Simplifying Plant Maintenance Business

Processes at Marin Municipal Water District

Brian Richards
Marin Municipal Water District
Aparna Desai
Synactive, Inc.

A collaboration of:
What Ill Cover

MMWD Intro and Background

How MMWD Got Started with GuiXT
Plant Maintenance Business Process Improvements
Linking to Other MMWD Enterprise Systems
Key Points to Take Home
 Marin Municipal Water District

Slide 3
Marin Municipal Water District
Potable & Recycled Water Service
Oldest Municipal Water
District in California
(established in 1912)
185,000 population
147 Square miles
62,000 Customer
accounts
Marin Municipal Water District
Facilities
913 miles of pipe
4 Water Treatment Plants
127 Storage Tanks
95 Pump Stations
Watershed- 21,250 acres
with 7 Reservoirs
Staffing
240 Employees
 History of SAP At MMWD

Original Implementation of 4.6C with GoLive date of December

2001
Began using GuiXT in June 2002
Technical Upgrade to ECC 6.0, Enhancement Pack 4, with
GoLive date of July 23, 2010. This is where we are today.

6
 SAP
Two Industry Solutions
Public Sector (IS-PS) Utilities (IS-U)
Funds Management Customer Services (CIC)
Financial / Control Billing / Invoicing
Human Resources Device Management
Payroll / CATS FI/CA Contract Accounts
Material Management Work Management
Plant Maintenance
Project Systems
MMWD Technical Staffing
IT Manager
1 Basis / Database Administrator
1 SAP / Network Security
1 ABAP Programmer
2 PC & Network Support Generalists
2 GIS Staff
3 Business Analysts in Business Units
o SAP support is primary focus
o Positions filled in late 2003
 MMWD IT Architecture
IT Strategic Goal: Provide
information to the user when they
MMWD
need it and where they
Enterprise
need it
Applications

SAP
ECC 6-Ehp4
GuiXT
 History of MMWD Work Orders and GuiXT
Background
o Limited IT resources and SAP is not their only responsibility.
o Desire to remain a vanilla implementation with minimal customization.
o Usual Resource Constraints ($ / Time / Training)
o O & M Staff with generally low level of computer skills
The Usual New System Problems
o Unfamiliar Way to do Familiar Things
o SAP Terminology and Business Processes
o Competing Priorities (get the leak fixed!)
o Training / Insufficient Experience with SAP
Enter GuiXT
 Reasons for GuiXT Development

Improve ease-of-use over standard SAP.

No changes required to underlying SAP code.
Acquire familiarity with GuiXT tools and develop our internal
support capability.
 Plant Maintenance Business Processes
Improved Using GuiXT
Work Orders, Notifications
Equipment Lookup and Display
Customer Service Searches
Transaction Navigation
Equipment & Functional Location Creation
Measurement Document Creation
 MMWD Work Order Users
Facilities & Watershed Division
o System Maintenance
o Facilities Maintenance
o Auto Shop
These Work
o Watershed Management
Orders are
Environmental & Engineering Services Division primarily set
o Subdivision and New Services Dept. up to settle to
o Water Systems Operations Cost Centers.
Operations (aka Dispatch)
Mechanical & Electrical Shop
Finance Division
o Meter Operations

Slide 13
Initial Problems with Standard Work Order Process

Why was this process originally modified?

o Lack of understanding how Work Orders affect FI
o Incomplete / Inconsistent financial information in the Work Order
o User Issues with SAP terminology

Issues with failed Work Orders occurred in Accounting

o Created problems in Accounting when we tried to transfer costs or run
settlements at the end of the month.

Solution Use GuiXT to develop Scripts for IW31 and IW32

 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 15
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 16
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 17
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 18
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 19
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP
At this point the work
order is complete and
ready to be saved.

Slide 20
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 21
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 22
 Steps to create Work Order in native SAP

Slide 23
Initial Scripting Effort

Recorded the complete set of steps to properly create a work

order, including all financial settings.
Modify the recorded script to handle different parameters such as
Order Type, Work Centers, standardized Operations, etc.
Develop a Pushbutton Screen to allow any user to create a work
order using the script to achieve the correct financial settings.
Add buttons inside IW31 and IW32 for performing Release / Save
/ Print / No Print functions.
 Work Order Creation for Maintenance Groups

