orders nor EAM Work Requests. Also it is not recommended to delete them from header tables (like wip_entities, wip_discrete_jobs or wip_eam_work_requests) as the records are related with records from detail or transaction tables by foreign keys.

In EAM, closing a period or closing an EAM Work Order act in same way: the costs incurred until that time are relieved by variance accounts. In either way, the costs can be pushed to GL. After that, as the WOs and related WRs are not necessary in the system, they could be deleted but at that time, all the material transactions and the resource transactions (and other transactions like capitalization or billing) will remain orphan and they could result in mismatch in reports and errors on user interfaces.

So purging this info from the system is not an easy task and also not recommended by Oracle 
(version 11.5.10)

'Period Close Variance' Entries From Oracle EAM to GL

The term 'Variance' in both 'Job/Period Close Variance' and 'Work Order Cost details screen - Variance' is causing the confusion. While the former is used in an accounting sense the latter is merely a term used in the cost view of the work order.

The Job Close variance and the Period close variance cause the maintenance expenses incurred on the work order to be passed on from the WO Valuation account to the Variance account. If these two accounts were set up to be the same in the WIP Accounting class, (which is the case that you have and also the recommended modelling specially for Average cost type), then the above postings are merely symbolic in the sense that the same account is debited and credited. The debit to the WO Valuation account during the actual EAM material or labor transaction would be the point at which this maintenance expense is first recognized in the P&L. Subsequent variance posting will have no impact.

The Variance observed in the Work Order Cost details page is just a cost view of the difference between the Estimated Cost and Actual Cost of the work orders. This gives an idea to the maintenance planner and execution team as to the extent of costs incurred in actual compared to the estimated cost.

EAM WO Cost Estimation is not impacting the accounting once the period is closed. (In fact, once the period is closed, nothing from EAM can do adjustments into GL)

If you want to schedule the Work Order Cost Estimate Processor then you will have to schedule the Estimation based on your needs. Are the users checking the WO costs daily? then you should schedule daily. 
But, there is no impact on the accounting if the

Reconcile the Oracle EAM and Payroll to avoid duplicate entries in GL

Oracle EAM is not designed to automatically reconcile with payroll entries. Customer needs to setup the accounts used in resource absorption account (resource definition form) and WIP valuation account for resource (WIP Accounting class) appropriately to achieve the desired results. 
A recommendation that we provide to the customer base independent of the topic being discussed here is that the WIP valuation account and WIP variance account in the WIP Accounting class be set the same. In the context of these possibilities/recommendation, please see the below 3 cases

Case-1 :
If the resource absorption accounts are set the same WIP valuation accounts for resource cost element, then debit and credit will be to the same account and there is no net value posted in GL due to resource charging in eAM. However the cost of resources required /actually used in a eAM work order will be displayed as cost views in Estimated cost view and Actual Cost view. In this approach, you are accounting all payroll related expense through the Payroll module only and eAM just provides a view of the resource costs expended on the work order.

Case-2 :
If the resource absorption account is set the same as the payroll debit side account, then this has the net effect of consuming the payroll expense when maintenance expense is incurred due to utilization of the maintenance resources. So your financial statements would then reflect payroll expenses to the extent of non-maintenance related resources(people) and the maintenance expenses bucket would show all maintenance costs – both items used and resources used.

Case-3:
A third practice that customers employ is to have 3 separate accounts involved in the resource transaction process:

No iPhone/Android Application For Oracle eAM, But there is a " Wireless Maintenance Workbench "

There is no "Oracle EAM eBS app for iPhone/Android" software available till version R12.1.3, Oracle has not provided such software to customers.

However, there is application called "Oracle Wireless Maintenance". This responsibility is a html eBS EAM responsibility and it can be used from mobile devices in on-line mode. The only requirement is that the mobile device to have internet browsing capability This is not requiring any software to be installed on client (mobile) device. However, if you have a VPN secured server, the mobile device must have this capacity to connect via VPN.
Note: Oracle features and applications may have been modified and empowered by third party software providers BUT this modified software is not supported by Oracle.

