Customer Reviews

Enterprise Asset Management: Configuring and Administering SAP R/3 Plant Maintenance

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a long time SAP Plant Maintenance and Materials Management consultant, I have read or looked through most of the SAP Plant Maintenance related books (and of course have looked at the on-line help provided by SAP for different screens, transactions, and fields on a regular basis). This is by far the best book on SAP Plant Maintenance, not only from a consultant's perspective, but also for all super-users and to some extent the end-users of the Plant Maintenance module.

Here are some of the reasons why I found this book extremely well written, helpful, informative, and an enjoyable read:

* This book is focussed on providing a good understanding of the configuration required to implement SAP Plant Maintenance. The author has not only identified PM specific configuration elements, but also talks about what configuration to touch and which one to leave alone based on his past experiences. This type of information is obviously not available in online help provided by SAP.

* This book clearly explains not only how to setup the PM module, but also what impacts some of the settings have on downstream transactions within or outside the Plant Maintenance module. Therefore, it gives a very good overview (and in some cases, a lot of detail) around the integration points of the PM module with other SAP modules.

* The title of this book is a bit misleading. It may lead you to believe that it only discusses Configuration of the Plant Maintenance module, but about one-third of the book is focussed on describing Plant Maintenance related master data, business processes, and reporting in SAP. This section should be very useful to all super-users and end-users as it is easy to read and understand, and cites real-life examples and business processes to explain complex SAP PM elements.

I have personally used this book as a reference material when making presentations to clients, configuring their systems, or even in developing training materials around the SAP Plant Maintenance module. I therefore recommend this book highly to anyone involved with implementing SAP PM, or trouble-shooting/using the PM module, or just interested in expanding their knowledge of different SAP modules. A Must-Read book for anyone interested in SAP Plant Maintenance module!

I've been an SAP PM analyst/configurator for 3 years and I found this book an excellent resource on the IMG for PM. Ian brings in some great new ideas on how each img item can be used and also points out important integration points. I also own SAP R/3 Plant Maintenance by Stengl and Ematinger and that book is a great resource on the business process. So combined the 2 books are all you need in your SAP PM library.

I was misled by the 5 star reviews into buying this book, which was a disappointment. It has little information over and above what can be obtained for free from SAP online help. It also contains very few screen shots of actual SAP screens, and no diagrams of any kind. Just text descriptions of the various screens, and in my judgment this is insufficient to give the reader a clear picture of what needs to be done to configure SAP PM. The organization of the book can also be improved.

Important areas in the configuration such as Settlement Profile and Allocation Structure are just glossed over and not accorded the importance they deserve. I also did not find any mention of Costing Sheet, Costing Variants and Valuation Variants, which are not easily understood, but are important when setting-up the order costing scheme (unless you just want to just accept the standard SAP defaults in configuration).

Curiously, the author seems to acknowledge the inadequacies, since he concludes his book with the following sentence:
"For more detailed information regarding the use and management of SAP R/3 Plant Management module, an excellent resource is the book SAP R/3 Plant Maintenance by Britta Stengl and Reinhard Ematinger (ISBN 0-201-67532-3)"
I have also read the Stengl and Ematinger book , and it is better in many respects - although to be balanced I have to say that it also does not cover Costing Sheet, Costing Variants or Valuation Variants.

This is the best book available when used along with experienced SAP PM consultant. Its for sure that you can not replace assistance of a experienced consultant, even author has mentioned it couple of times. Its very precise but it would have been of great help if this book contained the screen shots of SAP IMG, perhaps SAP did not allow the same as SAPPRESS's official partner is different. If your business knowledge is good then you can go for this book for going through customizing steps for Plant Maintenance. Wish you best of EFFORTS.

Starts out good, then goes into a very narrow explanation of SAP's configuration capability. Does not use graphics to show screens very well especially on the more complex SAP tuning required. Lots of referrals to IMG. Makes a fair attempt at explaning a complex subject....beaware that much more is needed to accomplish an SAP implementation.

This is an OK reference book -- after you've read the SAP PM book and on-line help. It is not a primary reference. The black/white screen shots are sparse; the ones provided are blurry, and its difficult to make out the screen details that are included. With the subject heading layouts it is difficult to follow where in the IMG the configuration topics are located. There is little 'best practice' for implementing PM; it is rather an explanation of the configuration setting items.

This is a good reference for all into SAP Plant Maintenance. I believe it is one of the better books around on its topic.

this book content is just in sap help site....I think it wast time and money..