General Questions

What do you mean I can perform Mechanical Integrity (MI) functions inside SAP?

Yes, very exciting. Over the last decade SAP has invested heavily and innovated in getting closer to the physical asset. This innovation has manifested in two key areas, the Intelligent Asset Management (IAM) suite, and extending the traditional SAP On-Premise Plant Maintenance to the cloud.

The SAP cloud based capability, specifically the IAM suite, provides for the Asset Intelligence Network (AIN), Asset Strategy and Performance Management (ASPM), and Predictive Maintenance and Strategy (PdMS). These products manifest SAP’s APM (Asset Performance Management) solution set.

Additionally, AsInt Inc. has extended the IAM suite to address other Mechanical Integrity functions like RBI (Risk Based Inspection), IDMS (Inspection Data Management System), Thickness Monitoring (TM), and Turnaround Digital Wall Chart. Stay tuned, more to come from AsInt!

When you say perform “Mechanical Integrity Functions” inside SAP, what “Functions” are you referring to?

Great questions. What Mechanical, or Asset, Integrity Functions owner/users will utilize will vary dependent on the organization. However, below is quick list of functions that can be performed within the solution.

  1. Asset Management (including systemization, circuitization, grouping, etc…)

  2. Planning and Scheduling

  3. Spare Parts

  4. Strategy Development and execution

  5. Deficiency Management

  6. RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance)

  7. FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis)

  8. RCA (Root Cause Analysis) - Released in 2020

  9. Risk Based Inspection (RBI)

  10. Damage Mechanism Screening

  11. Operator Rounds

  12. Inspections

  13. Thickness Management

  14. IOW’s (Integrity Operating Windows)

  15. MOC (Management of Change), requires SAP HSE.

  16. Document Management

  17. Reporting, Data Analytics and Dashboards

What are the advantages of using SAP to address Mechanical and Asset Integrity?

Lots to discuss here, but it comes down to:

  1. Removal of data silos - Consolidation of various datasources (EAM, RBI, IDMS, MOC, etc..) into a single data source.

  2. Sustainability - SAP is a constant in most organization, where silo’d point solutions are changed out every five years or so.

  3. Scalability - Solution that scales to an infinite asset families, thousands of partners in the ecosystems, multi-lingual, unit of measures, etc..

  4. Pricing - Believe it or not, the SAP IAM (Intelligent Asset Management) plus the AsInt Apps, are roughly half the cost of competitors on the market.

  5. The Future - SAP is investing heavily in the Asset Performance Management space, inclusive of Industry 4.0, Big Data, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligent, etc…You want to be on a platform that is investing heavy in these areas.

For additional reading on this question, please reference the below articles: