Implementing Permit to Work in SAP S/4HANA

Permit to Work process is a critical and mandatory process for asset intensive industries such as Oil and Gas,
Utilities, Chemicals etc. The process ensures safety of maintenance workers while performing tasks in
hazardous environment.

Typical business process:

Let’s start with a typical Oil and Gas industry business process: There is a malfunction in a pump in a refinery
plant. To perform the maintenance activity on a pump, a notification and order is created by maintenance
department. Since the work is in an operational refinery complex, the maintenance team requires a work permit
– which is a mandatory document to be issued before starting the work on pump. As per safety procedures, the
pump must be electrically isolated. At the time of job execution, safety controls should be implemented to
ensure adherence to safety policies and standards. An end-to-end process for permit to work is shown in the
below process map:

Details of the process steps:

1.1 Create notification/ work order: this is the start of a permit to work process – whereby the operations /
maintenance creates a notification for reactive maintenance, or a work order is created automatically for
preventive maintenance. Important master data used: Functional location, equipment, task list

1.2 Plan work order: this is a maintenance process where the work order is planned for resources dates etc.
Important master data used: Functional location, equipment

1.3 Create work permit: a work permit is created out of the work order. this ensures a digital integration
between work order (SAP Plant Maintenance) system and work permit (SAP WCM) system. The description of
work order, and location of work (in terms of functional location or equipment) is copied over to the work
permit – thereby reducing manual work of entering data again. Please note that it is also possible to create a
work permit without any reference to a work order and can be created standalone. Important master data used:
Functional location, equipment. Typical types of work permit:

Permits can be classified as per the nature of work:

• cold work permit

• hot work permit

Permits can be classified depending on the risk level involved:

• high risk work permit

• low risk work permit
The above types will have different data entry options, validity etc and can be configured in standard SAP WCM.

2.1 Assign additional safety certificates: this process, the operations department team can assign additional
safety documents to the permit depending on the nature of work to ensure adherence to following safety
procedures and digitizing the process. Some examples from oil and gas industry are:

• Isolation Certificate – Isolation List

• Excavation Certificate
• Vessel Entry Certificate
• Work at height Certificate
• Confined space entry Certificate
• Gas testing Certificate

The above types will have different data entry options, validity etc. and can be configured in standard SAP WCM.

2.2 Attach documents: the operation team can attach pdfs for isolation diagram or procedure description to
the work permit

2.3 Prepare work permit pack: A work permit pack refers to all the certificates and documents that are
assigned to a work permit. preparing a work permit mans that: all the data is checked and verified and after the
permit is prepared, the data is frozen. The process then goes into the approval process. Concept of permit pack
with relation to work order:

3.1 Perform isolation: Isolation is critical part of the process to ensure safety controls are implemented. for an
oil and gas industry there are the following types of isolation: electrical, mechanical and instrumentation. The
process of isolation involves de-energizing the system by switching OFF electrical points / closing valves etc.
once the isolation has been successfully executed, the workplace is safe from hazards and the worker can start
work.

3.2 Approve work permit: once the safety controls are setup and implemented as per the plan, the permit is
approved. The approval process can involve one or many approvers depending on the configuration. Depending
on the type of permit, the approval can be setup accordingly. This can be configured in standard SAP WCM.

3.3 Issue / receive work permit: This is an important handover process. The permit is issued by the
operations and received by the maintenance team. Permit is printed out of the SAP WCM module and the paper
is handed over to the maintenance team. Typically, a process called toolbox talk is initiated between both the
parties, whereby the issuing party signs on the permit and explains the hazards and controls of the nature of
work to the executing party. Also, the issuing party checks if the receiving party has the necessary certifications
to perform the job, for example, if the job involves welding, then the welding certification has to be checked
including the validity of the certificate. This is usually an out of system activity done manually. Finally, the
maintenance party signs on the permit paper to conclude the process. Below is an example print out of permit
typically used in oil and gas industry

3.4 Release work order: This is a maintenance process. The release of work order depends on the
maintenance strategy and type of maintenance (corrective vs preventive). SAP WCM is flexible and there is no
hard dependency between release of work order.

3.5 Execute job: This is a maintenance process. The maintenance team gets a job card, along with the the
permit pack to execute the job. The job execution can only happen in the validity mentioned in the permit
document. if the validity gets over, the permit can be extended or cancelled. once the Job is executed, the
maintenance can set a status “WOCO” – work completed in the work order to indicate that the work associated
with the work permit has been completed.

4.1 Close work permit: once the work is completed, a test run is executed by temporarily energizing the
system. After successful test run, the maintenance team will leave the work area and handover the permit
document to operations. Again, the handover signatures are logged in the paper permit. The permit is closed out
in the SAP WCM system

4.2 Perform De-Isolation: Operation team performs de-isolation by switching ON/OFF and opening/closing
valves etc. and setting the system to original state.

4.3 Close additional certificates: In case there were additional certificates like isolation certificate or confined
space entry certificate – these are closed out in the SAP WCM system

4.4 Close Notification / Order: Notification and work order is closed out by the maintenance team in the SAP
PM system.

Additional process features developed by customers:

Apart form the above standard process, we have seen that customers request additional process requirements.
below is a collection of some common requirements seen in a project that add value to the standard best
practice processes:

Customer requirement for Process step 2.3 Prepare work permit: some customer specific checks before
preparing the permit could be related to checking the validity of the work permit or checking the functional
location of the work permit with respect to the assigned permit template etc. in such cases, SAP WCM BAdI can
be used such as:BADI_WCM_WCMOBJ; method STATUS_PREP_CHECK

Customer requirement for Process step 4.4 Close Order: Some customers have requirement on automatic
closure of work permits upon closing the notification / order. This feature can be developed using enhancing
the SAP solution through BAdI and BAPI’s. In this case, BAdI to be used will be: “WORKORDER_UPDATE”and
within the BAdI implementation, the following API of SAP WCM can be called to close the work permit:
WCHC_API_WCA_ACTION_EXECUTE

Key WCM Configuration to model the business process in SAP S/4HANA 1909

Here’s a recap of the business process we want to configure:

There is a malfunction in a pump in a refinery plant. To perform the maintenance activity (which includes
welding) on a pump, a notification and order is created by maintenance department. Since the work is in an
operational refinery complex, the maintenance team requires a work permit – which is a mandatory document
to be issued before starting the work on pump. As per safety procedures, the pump has to be electrically
isolated. Before job execution, safety controls should be implemented to ensure adherence to safety policies and
standards.

This is what we need from a business point of view:

The above architecture is what we need to meet the business requirement for permit to work. Since
maintenance activity involves welding job – Hot work permit will be required. Also, Isolations are required
hence the need for Isolation Certificate.

System Architecture: This is how the system will be configured to meet the above setup:
The above architecture shows the technical setup for WCM to meet the business requirement.

Some important configuration rules to setup the above architecture:

• Use WCM model “Enhanced model:

In this IMG activity, you choose the model you want to use for your WCM. You can choose one model for
each maintenance planning plant.
• Use option” working with work permit”: Work permit management assumes the enhanced model
• In WCM, Permits are technically named “Work Clearance Application” and Certificates are named “Work
Clearance Document”. Define the descriptions for permit and certificates to meet the business meaning
• Set up WCM “Usages” to segregate types of permit and types of certificates:

Setup Work permit types:

Setup Certificate types

The above setup enables the configuration required to meet the process requirement. Apart from the above
configuration, here are some other important concepts in configuration:

Approvals:

Since this maintenance activity involves welding with isolation – let’s try to setup a multi-level approval
(meaning multiple users need to approve) for permit due to high risk involved in welding. Also, need to ensure
that the permit cannot be activated unless isolations are executed. The below picture shows what we want to
achieve:

The system configuration for the above requirement involves the following setup:

Cross document approval hierarchy: To enable the control between Isolation certificate and Work Permit, we
will use this configuration. Essentially, we are trying to create a dependency between the approval in isolation
certificate (meaning the isolation has been completed – approval step: “CONF1”) and the final issue in work
permit – approval step “ACTIVATED”. This is how the setup looks in WCM configuration:

It is also possible to automate the approval steps – for example in this scenario it makes sense to automatically
issue the approval step “CONF1” in isolation certificate based on the system status “TAGGED” for the isolation
item. This is how the setup looks:

IN this example, approval step: “CONF1″ in Isolation Certificate will be automatically set based on system status
” TAGGED”
WCM User experience with SAP S/4HANA 1909 and beyond

It is important to understand that SAP WCM is natively integrated with SAP EAM. Which means, the master
data, like functional location, equipment, work center and transactional processes such as maintenance order
processing is tightly integrated with the Permit to Work process enabled by WCM. Due to this tight integration,
and from the perspective of user experience, it is highly recommended that the S/4HANA project
implementation team evaluates the user experience technology used in EAM and try to adapt similar user
experience with WCM.

Let’s look at the various User Experience options available with WCM:

Option 1: User Experience based on SAP GUI: This is still widely used across customer base. This is applicable
for customers using SAP GUI for managing EAM processes. Let’s take a look at real world scenarios for the key
UI options available with SAP GUI.

• User Experience for initiating the permit to work process through EAM work order.
o As shown in the screen shot, the SAP GUI option for work order includes a button for initiating
the permit to work process:
 o The maintenance team accesses the work order and creates a permit by choosing the button for “Op.
Work Permits”:

• User Experience for managing permit to work process. Once the work permit is created, the permit
is processed by the operations team with the following options:

Option 2: User Experience based on SAP WebDynpro ABAP: This is applicable for customers using
Simplicity functions (based on webdynpro ABAP). for managing EAM processes. Let’s look at real world
scenarios for the key UI options available with SAP webdynpro ABAP

• User Experience for initiating the permit to work process through EAM work order.
o As shown in the screen shot, the SAP Webdynpro ABAP option for work order offers a intuitive
option since the permit process can be initiated by going to the page for permits and simply
choosing the type of permit:
 WebDynpro ABAP option for EAM work order

• User Experience for managing permit to work process. Once the work permit is created, the permit
is processed by the operations team with the following options:

Webdynpro ABAP option for Work Permit

Option 3: User Experience based on UI5 / Fiori. This option is not available as of now as part of standard
product. However, the next generation user experience could be built on Ui5 / Fiori principles.

Hint: as part of the project implementation, UI5 based Fiori applications can be developed by leveraging the WCM
framework and the API’s available as per SAP note: 2136400.
Automatic creation of WCM objects through Planning
Advantage:

• Every day lots of Preventative maintenance order will be generated in the system through
planning.
• It is very time taking job to create WCM Objects for each and every plan to nullify this SAP
Provides us the process of Automatic creation of WCM objects through Planning system.

Purpose:

To create Work approval, Work clearance application and Work clearance Document through maintenance
order which are generated through preventive maintenance Planning automatically.

Steps to be followed to achieve the requirement:

1. Create User Fields in transaction – OILJ
2. Create template Work Approval.
3. And create task list and assign these fields in task list.
4. Create plan with task list and schedule the plan it will generate the order with work approval, work
clearance application and WCD.

Procedure Document:
1. Create User Fields in transactions – OILJ.
2. Enter Field key, description of field key and text same as your work approval short form and in value
field name of work approval as shown in the below screen shot.

3. Create template Work Approval.

• Go to transaction “WCTA” and create one work approval (Through this reference template number only
system will generate the automatic WCA’S every time the plan Is called.
4. And assign this User fields and WC Approval number in task list. In task list go to operation screen
select the operation and in menu bar click on operation-User data it will display the screen as below.
 • n the Type field enter the template WC Approval Number.
Create plan with task list and schedule the plan it will generate the order with work
approval, work clearance application and WCD.