Tag Archives: Work Orders
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MC v6.0 – 1 of 6 – Work Order Features

June 8, 2012 by Arlene 3 Comments


Online hosted customers were upgraded to MC v6.0 on June 3rd, and onsite customers will have the opportunity to upgrade beginning in July. To acquaint our customers with the extensive new features included in this release, we are posting a series of six informative blog posts. This first post in the series will highlight two valuable new features that improve the Work Order Module, creating custom work order filters and linking multiple assets to work orders.

Tip: Keep an eye on the MC User Connect Tutorials and Docs Page for the series of videos that are being published on MC v6.0 Features. New videos will be posted each of the next few weeks!

Custom Work Order Filters

Custom Work Order Filters can now be defined by Repair Center (RC) and displayed on the Home Page and the Work Order Explorer Filter List. Up to 10 custom filters can be defined per RC, such as “High Priority Work Orders for Electrical Shop”, allowing for single click access to important records.

These filters are built using a Criteria Dialog available from Work Order Preferences:

Tip: It should be noted that these filters can be further tailored per member, using the available “My Preferences” option.

How do I get more info?

  • MC User Connect Video: Tutorials and Docs -> Tutorials -> MC v6.0 -> Custom Work Order Filters
  • User Guide: Home Page->Summary Tab->Work Orders & PMs Sub-Tab->Custom Work Order Filters

Link Multiple Assets to a Work Order

Multiple assets can now be linked to a work order directly from the Work Order Tasks Tab. Inclusion on the Tasks Tab will ensure the work order is included in the Work Order History for each specified asset. Previously, this could only be accomplished through a defined Procedure/PM.

To assist in locating work orders that are indirectly tied to an asset through the Work Order Tasks Tab, there is a new “Asset” control on the Work Order Explorer Criteria Dialog (in addition to the “Location” control). This new option returns all work orders tied to the specified asset on either the Details Tab or Tasks Tab. In contrast, the “Location” control will continue to return work orders associated with the specified asset/location (or any asset/location below that level of the hierarchy) only when the asset is directly specified on the Details Tab.

How do I get more info?

  • MC User Connect Video: Tutorials and Docs -> Tutorials -> MC v6.0 -> Multiple Assets Per WO (On Demand)
  • User Guide: Work Order Module Tabs/Pages->Tasks Tab->Tasks Sub-Tab->Add a Linked Asset

Tip: To minimize disruption to your business process, many new capabilities are disabled in the upgrade process through the use of System Preferences and Access Group Permissions. This allows your organization to become acquainted with features and configure them as desired prior to enabling. Contact your System Administrator for assistance with enabling a desired feature that you see described in this blog series.

Check back next week for information about the extensive new capabilities available from the Service Requester.

Release Notes
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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 1 Comment


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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