SETUP required for Wireless Maintenance Workbench

A.    Sysadmin Setup:
1.    Go to System Administrator >Security>Responsibility>Define, Set the "Wireless Maintenance User Workbench" as a Self Service Web Application instead of mobile application and Set Data group Application to Enterprise Asset Management instead of Manufacturing.
2.    Go to System Administrator > Application > Function and query for Function = EAM_WL_MUWB_HOME (User Function Name should be defaulted to MUWB Home Page) and Go to properties tab and make sure that type = "SSWA jsp function" 
3.    Go to System Administrator > Security > User > Define,  Query for your user and make sure there is a valid employee is populated in the Person field.

B.    EAM setup:
6.    EAM Organization must be assigned to the Responsibility 'Wireless Maintenance User Workbench' through the Organization Access form in Inventory
7.    The Login User Employee should have some work order operation assignments (the normal MUWB data):
a.    EAM => Setup => Routing =>

Realms Setup In iProcurement

Realms restrict the user access to iProcurement categories in any of two level

1. Responsibility level

2. User level

Define Realms:

Responsibility: Purchasing SuperUser

Navigation: Setup > E-catalog Admin > Realms

Enter Realms on the form as shown below

The iProcurement categories are attached to the Realm as components. We have a choice of attaching Item Sources or Categories asComponent Type. The Component Type LOV is given below

1.Responsibility level:

Now the realms are all setup. We shall now assign the realm to the responsibility and/or user. First let us assign the realm to a responsibility. Open the responsibility form.

Responsibility: System Administrator

Navigation: Security > Responsibility > Define

Fulfillment Set In Sales Order

Oracle has offered fulfillment set to group all the lines that we want to fulfill together
lets's say we have sales order with 3 lines and as per business requirement we want to fulfill these lines together.
But there is a possibility

1. one of the line in the order is already shipped and ready for fulfill.
2. second line still not shippped and is in status Awaiting Shipping and 
3. 3^rd line got Back-ordered. status. With the above scenario it is very clear that these lines once fulfilled  goes to different Invoices

Solution - But if we want to fulfilled and invoiced these lines together , this can be done with the help of FULFILMENT SET.If a line is part of fulfillment set , it will not progress beyond the fulfill  activity (Workflow activity - FULFILL_LINE) till all other lines in the same fulfillment set reach to FULFILL_LINE workflow activity. Once  last eligible line in the Set reached FULFILL_LINE activity it will progress all lines of the SET

How to assign lines to Fulfillment Set (Same Set as Order header Fulfillment Set). 

• Create an Order and check the Fulfillment Set check box.
• Create Order lines and all the lines in the order automatically added to same fulfillment set.

PL/SQL Script To Create Asset Numbers In Oracle EAM R12

Sample Script :-

set serveroutput on
declare
g_Return_Status VARCHAR2(1000);
g_Msg_Count NUMBER;
g_Msg_Data VARCHAR2(1000);
g_Object_Id NUMBER;

begin

fnd_global.apps_initialize (user_id => 1318,resp_id => 23118,resp_appl_id => 426);

EAM_ASSETNUMBER_PUB.Insert_Asset_Number
(  p_api_version => 1.0,
   p_init_msg_list => FND_API.G_FALSE,
 p_commit => FND_API.G_FALSE,
 p_validation_level => FND_API.G_VALID_LEVEL_FULL,
 x_return_status => g_Return_Status,
 x_msg_count => g_Msg_Count,
 x_msg_data => g_Msg_Data,
 x_object_id => g_Object_Id,
 p_INVENTORY_ITEM_ID => 7891,
 p_SERIAL_NUMBER => 'VEH99',
 p_INSTANCE_NUMBER => NULL,
 p_CURRENT_STATUS => 4,
 p_DESCRIPTIVE_TEXT => NULL,
 p_CURRENT_ORGANIZATION_ID => 4812,
 p_ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY => NULL,
    p_WIP_ACCOUNTING_CLASS_CODE => NULL,
    p_MAINTAINABLE_FLAG

Work Order Relationship Types in Oracle eAM

In Oracle Enterprise Management we can define 4 different type of relationships between work orders.

1. Parent Child.
2. End to Start Dependency,
3. Cost
4. Follow-up Work

Relationship between work orders helps to manage complex maintenance jobs.

