Run a factory's maintenance with SAP PM, from a Monday breakdown to the preventive plan.
SAP is the business software large companies use to run purchasing, production, maintenance, accounting and more. SAP PM (Plant Maintenance) is the part that tracks breakdowns, repairs and what they cost. A specialization is a complete course on one SAP area, run in a simulator. This one puts you in charge of maintenance at Glass+ Iberia, the Spanish subsidiary of Glass+, a fictional glass group. You map the machines, report a breakdown, create the repair order (the record that plans a repair and tracks its cost), record the parts and hours, and handle a night emergency on the furnace. Then you create an inspection plan every 4 weeks. It does nothing until you start it: once started, each due date creates the preventive order. The same goes for servicing triggered by a machine's hour counter. This is not a real SAP system: our screens are our own creation, designed so you find your bearings the day you open SAP.
Know, do, prove.
All three play out in one factory, Valencia, from the first facility map to the preventive plan.
Understand the module
Each concept is explained at the moment a breakdown needs it. Alongside the simulator, you have 33 reference sheets (4 chapters, more than 18,000 words) and 15 diagrams of our own, readable on a phone. Every task has a "Read the card" link that takes you to the right one.
Do the job
31 hands-on tasks in the simulator put you in charge of the Valencia factory's maintenance. For example, you record the hours of an electrician who was called in at night. The system refuses to count those hours, because nobody has entered that electrician's hourly rate for 2028 (the simulation's year). You run into this problem here, so you will recognize it on a real project.
Practice for the certification
The episodes use our own machines, breakdowns and cost centers at Glass+, and they cover the topics of the official syllabus of the SAP Asset Management certification, which is the one that covers PM (the exam is not included in the price). Every topic in the syllabus has its own sheet. A ninth episode, exam prep, gives you 36 practice questions we wrote ourselves.
You may have heard of maintenance orders. But you couldn't say which department a breakdown should be charged to.
A maintenance order is the SAP record that plans maintenance work and tracks what it costs. A repair order is a maintenance order that fixes a breakdown; a preventive order is one for an inspection planned in advance. You may have seen a breakdown report (called a notification in SAP), or taken a maintenance course. On a Monday at 7:10 a.m., the cutting table stops, a team leader calls, and nobody knows which record to create first or which department will pay for the repair.
A functional location or a piece of equipment?
A functional location is a place in the factory, such as the cutting line. A piece of equipment is the actual machine, and it keeps its own history, even if you move it to another place. If you mix them up, you lose track of the machine the day it moves. In SAP, "installing" a piece of equipment means assigning it to a functional location. The system also refuses to do that if the equipment has no plant code (the code that says which factory site it belongs to, here 1230), and its error message tells you what is missing.
A breakdown report that doesn't name the machine
Monday, 7:10 a.m. The cutting table stops, and its cutting head had been overheating and vibrating since Friday. If you enter the report (the notification) without naming the machine, it won't appear in that machine's history. Also, a notification only describes the problem. It does not plan any repair work, so you need a separate repair order for that.
A repair order you forgot to release (activate)
You have created the order with its steps (called operations), the team that does the work (the work center), and the bearing you plan to use. Until you release the order, the storeroom cannot hand over the part and nobody can record the hours worked. Meanwhile the technician stands in front of the stopped machine.
A repair charged to the wrong department
The technician records 6 hours of work, and the job is done. The cost should be charged to the cutting department, not to maintenance. To do that, you must first tell the order where its cost goes. That instruction is called the settlement rule. In SAP, settlement means sending an order's cost to the department that pays for it (it has nothing to do with paying a bill). Without the rule, the settlement step cannot move the cost, and it stays on the order.
An emergency at 2 a.m.
Thursday, 2 a.m. Burner no. 3 of the glass furnace goes out. Nobody records anything during the night. You enter everything the next day. When you try to record the electrician's hours, the system refuses, because the electrician has no hourly rate entered for 2028, so it cannot work out what the hours cost. In an emergency, you record the job after it is finished, but you still have to record it.
In job interviews, preventive maintenance in SAP is hard to talk about
An interviewer asks you how an inspection plan that runs every 4 weeks actually works. You mention task lists (the list of steps) and maintenance plans (the schedule), but you can't explain why a plan you created but never started does nothing. Once you have started a plan yourself, seen its first due date (SAP calls this a "call": the moment the plan creates an order) come up, and watched the preventive order appear, you have a real example to describe.
The story: a factory that repairs machines quickly but doesn't know what the repairs cost.
Glass+ is a fictional company, and everything happens in a simulator. In Valencia, the glass furnace runs 24 hours a day, and the cutting and assembly line makes Glass+ Iberia's glass panels. Pau Climent, the site's maintenance manager, has a problem: when a machine breaks down, nobody knows which department to charge the repair to.
The simulator starts on Monday, April 3, 2028 (a made-up date). The first breakdown comes the following Monday, April 10, at 7:10 a.m. The start falls just after the factory's accounts for March were closed (the moment when accounting locks the month's figures). If you took our SAP CO (Controlling) specialization, you will recognize this moment; if not, it does not matter. First you set up the map of the machines, then you handle the breakdowns.
Learn SAP PM by doing the maintenance work yourself.
Glass+ Iberia puts you in charge of its maintenance. Each episode starts with a situation from the factory floor, and the simulator checks what you enter. The 8 episodes of the mission end with two questions: what a breakdown cost, and how much time passes, on average, between two furnace breakdowns. The repair history already holds two furnace breakdowns from March (March 8 and March 21), and the burner emergency in April makes a third. A ninth episode then helps you prepare for the SAP Asset Management certification exam (taken separately with SAP, not included) and ends with a handover file.
When a machine goes down, nobody knows which department to charge the breakdown to. We jot it on a whiteboard, we forget, and three months later we no longer know whether the cutting table breaks down often or not.
Episode 1: Pau explains the problem, and you build the map of the machines
Pau Climent, Glass+ Iberia's maintenance manager, is the guide in the story (a character, not a real tutor). Whenever costs come up, two more characters step in: Isabelle Morel, the group's chief financial officer, and Inés Navarro, the factory's management accountant. You enter the values they give you exactly as stated.
Episode 5: a refusal you learn from
The burner went out during the night. The next day you create the order and try to record 1.5 hours of electrician work. The system refuses, because nobody has entered the electrician's hourly rate for 2028. Inés enters the rate, €62.00 an hour, you try again, and this time the hours are recorded.
Episodes 8 and 9: you end up answering two questions
In episode 8, the last of the mission, you answer two questions using the history of the repair orders. Isabelle wants to know what the cutting table breakdown cost. Pau wants to know the average time between two furnace breakdowns. Episode 9, exam prep, comes after the mission. Its final deliverable is a handover file: Pau is away for three weeks, and you write the document that lets his replacement take over Valencia's maintenance without calling you. A "Your mission portfolio" sheet then lists what you can do, episode by episode, so you can talk about it in a job interview.
Six things you will have done from start to finish.
By the end, Isabelle knows exactly what the cutting table breakdown cost, and Pau has a factory where every breakdown is recorded in the history. These results are only reliable because the data you entered is correct.
Build the facility map
You will know how to read a factory's layout, create a functional location (a place), then create a piece of equipment (a machine) and assign it to that place. You will also know how to tell fixed places from machines that can move.
Report a breakdown
You will know how to report a breakdown on the right machine and say whether the machine stopped, when the breakdown started, and how urgent it is. Then you add the codes the technician gives you: which part failed, what the damage is, and what caused it.
Organize and release a repair
You will know how to create the repair order from the breakdown report, add the work steps, assign the mechanics team and the part you plan to use, then release the order so work can start.
Cost and settle the repair
You will know how to take the part out of the storeroom, record the hours worked, and set where the cost goes. Then you mark the job technically finished (technical completion: the repair work itself is over) and settle the order, which means charging its cost to the department that uses the machine. You first run the settlement as a test, then for real.
