Tag Archives: Work Orders
Work Order Report

It’s Your Preference – 2 of 3 – WO Report

January 27, 2012 by Arlene 1 Comment

In this second post in the “It’s Your Preference” series, we will explore the extensive preferences available to customize the appearance of the Work Order Report that is often printed or emailed to technicians. To modify this report, select Tools->Preferences from the Menu Bar, ensure the Work Order Folder is selected, and then scroll down to the section on the Work Order Report.

The configuration options available are especially helpful for formatting the presentation for online/email display, versus a printout on which information might be written down. As an example, the first preference listed allows you to specify “line height” so that you can extend the space between lines in the “fill in the blank” sections when technicians will be writing information on the form. Additional settings indicate the number of blank “fill in” lines that should be displayed, such as lines for technicians to “list” parts that were used. If technicians in your organization update information directly into the system, the Work Order Report can be configured to minimize or hide these “fill in” sections.

 

As the above image indicates, there are a set of preferences that allow you to configure the “Maintenance Details” area displayed at the top of the report, as well as specify the level of detail that should be included (e.g., asset address, asset details such as model and serial number). A number of these settings were added in Version 5.0 of Maintenance Connection.

Additional preferences are available for each section of the report, allowing you to specify whether the section should display (always, only when there are records), and indicate whether or not particular columns should display:

 

Lastly, you can determine whether approval information and the Labor Report should display, as well as indicate whether or not a signature block should be included:

 

Stay tuned for next week’s post in the series, in which the options to configure the Purchase Order Report will be highlighted.

Feature Spotlights
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Lightly Used Features – 3 of 3 – Quick Add Comments

November 15, 2011 by Arlene 0 Comments

In this last post in the series on Lightly Used Features, we will show how predefined “comments” can be used in the Labor Report and Task Completion Comments to support more rapid and consistent data entry. Customers often look for ways to ensure that data entered in the system is consistent for reporting, and this can be a challenge in free form entry fields such as the Labor Report. Taking advantage of the “Quick Add Comments” feature is a great method to increase standardization.

From the Work Order Complete/Close Dialog, users can click on the Add Button in the upper right hand corner of the Labor Report to retrieve a lookup table of acceptable values:

Selecting a value, places the selected “comment” into the Labor Report, where additional details can be added as needed.

As with all MC Lookup Tables, the values in the table can be edited by individuals who are members of an access group with permission to do so. For example, by clicking the Edit Button and selecting “New Code/Description” at the bottom of the list, a new comment can be defined:

The same lookup is available when the user clicks the button on a Task Record to access the Task Comment Dialog.

Users can even add multiple comments. As shown below, the user has returned to the lookup to select a second comment to add to the Labor Report:

Feature Spotlights

Lightly Used Features – 1 of 3 – Notification Email History

November 2, 2011 by Arlene 0 Comments

In this three part series on Lightly Used Features, we will take a peek at some capabilities that are sometimes overlooked in Maintenance Connection. Or, as MC Support would say, features that elicit the “Oh – I didn’t know we could do that” response! This week’s blog will cover the ability to view email notification history on a work order. In the next two topics in the series, we will cover how to connect a User Defined Field (UDF) to a custom lookup and how to create pre-defined “comments” to add to the labor report or task completion comments.

Notification Email History

Customers use the Rules Manager to set up automated notifications for a variety of circumstances. Notifications are triggered based on the occurrence of an “event”, such as a new work order request, work order assignment, or work order completion. What many customers do not realize, however, is that MC maintains a history of these notifications that can be viewed from the perspective of the work order.

For example, let’s say you have set up a rule to notify the individual initiating the request when work has been completed. To verify what notifications have been sent, you can just open the work order and access the Work Order History Tab. The Work Order Event History will display a record indicating when a notification email was sent:

Clicking on this record brings forward a dialog displaying the email content and recipients:

Since notification emails are dynamically generated behind the scene, it is quite helpful to have this visual verification of the content that was sent.

Feature Spotlights
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Building on Your Investment – Zones Module

March 23, 2011 by Arlene 0 Comments

In an effort to help you build on your MC Investment, the next three blog topics will portray modules in MC that are used less frequently: Zones, Tasks and Bulletins. In this first topic in the series, we will cover the benefits of the Zones Module and how it can be used to improve assignment efficiency for geographically diverse organizations.

The Zones Module is especially beneficial for organizations that cover a large service area, as technician availability in a given area can be taken into consideration when assignments are made. In the following example, if a service request was received for an asset residing in the East District, the “Display Tabs as Zones” option on the Assignment Calendar could be used to easily identify which technicians will be in the area on a given date (4th and 5th of April in this example):

Zones, defined in the Zones Module, can also be assigned “zone colors” so that work orders assigned to that zone are more easily identified in the Work Order Explorer.

Once zones have been defined, they can be assigned to designated locations in your Asset Tree by specifying the “Zone” on the bottom left of the Asset Details Page.

As work orders are created for any assets beneath this location, they are automatically assigned to the given zone. In the Work Order Explorer, the zone color is shown in the first column, allowing you to easily identify work orders assigned to assets from the same zone, which is typically the same geographic area.

Next Post….

In next week’s post in this series, we will explore how you can use the Tasks Module to create a “library” of common tasks for more consistent reporting against procedures and work orders.

Feature Spotlights
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Version 5.0 Release – Work Order Enhancements

January 26, 2011 by Arlene 0 Comments

A number of new features in Version 5.0 will enhance the flexibility and capabilities of the Work Order Module. In this blog topic we will summarize enhancements to the Work Order Report and Complete/Close Dialog, as well as the ability to create a follow up work order when tasks are marked as failed.

Customization Options on Work Order Report

Extensive preferences have been added to the Work Order Report to allow you to customize the appearance of the Printed Work Order. You have control over the display of numerous fields, including some that were not previously available, such as work order sub-status, asset address and additional details like model/serial #. You are also given more control over the display of fields, such as the indicators shown in the top section.

 

In the subsequent sections of the report, you now have more control over the columns that should display, as well as the report line height of the “fill in blank” lines. In addition, there are new options to include sections for approvals and signatures, as well as one to control the number of entry lines displayed for the Labor Report:

 

Enhanced Complete/Close Changes

A significantly faster and more flexible method for adding parts to the Enhanced Complete/Close Dialog is available. You can now search for material by entering any characters or numbers that exist in the Part ID or Name. MC will dynamically (and rapidly) display the records that correspond, narrowing the results as you enter more characters for the search.

 

In addition, you can now update the actual quantity for estimated material populated from a PM/Procedure and can even require that tasks are marked as complete (or failed) before a work order can be completed by a technician. Lastly, you can set the default value for the “Split Labor Hours” indicator for grouped work orders.

 

Follow Up Work Orders on Failed Tasks

There is also a new feature that allows you to create a follow up work order for failed tasks (or separate work orders for each failed task) from the Complete/Close Dialog. This feature is available for customers that use both the Standard and Enhanced Complete/Close Dialog. A new preference is available to set the default value for the control.

 

Next Week….

In next week’s blog previewing Version 5.0 features, we will take a peek at enhancements to the Purchase Order Module, including the ability to set approval requirements based on the amount of the purchase order.

Release Notes
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