1. Parent Child: This relationship enables a network of Work Orders, which includes one top level Work Order that defines the time line of all its children Work Orders. The start and end dates of the children Work Orders are within  the start and end dates of the parent Work Order. A child Work Order can be parent to another Work Order. One parent can have multiple children, but one child can have a single parent. There can be an infinite number of parent-child Work Order levels, within the Parent-Child relationship.
2. End to Start Dependency: You can create Work Orders with scheduling dependency relationships (including child sibling Work Orders). For example, one Work Order's scheduled start date is dependent on another Work

Two Step Material Issue Vs One Step material issue

User has two different option to issue the materials for a work order in Oracle eAM, Those are 1.Two step material issue, 2.One step material issue

1.Two Step Material Issue: - System will Perform 

1. Material Allocation and then 
2. Material Issue 

Material Allocation will be performed as soon as eAM Work Order got Released and after that user need to perform the material issue for Self Service Page .. Store > Two Step material issue > Issue

Note: For Allocation to be triggered at the Time of Work Order Release , please make sure that Auto Allocate Flag is ON at the Material Order Line as well as Work Order Header ( In WO header it got defaulted from Parameter - Enable Material issue request ) 

2.One Step Material Issue:- we don't perform Allocation, user can directly issue the Material.

Another Advantage of One Step Material issue is , it let you do Over Issue

Oracle Purchasing Enables The Automatic Creation of Sourcing Rules Setup

Oracle Purchasing enables the automatic creation of Sourcing Rules, Sourcing Rule

Assignments and Approved Supplier List entries during Blanket Agreement approval

submission. The system automatically creates the relevant entries, once the Blanket

Agreement is approved

1) A new Profile Option "PO: Allow Auto-generate Sourcing Rules and ASL" has been

introduced. The default value is 'None'. In order to activate this feature, the profile option

value needs to be set to either "Create Only" or "Create and Update".

If the value is set to "Create only" then the "Enable Automatic Sourcing" checkbox and

the "Release Generation Method" field are visible and can be updated on the Approval

window.

If the value is set to "Create and Update", then the "Enable Automatic Sourcing"

Checkbox, the "Update Sourcing Rule and ASL Entries" checkbox and the "Release

Generation Method" field are visible and can be updated on the Approval window.

Note: If the Archival mode being used for Blanket Agreements is "Archive on Print", this

feature cannot be used and the new fields and checkboxes would not be visible in the

Approval window. User must select "Archive on Approve" to use this feature

2. Sourcing Rule Name Prefix can be customized. The prefix value is read from the

activity attribute "PO Sourcing Rule Name Prefix" in PO Approval Workflow. The

default value is "PURCH".

Note: The new Sourcing Rules will be assigned

Oracle eAM Implementation Tips

The following tips highlight common questions and issues that arise during eAM implementation:

General Setup: An inventory org may be used for inventory, manufacturing, or maintenance. Spare parts are managed and maintenance work orders are executed in “eAM enabled” inventory orgs.

• Set up an org for eAM separate from any manufacturing orgs.

• Use Average Cost for inventory valuation in eAM orgs.

• When setting up WIP Accounting Classes, use the same maintenance expense account code in both the valuation and variance columns. This will cause maintenance expenses to book to the proper GL account and period.

Asset Definition: Assets are the object that work is performed on. Assets are also defined to represent hierarchical groupings for organizing work and rolling up costs. Asset can be used to represent positions for installation of rebuildable inventory items.

• Define a new Asset Group for each Manufacturer and Model Number combination.

• Define Templates for Asset Groups that will be repetitively used to create new Assets.

• Assign a Parent Asset for each new Asset to place it in the Asset Hierarchy.

• Consider setting up Assets that will move in and out of inventory as Rebuildables. Creating a “position asset” in the asset hierarchy will allow the tracking of rebuildables that have been installed and the cost of maintenance for the position.

• Use the Rebuildable Serial Number form to quickly setup rebuildables.

Preventive Maintenance and Activity Definition: Activities are the method for predefining work. Activities are used as templates to create work orders. Preventive maintenance activities may be scheduled based on meter readings and dates. Condition based maintenance may be triggered by absolute meters or collection plans.

