SAP PM Interview Questions

SAP PM (Plant Maintenance) Interview Questions & Answers

Q1. What is SAP PM and its scope?

SAP PM (EAM) manages asset maintenance across breakdown, corrective, and preventive work. It covers notifications, orders, task lists, maintenance plans, confirmations, and cost settlement.

Q2. PM organizational structure

Client → Company Code → Plant → Maintenance Planning Plant → Maintenance Planner Group → Work Center. Technical objects live at plant level.

Q3. Functional Location vs Equipment

Functional Location represents a hierarchical install location (area → system → unit). Equipment is an individual, maintainable object that can be installed at a location; it holds serial, measuring points, and history.

Q4. Maintenance BOM & Assemblies

Maintenance BOM lists spare parts/assemblies for an FL/equipment. It speeds component planning and reservation in orders.

Q5. Task lists (General/Equip/FL)

Reusable operation sequences with PRTs, components, and inspection characteristics. Types: General (group), Equipment-specific, Functional Location-specific.

Q6. Maintenance Notification

Captures malfunction/symptoms, damage/cause codes, priority, and attachments. Can trigger an order or be processed standalone.

Q7. Notification types & coding

Common: M1 malfunction, M2 activity, M3 maintenance request. Coding uses catalogs for damage, cause, task, and activities for analytics.

Q8. Maintenance Orders & types

Order types (e.g., PM01 corrective, PM02 preventive, PM03 refurbishment) control number ranges, settlement profiles, and costing.

Q9. Breakdown vs Corrective vs Preventive

Breakdown is unplanned downtime; corrective fixes known defects; preventive is time/counter/condition-based to avoid failures.

Q10. Order life cycle

1. Create (from notification/plan)
2. Plan operations/materials/services
3. Release & schedule
4. Execute & confirm time
5. Goods issue components/SES for services
6. Technical completion (TECO)
7. Settlement & close

Q11. Confirmations & time booking

Single/collective confirmations record labor hours, activities, and measurements; drive actual costs and capacity usage.

Q12. Settlement in PM

Transfers order costs to receivers (cost center, asset, WBS, or material in refurbishment). Controlled by settlement rule/profile.

Q13. Measuring points & counters

Points store readings (e.g., temperature); counters accumulate usage (hours/km). They trigger performance-based maintenance.

Q14. Measurement documents

Time-stamped readings posted to measuring points/counters; support trend analysis and counter-based plan calls.

Q15. Maintenance Plans (single/cyclic/strategy)

Single-cycle for one interval; cyclic for sequences; strategy-based combines multiple packages (e.g., 1M/3M/12M).

Q16. Strategy-based plans & packages

Define time/counter packages with performance tolerances, call horizons, and early/late shift factors.

Q17. Scheduling indicators & call control

Time/Performance/Performance+Time; early/late shift, completion requirement, and “scheduling indicator” influence call dates.

Q18. Performance-based (counter) plans

Plans call orders after counter thresholds (e.g., every 500 hours). Backward/forward scheduling handles missed readings.

Q19. Multiple counter plans

Combine counters (hours, cycles) with Boolean logic to trigger maintenance when any/all thresholds are hit.

Q20. Maintenance Items

Link plan to the technical object and task list; carry priority, start dates, and call object settings.

Q21. Revision & shutdown/turnaround

Revisions group orders under a common window for plant shutdowns with coordinated scheduling and progress tracking.

Q22. Work Clearance Management (WCM) & Permits

Controls safety isolation and permits (electrical, confined space). Orders cannot start without required permits released.

Q23. Refurbishment process

Repairs a serialized material back to stock using a refurbishment order; costs can settle to material with valuation updates.

Q24. Calibration & PM–QM integration

Calibration orders integrate with QM inspection lots; results/UD recorded for instruments per compliance standards.

Q25. External services procurement

Service specs (ML81N/SES) on orders; framework contracts; automatic account assignment to PM order operations.

Q26. Components & reservations

Order components create reservations; GI at execution posts actuals. Availability check ensures spares readiness.

Q27. Capacity planning & work centers

Work centers hold capacities, shifts, and cost centers; dispatching aligns labor/shops; integrates with MRS/Resource Scheduling.

Q28. Maintenance activity types

Standard PM activities (PM01 corrective, PM02 preventive, PM03 refurbishment, PM04 calibration, etc.) classify work for reporting.

