Lesson 3 of 5
Notifications and orders
9 min
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Two documents carry almost every maintenance process. The maintenance notification says what is wrong or what is needed. The maintenance order says what work will be done, by whom, with which parts and at what cost. SAP's training puts it this way: notifications communicate requirements and document findings; orders plan and track tasks and costs.
The notification
A notification usually refers to a technical object and describes a malfunction, damage or request. It has a header, one or more items (what part was damaged and how), activities (what was done) and tasks (what is still to do). Standard sample settings include notification types for a maintenance request (M1), a malfunction report (M2) and an activity report (M3); your project may use its own. Users create notifications in Fiori apps such as Create Maintenance Notification or Request Maintenance, or in SAP GUI with IW21.
Coded fields come from catalogs: object part, damage, cause and activity codes. Codes beat free text because they can be counted. If 40 notifications on winding machines say damage code "bearing overheated", reliability engineers can act on it; 40 free-text descriptions are much harder to analyze.
The order
The order has a header (order type, dates, priority, technical object), operations (each with a work center, planned work and a control key), components (spare parts), a settlement rule (where costs go) and a costs view showing estimated, planned and actual costs. When an order is created from a notification, that notification becomes the order's header notification and the two stay linked. Orders are created in the Create Maintenance Order app or with IW31.
- Mon 07:40Notification createdOperator reports the winding machine tripping; status: outstanding
- Mon 09:00Order createdRosa creates order from the notification; order status CRTD
- Mon 11:30Order releasedParts available; status REL; papers printed, parts can be issued
- Tue 15:00ConfirmedHours recorded; operations partly (PCNF) then finally confirmed (CNF)
- WedTechnically completeOrder TECO; notification completed (NOCO)
- Month endSettled and closedCosts settled to the cost center; business completion
Statuses tell you what is allowed next
| Status | Meaning | What it allows or blocks |
|---|---|---|
| CRTD | Order created, not released | Planning; no goods issues or time confirmations yet |
| REL | Released | Print shop papers, withdraw material, confirm time |
| PCNF / CNF | Partially / finally confirmed | Shows progress; CNF means all operations are fully confirmed |
| TECO | Technically completed | No more planning; open reservations closed; late costs can still arrive |
| CLSD | Business completed | No further postings; set after settlement leaves a zero balance |
| NOCO | Notification completed | Notification is locked and moves into maintenance history |
Main maintenance statuses. Check the exact codes in your system's status overview.
- Is the work small enough to record without planning parts, hours or costs?Yes → notification only (minor work) · No → create an order
- Is the machine down and production stopped?Yes → emergency process, plan and document as you repair · No → planned corrective order
- Does the work recur on a schedule?Yes → preventive maintenance plan · No → keep it corrective
What would you do?
During testing in CMQ, Maria notices that a maintenance order can be created without a notification. Rosa's team wants every Detroit repair to keep the operator's original problem description. What should the team do?
Two fields on the notification deserve attention in testing. The priority sets how urgent the work is, and, depending on configuration, the system calculates the required start and end dates from it. The breakdown indicator and the malfunction start and end times record whether the machine actually stopped and for how long. Those times later drive breakdown analytics such as mean time to repair, so a test that skips them proves less than it seems.
In SAP GUI, notifications are listed with IW28 (change) and IW29 (display), and orders with IW38 and IW39. In Fiori, planners work in apps such as Find Maintenance Orders and the Maintenance Planning Overview, which shows unprocessed notifications and unreleased orders at a glance.
- The notification records the problem; the order plans and records the work and its costs.
- Catalog codes for object part, damage and cause make breakdown history analyzable.
- Order statuses (CRTD, REL, PCNF, CNF, TECO, CLSD) control what can happen next.
- Orders can exist without notifications, but you lose the record of why the work was done.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which document plans the work, parts and costs of a repair?
2. Why use catalog codes for damage and cause instead of free text?
3. A maintenance order has status CRTD. What can the technician not do yet?
4. Which status shows that the order is complete from a technical point of view?