• When launching the Activity Workbench and Maintenance Workbench enter a Parent Asset ID and check the “include children” box. Open Results, All Assets to view and use the hierarchy.

• Standard Operations may be useful for creating Activity Routings.

• When defining meters, be sure to check “used in scheduling.”

• When defining meters, set “past readings” to a number greater than

API To Create And Update An ESTIMATE in Oracle EAM

Following API procedure help us to create and update an ESTIMATE.

Here are the details of the specifications  for the create and update procedures:-
PACKAGE EAM_CONSTRUCTION_EST_PUB
File name: EAMPCESS.pls/EAMPCESB.pls

/*
* These procedures are used to create and update construction estimate records
* p_api_version Version of the API
* p_commit Flag to indicate whether API should commit changes
* p_init_msg_list Flag to indicate initialization of message list
* p_validation_level Validation Level of the API
* px_estimate_rec Record for estimation details of type EAM_EST_DATASTRUCTURES_PUB.EAM_CONSTRUCTION_ESTIMATE_REC
* x_return_status Return status of the procedure call
* x_msg_count Count of the return messages that API returns
* x_msg_data The collection of the messages
*/

PROCEDURE CREATE_ESTIMATE(
p_api_version IN NUMBER,
p_commit IN VARCHAR2,
p_init_msg_list IN VARCHAR2,
p_validation_level IN NUMBER,
px_estimate_rec IN OUT NOCOPY EAM_EST_DATASTRUCTURES_PUB.EAM_CONSTRUCTION_ESTIMATE_REC,
x_return_status OUT NOCOPY VARCHAR2,
x_msg_count OUT NOCOPY NUMBER,
x_msg_data OUT NOCOPY VARCHAR2
);

PROCEDURE UPDATE_ESTIMATE(
p_api_version IN NUMBER,
p_commit IN VARCHAR2,

Aims, Objects and Benefits of Oracle Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)

1.An asset is an entity for which users can report problems. Assets can be cooling towers, cranes, buses, buildings, conveyors, or anything that needs work

2. eAM creates and implements maintenance procedures for both assets and rebuildable Inventory items and takes care of comprehensive and routine maintenance requirements of asset intensive organizations. It effectively maintains assets such as vehicles, cranes and HVAC systems and rotable Inventory items such as motors and engines.

3. eAM enables users to optimally plan and schedule maintenance operations /activities with minimal disruptions to an organization’s operations and productions. It measures performance and optimizes maintenance operations. It tracks the performance of the assets and rebuildable inventory items by using meters, quality plans and conditioning systems.

4. By effectively monitoring operational data such as maintenance history, performance trends, meter readings, and operating conditions, organizations can proactively manage available resources such as inventory, equipment and skilled personnel to match them to asset maintenance demand.

5. Optimization of asset utilizations, scheduling and resources improves resource efficiency and enhances maintenance quality, maximizes resource availability including equipment and labor. Maintenance costs and work history are tracked at asset level.

6. Oracle eAM enables organizations to create and implement optimal and effective asset management strategies that can increase revenue and decrease costs. Both Preventive and Predictive Maintenance strategies are

Oracle's Business Intelligence Foundation Suite (Analytics Applications) are designed for the manufacturing sector and Enterprise asset management (EAM)

Oracle has announced two new analytic applications at Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo.

The new applications, which are both based on Oracle's Business Intelligence Foundation Suite, are designed for the manufacturing sector, and for enterprise asset management (EAM), and are the first in-memory analytic applications for that sector.

Oracle Manufacturing Analytics is intended to help operations managers, manufacturing analysts, manufacturing and supply chain executives and production cost accountants to have a better view into manufacturing processes, inventory and product quality, to enable them to reduce production costs, improve product quality, minimize inventory levels and respond faster to customer demands.

Oracle Enterprise Asset Management Analytics has been designed to give more effective management and analysis of assets, in areas such as projecting expected asset life, planning strategies to reduce maintenance costs and increase uptime

Failure Analysis in Oracle eAM

Failure Analysis enables maintenance users to track an asset failure from the time it is reported until its resolution. Statistics from their collected failure data provide them with information on why an event occurs and causes asset failure. They can then take the necessary steps to eliminate that event. Additionally, they can use the failure statistics, among others, to help them formulate their Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) program. 