Handle an emergency without losing the trail
You will know how to record a night emergency after it happens, by creating the repair order directly without a breakdown report first. You will also know how to fix a refusal when hours cannot be recorded because no hourly rate has been entered.
Schedule preventive work, by date or by machine hours
You will know how to write an inspection task list, use it in a plan that repeats every 4 weeks, and create a second plan that is triggered by machine operating hours. Then you read the history of the repair orders to answer two questions: what a breakdown cost, and the average time between breakdowns.
Who it is for, and who it is not.
Pau Climent guides you through the factory (he is a character in the story, not a real tutor), and every step has hints. You can start from scratch. If you have already been in a workshop or touched SAP, even briefly, the first episodes will feel easier.
This specialization is for you if…
- You want to understand what SAP expects between a breakdown and a repair charged to the right department: the breakdown report, the repair order, the parts, the hours, and the settlement of the cost.
- You work in maintenance or production and want to see how SAP records what you already do on the shop floor.
- You are changing careers to become an SAP consultant and want to be able to describe a complete maintenance cycle you carried out yourself.
- You are new to SAP PM on a project and have only worked with one part of it (breakdown reports or maintenance plans), and you want to see the whole process from start to finish.
- You are preparing for the SAP Asset Management certification (the SAP certification that covers PM) and want to practice the main processes before the exam.
This specialization is not for you if…
- You are already a seasoned SAP PM consultant: these tasks are part of your daily work.
- You want a person to support you through your whole career change. For that, there is Beyond the Horizon, our complete path with human support, and it includes one specialization of your choice.
- You are looking for outside services, refurbishment orders (repairing a part and putting it back in stock), or maintenance based on sensor readings. Outside services and refurbishment orders have a reference sheet, but the simulation does not let you practice them. Sensor-based maintenance is not covered at all.
- You would rather work on purchasing, warehousing or cost accounting. Look at our SAP MM (Materials Management), SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) or SAP CO (Controlling) specializations.
Nine episodes, from the facility map to exam prep.
The whole path takes place in one factory, Glass+ Iberia in Valencia, starting Monday, April 3, 2028 (the first breakdown comes on Monday, April 10). Eight episodes make up the mission, in five blocks. The last one completes the preventive maintenance and asks two questions that you answer from the repair history. A ninth episode, "Exam prep", then helps you prepare for the SAP Asset Management certification exam (taken separately with SAP, not included) and ends with a handover file.
The facility map
When a machine breaks down, nobody knows which department to charge it to. You read the factory's layout and create a functional location for the cutting line. The system fills in the higher-level location on its own (here the Valencia site). Then you create the piece of equipment "CNC cutting table" (a computer-controlled cutting machine) and assign it to that location. Watch out: the system refuses to do this if the equipment has no plant code (the code that says which factory site it belongs to, here 1230), but its error message tells you what is missing.
From breakdown to order
Monday, April 10, 7:10 a.m. The cutting table stops. The priority is high and the machine is down. You enter the breakdown report, then add the codes when the technician gives you the diagnosis: worn bearing and clogged grease fitting (the point where grease is pumped in). Next you create the repair order from the report: one mechanic, 6 hours, and 1 replacement bearing from the storeroom. You must release the order, or the storeroom will not hand over the bearing. Then you read the planned cost: €372.50.
Parts, hours, then an emergency
You take the bearing out of the storeroom for this order, record the 6 hours worked, and set the settlement rule so the cost goes to cutting. Then you mark the job technically finished. You settle the order (send its cost to the department that pays for it) first as a test, then for real. When you confirm the 6 hours, their cost (6 × €55.00) first left the maintenance cost center, which supplies the team's hours, and landed on the order. At settlement, the order sends its whole cost, €372.50, to the cutting cost center, so maintenance keeps none of it. Inés confirms the result. Then, on Thursday at 2 a.m., burner no. 3 of the furnace goes out. Nothing is entered during the night. The next day you create the repair order directly, with no breakdown report, and the system refuses the electrician's hours, because no hourly rate was entered for him for 2028. Inés enters the rate, you try again, then you close the order with a settlement rule that points to the furnace's own cost center (its cost will be sent there at month end, with the others).
Preventive maintenance
Burner parts wear down gradually, so Pau wants a regular inspection of burner no. 3. You first check that no task list exists yet (to avoid creating a duplicate), then write one: check the flame (0.5 h), clean the injector (1 h), measure the gas pressure (0.5 h). You then build a maintenance plan for the burner from this list, repeating every 4 weeks. A plan does nothing until you start it. You start it on April 20. Its first due date (SAP calls this a "call": the moment the plan creates an order) comes up right away and creates a preventive order, planned for May 18. In the burner's list of orders, you now see the emergency order and the preventive order side by side.
The furnace counter
The manufacturer requires servicing of fan 1 every 1,800 operating hours. You create an hour counter for the fan and enter its current reading of 1,640 hours. Then you create a plan that triggers every 1,800 hours, and you start it. Finally, you answer two questions. Isabelle asks what the cutting table breakdown cost (parts and hours) and which cost center was charged. Pau asks for the average time between two furnace breakdowns, based on its repair orders (the orders for fixing a breakdown, as opposed to planned maintenance).
Revision for the exam
Before the SAP Asset Management certification exam (taken separately with SAP, not included), you need to check what you remember. This episode gives you 36 practice questions we wrote ourselves: 24 multiple choice and 12 "predict" questions, where you say what the system will answer before you see it. They are for practice only, and none of them comes from the exam. Along the way, two hands-on review tasks in the simulator have you reopen a screen. Then comes your final deliverable, the handover file: Pau is away for three weeks, and you write the document that lets his replacement take over Valencia's maintenance without calling you.
Three things that set this apart from video courses.
A summary at every episode
Every episode ends with a short summary of the key points. For example: the notification describes the problem, and the order says how to fix it, who does it, with what, and at what cost. The 33 reference sheets and 15 diagrams stay available while you work, and every task has a "Read the card" link to the matching one.
A factory that moves forward with you
The date in the simulator moves forward from one episode to the next, and your work carries over. The simulator checks the values you actually entered, not just the buttons you clicked. Everything runs in your browser, on screens of our own design, in the classic layout (not the newer tile layout).
Common mistakes built into the exercises
A machine created without its site code, an order you forgot to release, hours recorded with no hourly rate, a plan you forgot to start. If you get stuck, you can open up to three hints, from a small nudge to a step-by-step answer.
Michael stands behind the specialization.
Michael Antoine
Former maintenance planning manager, SAP PM consultant from 2020 to 2022 · co-founder of Key User Training
Michael comes from industrial maintenance: maintenance planner from 2011 (corrective and preventive task lists, spare and wear parts), maintenance team leader in 2013, then maintenance planning manager from 2016 to 2020.
From 2018 to the end of 2019, he was the maintenance key user (the person on the business side who tests SAP and teaches it to coworkers) on his company's SAP implementation project: that is where the name Key User Training comes from. He became an in-house SAP PM consultant in January 2020 and stayed in that role until 2022. Since then, he has been an SAP Logistics consultant, also in-house.
Michael co-founded Key User Training with Pierre Balbinot in 2022. He stands behind this specialization on one simple principle: you only teach a topic well once you have lived it, failed at it, or fixed it on an assignment. The simulator screens are our own creation, designed so you find your bearings the day you open SAP.
What our learners say about Key User Training.
These reviews are about our training in general. This specialization is too new to have its own, but it is built the same way: concrete cases, played out in a simulator.
The simulation is what unlocked it for me
I tried courses on Udemy, explored the SAP Learning modules, and something was always missing to become a junior SAP consultant. The simulations and module configurations based on virtual companies are really what sets Key User Training apart. Every euro spent is truly worth it.
It is like you are on SAP
I already worked as a SAP user, so I did this course to refresh my knowledge. The interactive way of the course is the best, it is like you are on SAP. It is dynamic, with a base of an enterprise case, so it helps you understand and think in those terms. I will always recommend this course.
Structured, progressive, concrete
Key User trainings take you by the hand. They are structured, progressive and combine theory with practice through demonstrations based on concrete situations encountered every day in companies.
Tailor-made and a perfect fit
Key User Training is to SAP training what a good tailor is to the textile industry: hand-stitched, elegant, and for me it was tailor-made and fit like a glove.
A leap forward in my SAP practice
Already a SAP user across several modules for a few years, the Key User Training team really helped me take a leap forward and genuinely moved my SAP practice ahead. The professionalism and availability of the trainers are their main strengths.
Five trainings, same clear structure
Five trainings already with Key User Training. It is really the same structure whatever the course: theory and practice through concrete situations. The big plus is the responsiveness, the trainers getting back to you on questions or difficulties.
Practice for the hands-on format of the SAP Asset Management certification
SAP's Asset Management certification (code C_S43) is the certification that covers SAP PM. It is taken in a real SAP system: you complete full tasks instead of picking an answer from a list.
The specialization covers the topics in the official syllabus of this certification, with a hands-on approach like the exam's. Every topic in the syllabus has its own sheet. The tasks are our own missions at Glass+ Iberia, and the last episodes bring them together. You work through these topics in the simulator:
- Technical objects: functional locations and equipment
- Maintenance notifications and orders
- Parts, hours, technical completion and settlement
- Preventive maintenance: task lists and plans
- Usage-based maintenance, on a counter
- Maintenance history and costs
Some topics of the syllabus are explained on a sheet but not played in the simulator: large overhaul projects (major planned shutdowns), mobile maintenance (on a phone or tablet), plans based on strategies (several repeat rules combined), plans with several counters, serial numbers, and system configuration (setting up SAP itself).
By exam day, you will have run each of these processes from start to finish in our simulator, and you will have seen what goes wrong when a step is skipped. The exam itself takes place in a real SAP system, so its screens will not look exactly like our simulator's.
The ninth episode, "Exam prep", gives you 36 practice questions: 24 multiple choice and 12 where you predict what the system will answer. They are for practice only, and none of them comes from the exam.
9 episodes, lifetime access, updates included.
One-time payment, immediate access, 14-day guarantee. You progress episode by episode, at your own pace, and come back whenever you want.
SAP PM Specialization
You work through a complete SAP maintenance case in a simulated factory in Valencia, from the facility map to the preventive plan.
Episode by episode, you take charge of maintenance at Glass+ Iberia. You map the machines, handle the cutting table breakdown, create the repair order, record parts and hours, deal with the furnace emergency, then write the inspection task list, the 4-week plan and the hour-counter plan. A ninth episode helps you prepare for the SAP Asset Management certification exam. It all runs in your browser, with nothing to install.
14-day money-back guarantee
If this specialization isn't right for you, just send us an email within 14 days of buying it. You get a full refund and you don't need to give a reason.
The questions we get before people start.
What is Glass+?
Glass+ is a fictional company we created for this training: a glass group whose Spanish subsidiary, Glass+ Iberia, has a factory in Valencia. The glass furnace runs there 24 hours a day, and the cutting and assembly line makes glass panels. The whole specialization takes place there, in a simulator. You need no other course and no prior knowledge of the company, because everything is inside the simulation.
Do I need to take another specialization first?
No. Each specialization stands on its own, and episode 1 starts from scratch with the facility map. You do not need to prepare anything: the hourly rates you need are either already in the simulator (€55.00 for the mechanic) or entered for you during the story (€62.00 for the electrician). If you took our CO (Controlling) specialization, you continue in Valencia right after the March accounting close. If you took MM (Materials Management), EWM (Extended Warehouse Management), SD (Sales and Distribution) or FI (Financial Accounting), you will recognize Valencia and the Glass+ group.
