CMMS Profile

SAP SE logo

SAP Plant Maintenance (SAP PM)

SAP SE · Germany (Walldorf)

Enterprise-grade maintenance depth with tight finance/logistics integration and strong governance; adoption and field usability are solid only after careful role design, and true offline mobility sits in a separate SAP product.

Website
sap.com
Deployment
Hybrid
Pricing
License Per user Feature tier
Entry price
47
Price transparency
1/4
Maturity
4/4
Small org fit
No
Enterprise
Yes

Strengths

  • Notification-to-order-to-settlement process depth is among the strongest enterprise maintenance models available.
  • Native integration with SAP finance, procurement, and inventory avoids cross-system reconciliation for maintenance costs and parts.
  • Asset structures (functional location + equipment + assembly/BOM) support complex plants with long lifecycle traceability.
  • Governance and audit controls are enterprise-grade and fit regulated multi-site operations.

Gaps

  • Run a technician pilot on Fiori workflows and quantify required customization to reach acceptable close-out speed.
  • Validate whether online-only mobile is acceptable at your sites, or budget SAP Asset Manager for offline execution.
  • Ask for a side-by-side demo of standard scheduling board versus MRS/RSH if skills, shifts, or finite constraints matter.
  • Request a live model of your failure-code catalog design to prove RCA data quality is realistic at scale.
  • Ask for a clear estimate of Fiori role/screen tailoring effort and upgrade impact before rollout approval.
  • Quantify Digital Access exposure early if external systems will create maintenance documents in SAP.

Feature Depth

Feature Score Reason
Asset hierarchy
Functional locations, equipment, and installed components support very deep hierarchies. Setup quality depends on strong master-data governance.
Asset identification
Rich equipment master data, serials, and structure labels are standard. Scan-first field UX is stronger with mobile add-ons.
Asset history/docs
History exists across orders and notifications, but finding and enriching it is often UI-heavy in daily work.
Work request intake
Notification intake and screening are mature in GUI and Fiori. Requester simplicity varies by role and implementation scope.
Work order execution
Full execution lifecycle with planning, release, confirmations, TECO, and settlement is native. Heavy process depth increases training needs.
Failure RCA
Damage/cause/activity catalogs provide strong structured RCA data. Poor catalog governance quickly reduces analytic value.
Preventive maintenance
Single-cycle, strategy, and task-list-driven PM are core strengths. Planner discipline is required to avoid admin-heavy plans.
Usage-based triggers
Counters and limits are available in core PM, but trigger depth and usability are standard, not market-leading.
Machine downtime
Downtime recording and maintenance analytics are standard. MES-grade reason-tree depth needs adjacent manufacturing tooling.
Inspections/checklists
Inspection steps exist via task lists, but there is no strong native checklist builder; many teams use external tools.
Mobile app
Core Fiori apps are mobile-capable online. True offline execution requires SAP Asset Manager as separate scope.
Parts/BOM
PM assemblies and BOM-based planning are enterprise-grade. Data model depth can be excessive for small teams with simple stock needs.
Inventory/procurement
Native MM integration supports reservations, goods movements, and service procurement. Commercial process design complexity is high.
Planning/scheduling
Scheduling board supports strong planner visibility and dispatching. Finite optimization and skill constraints require extra SAP products.
Workforce skills
Work centers and responsibilities are standard. Native skill/certification-aware dispatch depth is limited in core PM.
External contractors
External services and procurement flows are supported in SAP process terms. Dedicated contractor portal UX is not a core PM strength.
UX adoption
Role-based Fiori improves usability versus classic GUI. Daily technician experience can still feel complex without focused simplification.
Reporting/KPIs
Embedded analytics cover core maintenance KPIs and drilldowns. Predictive/reliability modeling depth requires adjacent SAP solutions.
Integrations/API
OData/REST and classic integration patterns are available and enterprise-proven. Integration governance and costing need careful architecture control.
SAP ERP integration
PM is native inside SAP ERP, including costing and logistics flows. This is a major enterprise advantage versus bolt-on CMMS tools.
Security/admin
PFCG/business roles, auditability, and enterprise controls are mature. Authorization models require experienced governance design.
Automation/workflows
Workflow/status automation is strong for enterprise process control. Low-code, lightweight automation is less approachable than SMB-focused tools.
Customization
Extensibility via configuration and SAP platform tooling is very deep. Custom scope can create long-term upgrade and maintenance overhead.
AI assist
AI in core PM remains limited and scenario-specific. Most advanced reliability AI sits in separate SAP products.
0: Not offered 1: Basic: usable, shallow depth 2: Standard: expected CMMS level 3: Advanced: handles real complexity 4: Best-in-class: deep, low-friction, governed

Trust & Compliance

Certifications
ISO 9001ISO/IEC 27001ISO 22301SOC 1SOC 2
Confidence
Medium
References
  • Spirit Energy
  • Hungrana
  • Danish State Railways (DSB)
  • Austrian Federal Railways (OeBB)
  • Petrobras
  • SBB
Rollout support
4

Company Details

Employees
110000
Customers
320000
VC-backed
No
Languages
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Adjacent areas
eam, apm, field_service, work_clearance_management
Last verified
2026-02-09

Notes

SAP PM/EAM should be evaluated as a digital core, not a lightweight deploy-and-go tool. In smaller organizations, rollout burden often comes from governance and process breadth rather than missing functions.

Sources