Slide 25
 Work Order Creation for Maintenance Groups

Slide 26
 Savings Achieved using GuiXT
Standard
SAP With GuiXT Savings

Clicks 42 8 34

Keystrokes 59 15 44

Screens 11 4 7

Elapsed Time 2:20 0:22 1:58

Slide 27
 Work Order Savings Using GuiXT

Manually Created Work Orders per Month = 624

Average Time Savings per work order = 1:58
Average Time Savings per month = 20.45 hours
Average Time Savings per year = 245 hours
What is harder to quantify is the time saved by
needingProblems
Fewer in Settlement
fewer investigations into =work
Better
order
problems.
Relationship with Accounting
Work Order Creation for Other Departments
Leverage existing improvements and offer department-specific
data entry screens to other groups.
Assist our Engineering users who create Work Orders both to
Projects/WBS Elements as well as Cost Centers.
Support a Cost Tracking initiative in Watershed Management
group by integrating the selection of Standardized Task Lists to
define a common set of Work Order Operations for labor charges.
 MMWD Work Order Users
Facilities & Watershed Division These Work
o System Maintenance Orders are
o Facilities Maintenance primarily set up
o Auto Shop to settle to
o Watershed Management various WBS
Environmental & Engineering Services Division Elements.
o Subdivision and New Services Dept.
o Water Systems Operations
Operations (aka Dispatch)
Mechanical & Electrical Shop
These Work Orders are
Finance Division primarily set up to settle
o Meter Operations to the Meter Operations
Cost Center.

Slide 30
 Work Order Creation for Engineering Users

Slide 31
 Task List Assignment for Watershed Management

Slide 32
 Task List Assignment for Watershed Management

Slide 33
New Enhancement Efforts for System
Maintenance Users
Address User Frustrations with existing MMWD Work Order
business processes
o Increasing time spent on paperwork before and after field work
Pent up demand for additional functionality
o Cant SAP do this(fill in your favorite desired process improvement)for
me?
Desire to reduce time spent on redundant data entry
o Why am I typing the Work Order number AGAIN?!
Difficulty in finding useful information about the object to be
worked on (Service / Valve / Pipe / Hydrant, etc)
Other Factors at Work
Support Staff Position transferred out
o Formerly performed most SAP steps to update and close work orders
o Shifts more SAP work order steps to Crew Leaders
New tech-friendly manager of System Maintenance
o Actually Uses SAP
o Desire to get more out of SAP Plant Maintenance
o Belief in Users Ability to Learn
o Willingness to do hands-on training, lead by example

The importance of this last factor cannot be over

emphasized in introducing change.
Our Approach
Focus business process improvement efforts around the Work
Order
o Keep the user in the Work Order context dont send them off to other
transactions unnecessarily
Reduce physical paperwork by moving to electronic forms linked
to the Work Order
Integrate with GIS and Document Management where feasible to
provide information about where the crews will be working
Incrementally add functionality and ease-of-use improvements
 Initial Steps Taken in SAP
Define Crew Leaders and other work order users as Planner Groups
to allow assignment of work orders.
Use GuiXT to develop a push button screen for the IW38 Work Order
retrieval screen. This allows the Crew Leaders and others to pull up
their own work orders.
Steps Taken in SAP

Main Work Centers

Planner Groups for Orders

Address User Frustrations
CAT2 Time Entry Confusion and Redundancy
Paperwork - Additional paper forms used at MMWD
o Manual paperwork. Lots of redundant data entry.
Navigating the Work Order system in general
o How do I find what I need?
o What do various fields mean?
o What transaction codes?
 Addressing CAT2 Time Entry
Use GuiXT scripting to:
o Provide streamlined entry form, prepopulated with useful defaults
o Process the users data from the Work Order into CAT2
o Provide reasonable error handling for uncommon, but possible situations
o Return success or failure messages to the user
o Provide an inquiry tool to verify the time entry was processed
 Time Entry from the Work Order

Slide 41
 Time Entry from the Work Order

Clicking Step 2 initiates a

second session, and starts
the CAT2 transaction. Each
employee line is processed
individually and a result
message is returned. The
actual CAT2 processing is
hidden from the user.

Slide 42
 Time Entry from the Work Order

Slide 43
Paperwork Forms associated with Work
Orders
Multiple types of forms and reports with different uses
o Leak Reports, Street Opening Notices, Encroachment Permits, New Meter
Sets, New Service Turn Ons
Initial Efforts with MS Word and data merge were problematic
Use Notification attached to Work Order to create electronic
forms
o Use the Classification System to create data tables to store relevant data
in each Notification Item.
o Use GuiXT to create the data entry forms and manage the retrieval and
save process of the Notification Item data.
 Form Data Stored as Notification Item
Use GuiXT to manage the Create /
Retrieve / Update process for the
Notification and individual Items,
which store the form data.
Work Order
Use GuiXT to display
the appropriate Data
Entry Form, perform
data validation, etc.
The Notification specifics
Notification
are generally unknown by
the Work Order users.
Meter Change Street Opening Leak Report
Data Entry Data Entry Data Entry
Form Form Form

Item 1 Item 2 Item 3

Text: Leak Report Text: Street Open Text: MeterChange
Class: ClassName Class: STO Class: METER

Class: LRO Class: STO Class: METER

Form Data Field 1 Form Data Field 1 Form Data Field 1
Form Data Field 2 Form Data Field 2 Form Data Field 2
The SAP Classification System is used Form Data Field 3 Form Data Field 3 Form Data Field 3
to create data tables to hold the data
Form Data Field n

Form Data Field n

Form Data Field n
values for each type of work order form.