Failure hierarchies that support multiple-level failure reporting provide effective root cause and reliability analysis. For specific Asset Groups, each failure (problem) has a defined number of root causes, with each root cause having a defined number of resolutions (remedies). 

1. First step is to define Failure Codes. There are three main Failure Code Types:

1. Failure Code
2. Cause Code and
3. Resolution Code

2. Second step is to define Failure sets. In failure sets user-defined Failure codes, Cause codes and

Enhanced features in R12.1 (+) series at Oracle EAM

This blog will throw light on the important features that exist in Enterprise Asset Management module in Oracle EBS R12.1
Enhanced features in R12.1 (+) series-

• Express Work : It's an integrated way of finishing the emergency work quickly with all the details like labor, charge time, material issued entered in single page.
• Microsoft Project Integration : This will help in integrating the Microsoft project with eAM which in turn used in Work order scheduling in effective manner.
• Google Maps integration : Apart from maintaining an asset, it's becoming important to track them. eAM has come up with solution of integrating the assets with the web-based Google maps. During asset creation or after we need to provide some geo information such as Longitude, Latitude, and Direction for the Assets to locate.
• Construction units : This feature is provided under the Maintenance Super User responsibility in OAF. The activities carried out on repetitive jobs like commissioning of Towers, Electric Lines, Power plant construction etc., can be effectively estimated and planned using Construction units.
• Primavera Integration : One of the products in market dealing with Project management. Integration of Primavera and eAM will help in scheduling eAM work orders for Project based activities.
• Encumbrance : Long living feature with purchasing modules has been introduced in eAM for Acconting encumbrance with eAM Purchase orders/ Purchase requisitions.
• Work Permits : Creating only work order without information about operations, manitenance and safety precautions are of no use. eAM has come up with feature called Work permit where we need to take permission before taking up any work along with above details.

Predictive Maintenance & Reliability Centered Maintenance

Maintenance, in all its essence, is an absolutely indispensable activity for all organizations today. Downtimes or any damage due to malfunctioning of an equipment are most expensive and thus an immense squeeze in the profits. Almost each and every organization across industries have woken up to this fact and employ some or the other maintenance system

Furthermore to just having a system in place to take care of the maintenance activities, organizations today are moving towards most intelligent and sophisticated methods of maintenance viz. Predictive Maintenance and Reliability Centered Maintenance.

The goal of Predictive Maintenance is to perform maintenance exactly when the equipment needs it - neither earlier nor later than necessary. This essentially means tracking key indicators over time to predict when the equipment needs repair. Predictive maintenance programs measure equipment on a regular basis, track these measurements over time, and take preventive action whenever the measurements are about to go outside the operating limits. Repairing equipment as-needed requires fewer man-hours and parts than corrective maintenance.
In a similar fashion, Reliability Centered Maintenance focuses on prioritizing maintenance efforts based on equipment's importance to operations, its downtime cost in revenue and customer loss, its cost of repair, and its impact on safety. It offers extensive analytical data to ensure that the critical equipments are identified and maintained on a priority. Reliability maintenance depends on the same measurements used in predictive maintenance, but saves additional maintenance cost by spending less effort on lesser important equipments

The EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) module in the Oracle E-Business Suite family offers these refined maintenance techniques of Predictive Maintenance as well as Reliability Centered Maintenance

But as they say, just implementing something does not ensure a job been done. It is equally important for people working with these methods to understand them thoroughly and learn how to identify potential problem areas. If an intelligent solution is implemented and work practices change accordingly, phenomenal results become apparent pretty soon.