Q29. Catalogs (damage, cause, task)

Structured codes in notifications for analysis (e.g., bearing failure → lubrication issue). Enable Pareto and RCA.

Q30. Priority & SLA handling

Priority drives required start/finish and escalations; can map to response/repair SLAs in Fiori and reports.

Q31. PM integration with MM/SD/FI/CO

MM: spares & services; FI/CO: cost capture/settlement; SD: service orders/returns (if CS/SM used); QM: calibration/quality costs.

Q32. Authorizations & status management

Object-level auth (e.g., I\_BER\*, I\_WCM\*). System statuses (CRTD, REL, PCNF, TECO) and user statuses enforce process gates.

Q33. Technical completion (TECO) vs Business completion

TECO stops further logistics but allows settlement; business completion (CLSD) closes financially; reopen requires status reset.

Q34. Serial numbers & batches

Serialized equipment/spares track history; batch-managed lubricants/parts ensure traceability and shelf-life control.

Q35. Linear Asset Management

Handles line-based assets (pipelines, rails) with start/end points, offsets, and linear-specific notifications/orders.

Q36. PM master data best practices

• Stable FL hierarchy & naming
• Equipment where maintenance history matters
• Complete BOMs for critical assets
• Released task lists with clear operations/PRTs

Q37. Common PM tables

• IFLOT – Functional Locations
• EQUI/EQKT – Equipment
• IHPA – Partners (objects)
• QMEL – Notifications
• AUFK/AFKO/AFVC – Orders/operations
• MPOS/MPLA – Maintenance items/plans
• IMPTT – Strategy packages
• IMRG/IMPT – Measuring docs/points

Q38. Key PM transactions

• IL01/IL02 – Create/Change FL
• IE01/IE02 – Create/Change Equipment
• IW21/IW22 – Create/Change Notification
• IW31/IW32 – Create/Change Order
• IP41/IP42 – Single/Strategy Plan
• IK01/IK11 – Measuring point/doc
• IW38/IW39 – Order lists

Q39. KPIs: MTTR/MTBF/OEE

MTTR = average repair time; MTBF = average time between failures; OEE = availability × performance × quality. Driven by notification & order data.

Q40. S/4HANA EAM changes

Universal Journal integration, simplified data model, embedded analytics/CDS, Fiori apps, and improved resource scheduling. WCM enhanced via Fiori.

Q41. Fiori apps for Maintenance

Request Maintenance, Manage Maintenance Notifications, Manage Orders, Find Technical Objects, Report Malfunction, Monitor KPIs, Maintenance Backlog.

Q42. Predictive maintenance & IoT

Integrate sensor streams to create predictive triggers; auto-create notifications/orders based on anomaly detection and threshold breaches.

Q43. Work packs & long-text/attachments

Operations include long texts, drawings, safety sheets; attachments via DMS; object services enable photos/videos from mobile.

Q44. Object list & sub-operations

Object list links multiple technical objects to one order. Sub-operations break down work for parallel execution/capacity.

Q45. Cost control & budgeting in PM

Plan vs actual analysis by order type/object; cost centers/internal orders/WBS as receivers; thresholds and approvals via user status/BAdIs.

Q46. PS integration (project-oriented maintenance)

Large shutdowns/overhauls use WBS for budgeting/settlement; PM orders can settle to WBS or be created from networks.

Q47. EWM/WM integration for spares

Reservations create picking tasks; HU-managed parts; return of unused components posts reversals and updates cost.

Q48. Common implementation pitfalls

• Poor FL/equipment design causing reporting gaps
• Missing BOMs → wrong spares & delays
• Unreleased task lists lead to planning errors
• Wrong order types/settlement → financial mismatches

Q49. Best practices for PM design

• Start with criticality analysis of assets
• Standardize priorities, catalogs, and SLA matrices
• Use strategy plans with mixed time/counter packages
• Leverage Fiori/mobile for timely confirmations & photos

Q50. Real-world end-to-end scenario

Operator creates M1 notification with photos → planner converts to PM01 order, adds task list, spares, and external service → release & schedule → technician confirms time & measurements via mobile → GI components/SES → TECO → settle to cost center/WBS → KPI dashboards update MTTR/MTBF.