Tag Archives: Work Orders

Work Order Tools – 2 of 3

November 24, 2010 by Arlene 0 Comments

The Work Order Rapid Entry Tool provides a quick mechanism to add new work orders and is especially valuable when creating work orders from the field or when entering from a log sheet. The feature provides a single screen entry mechanism that may be configured for your organization to include the fields that are important when establishing a new work order.  In the following example, the technician has one screen to supply the reason, asset, problem code, labor report and hours worked.

 

Using the preferences that are available, you can define the fields that should be displayed, as well as default values that should be populated. Using the following settings, the Priority Field would be displayed for selection, with a default value of “Normal”. The Type field would not be displayed, but all work orders created would have a “CO/Corrective” value populated into the field:

 

In the image below you can see the results of these settings:

 

As you can see above, you can also set the tool up to allow for the entry of items/parts using the following preference:
 

 

The newly created work orders can even be “completed” (or closed) during creation, ensuring that unplanned work that is performed can be easily recorded. Preferences are available to determine whether the “Complete” (or “Close) prompt should be visible and what the default value should be:

 

 

Once the information for the work order has been entered, you click the Save Button on the bottom of the screen.

 

The page refreshes, retaining the information entered for the asset and labor record, allowing you to expediently enter another work order with similar attributes. The process can be repeated until all desired work orders have been entered. When finished, you click the Close Button. The information entered will be sent to the Maintenance Connection Agent Queue for processing. Once the MC Agent has created the new work orders, they will be available in the Work Order Module for viewing:

 

Note: You must have the Maintenance Connection Agent installed in order to use the Work Order Rapid Entry Feature. Contact MC Support if you are not certain as to whether this feature is installed.

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Work Order Tools – 1 of 3

November 18, 2010 by Arlene 0 Comments

This blog series will highlight some time saving tools that make work order processing more efficient for technicians. This week we will highlight the Labor Timesheet Entry Tool. In the next two topics in the series, we will review the Work Order Rapid Entry Tool and the Enhanced Complete/Close Dialog.

The Labor Timesheet Entry Feature, available from the Tools Menu, allows technicians to quickly enter time expended on multiple work orders from a single screen.

 

The tool is especially valuable for technicians who use printed work orders or a “log sheet” to track their hours, as the time allocated to specific work orders will be readily available. Rather than retrieve each individual work order to enter hours, the technician can use the Labor Timesheet Entry Tool to enter all hours into one simple screen.

Time can be entered on up to 15 work orders at a time. In the area marked for entering new time, the technician specifies the Work Order #. If the number is not known, the user can double click in the field to obtain a Work Order Lookup. After the Work Order # is entered, the reason code is displayed and comments can be entered if needed:

 

The time worked on each day is then entered on the right side of the dialog. The page defaults to the current week, but the arrows next to the dates can be used to move to different weeks. As hours are entered for each work order, the total hours for each work order are displayed in the far right and the total for each day is displayed at the bottom of each column:

 

Once time has been entered, the technician clicks on Apply. The page refreshes with the newly entered time listed at the top section of the dialog, allowing the work orders to be “completed” using the Complete/Close Dialog.

 

Supervisors and administrators can also use this feature to enter time on behalf of others. Users with permission to enter time for “multiple” labor records will have a dropdown displayed at the top of the dialog to select the labor record for which time is to be specified:


  

Coming Next Week…

In next week’s second blog in this series, we will review the Work Order Rapid Entry Tool, a feature that allows for quick entry of new work orders.

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Changing a Procedure after Work Order Is Issued

September 29, 2010 by Arlene 0 Comments

Once a work order has been issued in Maintenance Connection, defined tasks are “locked” in a protective state and cannot be edited. Since tasks on a work order typically originate from a defined PM Procedure, it is unusual for them to be changed after work order issue. As such, this approach ensures that tasks are not inadvertently changed by an end user.

Given this extra level of security, if a procedure is changed after the work order is issued, the tasks will not update with the tasks defined for the new procedure. In the unusual situation in which a procedure needs to be changed on an issued work order, use the following process:

  • Open the Work Order on which the procedure needs to be modified.
  • Select the “Unapprove” Option from the Action Dropdown Control on the right side of the Work Order Details Page.

 

  • The work order will be reverted to a “Requested” state.
  • Select the new procedure to be assigned to the work order and click “Save“.
  • The tasks associated with this newly defined procedure will now be associated with the work order and listed on the Tasks Tab.
  • You can make additional changes to the tasks listed as needed.
  • Once you are satisfied with the content of the tasks, you can “Issue” the work order again. The newly defined tasks will then be “protected” from further editing.