Most challenges in Linear Asset Management

Maintenance of linear assets (A kind of networks) is completely different from maintaining non linear assets like a fleet, machine. They through lot more challenges in modelling and executing the maintenance work compared to non linear assets. The ability to model and execute the maintenance these assets is what can tap the huge market potential in this segment

Assets can be broadly divided into two categories namely Liner and Non linear. If we underrated non linear assets, it is easy to understand linear assets. Non linear assets are like Plant, equipment, Machine, fleet etc., they are confined to a size and specific location etc., Maintenance of them is relatively easy. Linear assets are not specific to single location. Linear assets can be like roads, runways, gas pipe lines, electrical transmissions, rail tracks, telecom lines etc., where they are not specific one single location. They more or less represent a network. Many linear asset networks cross over with other networks and can also be a place holder of many non linear assets. For e:g one railway track can connect to other railway track and also holds many non linear assets like traffic control systems, stations, power generating equipment and more importantly other parallel linear asset like power cables etc., Maintaining these assets requires much more capability than maintaining non linear assets

There are many challenges that will surface in maintaining these assets. All these challenges need to be addresses adequately by any ERP to realize the benefits. Again the challenges will be different for different industries and this blog lists these challenges a generic manner

1. Modelling of the linear assets: As the linear assets are not confined to a single location but widely spread across some geographies, modelling of these assets is the first most challenge for any ERP. This modelling can be either engineering or visual in nature. For e.g. a metro rail network is spread across a city. Typical asset hierarchy may not work here.
2. Assigning the non linear assets to the linear assets: Every linear asset can be a place holder for many non linear assets. For e.g.  a national highway contains traffic signals, light posts at definite locations also requires maintenance.
3. Parallel networks: There are some networks that work in parallel. A metro rail network requires a parallel power lines. Failure of any of them can result in stoppage of the services. Modelling of such networks is a challenge.
4. Intersecting networks: Networks that cross over. Typically can operate independently but the shutting down of one network can result in

Sales Order Process - Simple steps

The order process has 5 main steps.  In these steps, you will enter an order, book the order, pick the order, ship the order, and then close the order.   Since Order Management relies heavily on the workflow technology, I will show you the workflow status for each step along with the order and line status.  Below is a summary of the status for each step:

Step	Order Header Status	Order Line Status	Order Flow Workflow Status (Order Header)	Line Flow Workflow Status (Order Line)
1. Enter an Order	Entered	Entered	Book Order Manual	Enter – Line
2. Book the Order	Booked	Awaiting Shipping	Close Order	Schedule ->Create Supply ->Ship – Line
3. Pick the Order	Booked	Picked	Close Order	Ship – Line
4. Ship the Order	Booked	Shipped	Close Order	Fulfill – Deferred
	Booked	Closed	Close Order	Fulfill ->Invoice Interface ->Close Line -> End
5. Close the Order	Closed	Closed	End	End

Step 1: Entering an Order
Let’s assume that all the master data (customers, items) have been entered and that the basic Order Management configuration is in place.  To enter the order header information, you will need to know :
1.       Your customer’s name or number
2.       Your customer’s bill-to and ship-to addresses
3.       The order type you wish to use
To enter the order line information, you will need to know :
1.       The item number
2.       The quantity
3.       The selling price (either by using a price list or by manually entering the price)
4.       The shipping warehouse
Once the order is entered and saved, there are two workflows that are triggered.  The “Order Flow – Generic” workflow is the workflow associated with the order header and the “Line Flow – Generic” workflow that is associated with the order line.  The header workflow (Order flow – Generic ) will move from the “Enter” node to the “Book – Order Manual” node.  This tells us that the workflow is waiting for us to click the “Book Order” button.  The line workflow (Line Flow – Generic) starts the “Enter – Line” status.
At this point, your order header and order line status will be “entered”

Step 2:  Booking the Order
When you have completed entering all the order lines, you can book the order by clicking the “Book Order” button on the Sales Order form.  This will perform a check on your order and, if everything is ok, it will change the order header status to “Booked” and the order line status to “Awaiting Shipping”.
During the booking process, both workflows (order and line) perform some activities.  The order workflow moves from the “Book – Order Manual” node to the “Close – Order” node.  The “Close – Order” node will wait for the lines to be closed and for the month-end to pass.  The line workflow moves from the “Enter – Line” node through the “Schedule – Line” and “Create Supply – Line” nodes to the “Ship – Line Manual” node.  This updates the sales order line with a scheduled ship date.
After the order is successfully booked, you are ready to perform the pick release

Step 3: Picking the Order
When pick release an order, the shipping module moves the item from a sub-inventory to a staging area. This transaction is called a delivery.  Think of a delivery as the act of driving a forklift to