Slide 45
Paperwork Forms associated with Work
Orders
GuiXT allows us to default in data from work order and technical
objects (reduce duplicate data entry) including Classification data.
Encourage/enforce data consistency between forms.
As business needs evolved over time, additional data fields can
be added to the Classification table and the data entry screen.
GuiXT allows better data entry screens, taking advantage of the
usual form controls (calendar, checkboxes, radio buttons, drop
down lists).
Render printable images of the forms using HTML in a browser
window or by using Adobe Forms.
 Work Order Forms Street Opening Notice
Leak Report Work Order

Encroachment
Permit
New Service
Turn On

Meter Change

Slide 47
Leak Report Data Entry Process

Slide 48
Forms Selection
Leak Report Form
Navigating the Work Order Finding Information

How do I find what I need?

o Understanding how SAP uses Equipment and Functional Locations
o How does this map to MMWD-centric naming and numbering schemes?
Getting supporting documents for field work
o Sketches and Record Drawings
Integration/touchpoints with other Enterprise Systems (GIS &
Document Management)
 Finding the Equipment

Slide 52
 Finding the Equipment

Search using
IH08
(search option-
Equipment by
Equipment List)

Slide 53
 Finding the Equipment

Slide 54
 Finding the Equipment (example)

Slide 55
 Finding the Equipment (example)

Slide 56
 Finding the Equipment (example)

Slide 57
 Using GuiXT to Enable Hyperlinks to GIS and
Document Management from the Work Order

Thanks to our
GIS Staff who
added the GIS
Web server
capability.

Slide 58
 Using GuiXT to Enable Hyperlinks to GIS and
Document Management from the Work Order

This URL
Hyperlink
function is built
in to our
Document
Management
System.

Slide 59
Extend This Functionality to Technical Objects
Same scripting code used to enable hyperlinks in the Equipment
and Functional Location records.
Additional Work Order Functionality enabled with
GuiXT Scripts
Enable Creation of Pre-composed Emails
o Integrate Work Order and Technical Object Details into a pre-composed,
pre-addressed email
o Crew Leader can add comments as needed before sending
Single Button Activation of User Statuses
Review Materials Charged to the Work Order
Convert Work Order to Settle to a Project (WBS Element)
Record Vehicle Time (and charge through KB21N if appropriate)
 Additional Work Order Functionality

Slide 62
Enable Creation of Pre-composed Emails
 Work Orders - Where We Are Today
GuiXT provides substantial improvement over native SAP.
Trainingeasier to introduce new users to work orders with
GuiXT hiding some of SAPs sharp edges and simplifying the
number of steps needed.
Ongoing GuiXT development as needs arise.

Slide 64
 GuiXT Development At MMWD
In House development
Work Order Business Process
Simplified Equipment Lookups
Enhanced Equipment Displays
Customer Service Searches
Transaction Navigation

Outsourced to Synactive Inc. consultants

Corrosion Control Application to achieve similar functionality in SAP.
Replaced legacy application soon after SAP Go Live.
Performs on-the-fly creation of Functional Locations, Equipments, Measuring
Points and Measurement Documents.
Over 10 years of stable, functioning code.

Slide 65
 Key Points to Take Home

Start Simple and Grow From There

Mistakes happen - how you handle them
makes a difference
Support, Support, Support

Slide 66
Key Points to Take Home
Start Simple and Grow From There
o Look for the easy wins, the low hanging fruit.
o Smoothing out or simplifying high volume transactions
provides quicker payback.
o Expand use of GuiXT as opportunities arise.
o Dont overlook GuiXT when thinking of linking to other
systems.
Key Points to Take Home
Mistakes happen - how you handle them makes a
difference
o Include Reasonable Error Handling To Err is human, to
really screw things up you need a computer
o Testing, Testing, Testing Users will always find an untested
possibilityonce the system is live.
o Defensive Programming Techniques Try not to let an
unanticipated error ruin your day.
Key Points to Take Home
Support, Support, Support
o User Support
Clear Requirements, Testing, Error Reporting, Error Correction
Feedback Loop
o Developer Support
Synactive Support Including Documentation, Tips & Tricks
GuiXT Yahoo Group -
o Professional Support
Synactive Consulting Assistance
Benefits Realized by MMWD
Quick and cost-effective way to modify user-interface
Automated data-entry, reduce redundant data entry and
fewer data entry errors
Less Actual Paper Pushed
Reduce end-user training time
Enhanced user satisfaction fewer complaints, less time
spent in correcting errors
Save Time and Money
 Client Process Reengineering
Without Disrupting Core SAP Processes
Aparna Desai
Synactive, Inc.