Do I need SAP access to take this specialization?
No. Everything happens inside the simulation, from your browser. No installation, no SAP system to set up on your side.
I am a beginner. Is it doable?
Yes. The simulation explains each concept when you need it, starting with the difference between a functional location and a piece of equipment, and it guides you step by step. If you want to know more about SAP PM (Plant Maintenance), read our SAP PM guide. Some experience in a workshop or with SAP, even a little, makes things easier, but you don't need it.
How long does it take?
The time depends on how comfortable you already are with SAP, so we can't give you one number. You work episode by episode at your own pace, and you can stop and pick up again whenever you want. Your access never expires.
What if I get stuck, with no coaching?
Each step has three hints, shown one at a time, and the reference sheets stay available while you work. Every task also has a "Read the card" link. If you want a person to support you through a complete learning path, that is what Beyond the Horizon offers, with one specialization of your choice included.
How long do I have access?
Lifetime access to the specialization content, updates included. You can come back to it as often as you need. Access covers the learning content and the simulation, not an SAP system.
What will I actually do?
You go through 9 episodes of maintenance at Glass+ Iberia: the 8 episodes of the mission, plus an exam prep episode. You complete 31 hands-on tasks in the simulator, using 20 transactions (in SAP, a transaction is one screen for one task; here they are the simulator's screens) that take you from the facility map to the maintenance plans, with 33 reference sheets and 15 diagrams to help you. By the end, you have handled a breakdown and a night emergency, written an inspection task list, started a 4-week plan and an hour-counter plan, answered two questions using the machines' history, and written the handover file that lets Pau's replacement take over without calling you.
What does the simulation not cover?
The simulator focuses on machines and places (technical objects), breakdown reports and repair orders, parts and hours, settlement, preventive maintenance and the hour counter. It uses euros, one factory, and one maintenance and planning team.
To keep things clear, it leaves out some things you will meet on a real project: scheduling the team's workload (capacity planning), safety work permits (the authorizations to obtain before working on a machine), the mobile app (maintenance on a phone or tablet), and anything involving outside parties (no outside services or purchases on orders). It also leaves out refurbishment orders (repairing a part and putting it back in stock) and serial numbers. Outside services and refurbishment orders are only explained on a reference sheet. For simplicity, each plan follows a single rule (every 4 weeks, or every X operating hours, not both), and an order's cost is limited to its parts and hours.
Several topics of the official syllabus are explained on a reference sheet but not played in the simulator: large overhaul projects, mobile maintenance, plans based on strategies, plans with several counters, serial numbers, and system configuration. The "What this simulator simplifies" and "Maintenance beyond this simulator" reference sheets cover them. We would rather tell you up front.
Which SAP version is this on?
The simulation reflects maintenance in SAP S/4HANA, SAP's current system. Our screens are our own creation, designed so you find your bearings the day you open SAP. They use the classic layout, not the newer tile-style interface. The concepts you learn (functional locations, equipment, notifications, orders, plans) stay the same from one version to the next.
Does this specialization prepare me for the SAP PM certification (Asset Management)?
Yes, in part. SAP calls the PM certification "Asset Management" (code C_S43). The specialization covers the topics on its official syllabus, with a hands-on approach like the exam's, using our own missions at Glass+ Iberia, and every topic in the syllabus has its own sheet. A ninth episode gives you 36 practice questions we wrote ourselves. The exam is not included in the price. You take it directly with SAP, and we advise you to also study the variations it may test.
What if it is not right for me?
You have a 14-day money-back guarantee. A simple email is enough, no justification required, and we refund you in full.
Can I get an invoice for my company?
Yes. Key User Training is a training company based in Luxembourg. After you pay, we issue an invoice in your company's name. If you need specific details on the invoice, contact us before you buy.
Valencia's cutting table is waiting for you.
At Glass+ Iberia, when a machine breaks down, nobody knows which department to charge it to. Nine episodes from now, in the simulator, you will be the one who can answer, with the machine's history in front of you.