 

Note: This process can also be used to modify the content of tasks on an issued work order, even if the procedure is not being changed. Once the work order has been reverted to a “Requested” state through the “Unapprove” option, you can edit the content of any tasks listed on the Tasks Tab.

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Five Tips for More Accurate Reports

March 23, 2010 by Arlene 0 Comments

 
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Are you looking for ways to improve the accuracy of your Maintenance Connection reports? A little extra time configuring your system for accurate data input can result in great returns from report output!

Here are five tips to help ensure the most accurate reporting:

    1. Consistent ID/Name Fields: Identifying logical conventions for ID and Name Fields (e.g., AssetID/Name, Procedure ID/Name, etc.) can prove quite helpful for reporting. For example, although any unique value can be used for an Asset ID, using a concatenation of abbreviated values can be quite helpful (i.e., Location-Class-Unique# or Class-Unique#). Rather than identify an HVAC Unit as “123″, you could identify the asset as “BLDG4-ACU-04″ or “ACU-04″. The name field, which does not need to be unique, can be more general (“HVAC Unit”, “AC Unit 4″, etc.). Creating meaningful ID’s improves your data quality and provides an additional mechanism for quickly locating and reporting data.2. Fully Populated Reference Fields: It is important to make sure that fields referenced in reports are fully populated in the system. For example, if you want to report by Department, you must be sure that your work orders are being populated with a value for department. To check, you can run a report that checks for all work orders in which a “Department value does NOT exist”. You can then enter the correct department onto the associated asset (or onto a parent record from which the department value can be inherited).

 

    3. Tracking Assets to the Right Level: Organizations that maintain asset data down to a very detailed level often find that it is more difficult to manage and report work order activity. That is, it is not necessary to have every item in a room listed as an asset (i.e., every light switch, chair, etc.). If there is a problem with a light switch, a work order can be generated on the “room,” specifying the light switch in the description or problem code field. While there is no “golden rule” indicating which items should be listed as an individual asset, consider the following:
  1. Do I need to schedule preventative maintenance on this particular piece of equipment?
  2. Is this asset tagged and/or over a designated value?
  3. Do I need to individually report work order history against this piece of equipment?
    If an item does not meet the criteria defined by your organization, it may be best NOT to track it as an individual asset. As an alternative, you can also consider tracking the item as a specification or spare part.
    4. Cleaning Up Duplicate Records: Duplicate work orders often create inaccurate reports summarizing work order activity or progress. To identify duplicate work orders for removal, consider running a report grouped by Asset and Problem Code so that similar work orders would be listed together for review. And to ensure that fewer duplicate work orders are created going forward, customers on MC Version 4.2 can use the “Duplicate Work Order Checking Feature” in the Service Requester and MRO. For more information, refer to the Duplicate Work Order Tip in the User Guide.
    5. Validating Entry into Text Fields: Maintenance Connection uses lookup tables to validate data entry to ensure that consistent values are used. Maintenance Connection even allows you to create lookup tables for user defined fields and specifications that will require text entry:




    Refer to the User Guide sections on Customizing User Fields and Creating/Updating Specifications for more information.

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Lightly Used Features – 3 of 3

February 3, 2010 by Arlene 3 Comments

 

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In this entry we are wrapping up the three part series on helpful features that are not often used in the system.  Below we will show how you can automate work order target dates based on the priority of a request or work order. The Priority Actions Manager lets you designate the number of days beyond the “requested date” on which the target date should be set. For example, you could indicate that all “high priority work orders” should be set with a target date one day beyond the requested date.

There are a couple caveats to note:

  • To work with service requests, you must have your Service Requester configured to prompt users to enter a priority (so that the calculation can be made).
  • Target dates for work orders generated from a Preventive Maintenance Schedule are typically based on the schedule definition, rather than the priority. If you wish to have the date based on the work order priority, a Preventive Maintenance Preference is available to designate this.

 

To set work order target dates based on priority, open the Tools Menu and select Priority Actions Manager…

At the top of the Priority Actions Dialog that displays, check the control to indicate that you wish to Enable Priority Actions:

Each priority defined for your organization will be listed in the dialog. For each priority listed, enter the number of days beyond the requested date on which the target date should be set.

When you have finished specifying the number of days for each priority, click the Save Button. Click the Close Button to exit the dialog.

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