A collaboration of:
Agenda
The Basic SAP End User Opportunity
The Synactive Solution Suite
Q&A
The challenges faced with traditional SAP use
Hasso Plattner at 2013 Sapphire
And a multitude of SAP solutions

Internally developed or acquired solutions

Silod solutions for different interfaces
Browser-based alternatives with latency issues

All solve a single problem but not the overriding issue

What if you could go from this

25 Screens with less than 4 input fields per screen

To this..
One Screen with all fields plus
Intuitive Screen Layout
One button click to access various
transactions .
Pushbuttons and radio buttons for
repetitive search criteria .
Allows data to be entered to screens that
are not showing .
That also works with your mobile device

One development effort, multiple touchpoints

Agenda
How GuiXT works?
How do you create a Solution?
Where are the scripts stored?
How Does GuiXT Work?
1
1) User makes a
request via SAPGUI
(e.g. VA01)
2) SAP responds with
1
VA01 screen
3) GuiXT screen
modifications are
applied and SAPGUI SAPGUI
draws new screen for 3
VA01
Desktop (PC)

SAP ERP

GuiXT Developer Toolkit used to generate GuiXT screens

The Synactive Developer Suite
Designer Workbench

Designer Development Platform Workbench Development Platform

Excel Desktop PDF Offline Access
template template template template template

Windows
Desktop Excel PDF HTML
CE/Offline

Generated Scripts Generated Scripts

Network, SAPWR, Local Network, SAPWR, Local

One Suite Two Components

Designer
The Synactive Tool for Creating the Consolidated View
WYSIWYG Tool
Screen changes without
writing any code
Start with any SAP
transaction
Render to desktop or mobile
touch points
Enables personalized
applications based on roles
and functions
DesignerTrial.exe
2013 Synactive, Inc.
Automatic script generation
Workbench
The Synactive Tool for process flow collection

Record And Deploy

To All Touch Points

Workbench_Access.exe
Where are the Scripts stored?
Options for Script Storage:
o SAP Web Repository (SMW0) (Recommended)
(Integrated with SAP; uses SAP transport
mechanism)
o Network Server/File Share
o FTP/HTTP Server
o Local Machine (Developers)
With Synactive, you

GuiXT Record/ Automate/

Manage
Technology Design Extend

start with existing complex SAP transactions and simplify them to suit
your needs!
record your business process flow once and redeploy to a more intuitive
interface!
extend your new screens and process customizations to any number of
touch points and devices
centrally manage all deployments
Extending Reengineered SAP Client Use To

Tablets and Phones Browsers and Portals

Barcode/RFID Scanners PDF/Excel Front-Ends

Liquid UI Platform
Connects directly to SAP through patented connectivity technology

Appl
Local
SAPGUI
Web
Built on proven GuiXT technology
Database
Connector Browser
Extends your SAP across both desktop
Blackberry
Central and mobile devices
SAPGUI

Consolidates business related

Liquid UI
Platform Barcode/R
transactions, fields and tabs
Android
FID
Start from SAP, Record Once and
Deploy everywhere
PDF iOS

No Java, ABAP programming; No 3rd

Excel Offline
party application server required
Simple scripting to empower a
Non-Disruptive Business Solution responsive IT Team
Lean, Agile Development
GuiXT Solutions Case Study Results

A white paper study for virtually all key SAP/Synactive functions

An ROI Worth Calculating
A simple way to measure the cost/investment
Go to Guixt.com
Enter your key use
parameters
o Time of transaction
o Number of transactions
o Number of users
o Employee costs
The system will calculate
your return
In Good Company!
Over 1000 Customers Across Multiple Industries
 Some Of Our Utilities Customers

Slide 91
Thank You!!!

For more information about

Synactives GuiXT Solutions:

www.guixt.com
rfi@guixt.com
Tel: 650.341.3310
 Questions???

Thank you for this opportunity to show

what MMWD has done.
 Brian Richards
Marin Municipal Water District
brichards@marinwater.org

Aparna Desai
Synactive, Inc.
aparna@guixt.com

A collaboration of: