Know hows about work centers

[Former Member]

Hello PS-, and hopefully HR-specialists

I have to setup a complex capacity/resource-planning scenario. And I hope I can get some answers from this forum.

As I'm responsible for groups of persons which belong to more than one plant, I have to setup one work center for every plant. As I want to manage every single person of such groups I have to assign the person, setup in a mini-HR-master data, to the according work center. So far so good.

Here my to requests.

1. As I have to manage external resources too, I want to setup them also in the system. So I create a master data for such resources. But they can't be plant specific, as I have to assign them to projects of different plants. How can I setup such a scenario?

1.1 - and if I want to plan them as a work center, how can I make the project controlling? As I have to create a purchase order once we assigned them to a activity. And how does it work once we have them assigned but not created a PO yet? (How would the hour rate be calculated?)

2. Does exist a possibility in SAP to have an overview of all these work centers (for internal persons and every plant; hopefully one WC for external persons) on a person level?

Many thanks for every answer

Jim

[Former Member]

Hi Jim,

As regards to your requirement to manage the external resources as work centers, I suggest that you have a different cost center and activity type for external activities. Assign this activty type in the work center and also have a rate fixed in KP26. Additionally, when you create a PO, assign this PO to the "external cost center". Assign the work center in the network activities.

With this arrangement, the cost of the external work center will accumulate in the cost center ( when you confirm the service entry sheets for external manpower ) and will get absorbed in the project activities thru the internal activity allocation when you confirm the activites. This arrangement will work for periodic activity revaluation as well. This answers your question on project controlling.

Since one work center can be assigned to one plant only, you can create an external work center with the same name in all the plants.

To find out the work center and all the person assigned to the work center, please try OM reports in HR, S_AHR_61016528 - Structure Display/Maintenance with object type as "A" and Evaluation path "ALLPERS".

Hope this helps.

Srinivas Potluri

[Former Member]

Hello Potluri

many thanks for your answers. This answer was very helpful.

But there are still some quenstions left. Maybe you can give me an answer to them as well

Do I have to "assign" a external resource to one work center in one plant? That I can manage the external resource and plan him on activities?

So this external resource has always to invoice to one plant? And we have to do some intercompany business to meet the request.?

And how will I be able to post the hours to the project of the external resources? With CAT2?

Best regards

[Former Member]

Hi Jimson,

Since you have mentioned external resource i assume that the resource is not on the payrolls of your organization. In this case firstly you may have to maintain an HR master for this resource so that you will be able to assign him to work centers etc. in your organization. Once this is done you can then assign this resource to any work center.

So this external resource has always to invoice to one plant?

Not necessary. Depends which plant is utilising his services. I would suggest you to refer Resource Related Billing. There are scenarios in Resource related billing wherein you can use the services of external resources, resources form other companies etc and bill them accordingly.

And how will I be able to post the hours to the project of the external resources? With CAT2?

Yes. If you wish to use timesheet to capture the efforts of the external resources you have to use CAT2. Again for this you need to have certain things in place from the HR perspective. Discuss with your HR consultant regarding this.

All in all i would suggest you to try and use Resource Related Billing to meet this requirement. I recently did a project wherein i used Resource related billing to manage external resources.

Regards,

Gokul

[Former Member]

Hi,

I think you can create the external resources as work center and use the work center in network activities. This work center shall have the " external cost center". When you confirm the activities, cost center will get credited and network activity will get debited. And the cost in the cost center will get posted thru the PO service entry sheets ( Or may be invoice verification, if you want to avoid SES ) for external resources.

Hope this helps.

Warm regards,

Srinivas Potluri

[Former Member]

Many thanks to all of you

you helped me a lot and know I'm understanding this issue at last a little bit.

So

thanks and bye

[Former Member]

Hello all

now I read the hole sap-help, but I didn't find any answers to my questions. Somebody is able to give me a link or something, that I'm able to understand this matter.

- How to plan with Workcenters over more than one plant?

- how to plan external resources when this persons can be employed by 2 plants and more, and when we would manage them like a resource?

Thank you very very much

[Former Member]

hey

thanks for your replies

I did already a lot of research. But I think I have a lot more to do. I will try and answer later on.

Best regards

Jim

[former_member230675]

I think if you refer sap help on pooled capacity and resource planning of externally processed activity, all of your query will be answered.

[Former Member]

There is answer available in SAP Help for most of your queries. Read the 'Resources' section in SAP Help and also read about Work Centers. you will know how the cost gets calculated.

Revert in case of specific queries.