PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE AND WORK ORDERS

The Equipment Preventive Maintenance and Work Order systems are tied together because it is the Preventive Maintenance system that knows when work must be done on a vehicle, and it is the Work Order system that knows when work is completed.

All functions for these systems are found under the Equipment menu. Many items such as the list of Preventive Maintenance items or lists of Work Orders are found as tabs in the Equipment Maintenance program.

The Equipment Maintenance screens have many pages and tabs that show the current status and history for each piece of equipment.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance starts with a list of PM items for a piece of equipment. In Equipment Maintenance there is a "Prev Maint" tab at the top of the screen. Once selected, you will see a list of the PM items that are defined for the current equipment. This is displayed in a grid. If there are no PM items defined for the equipment, the gird will be empty. To look at a PM item or to create new ones double-click on the grid. That will open up the Equipment PM Item Maintenance dialog.

Equipment PM Item Screen

PM items for equipment are based on a list of PM items for that equipment. A piece of equipment can have one or more PM items. This screen lets you add, delete, or modify the PM list. Once a PM list is set up it can easily be propagated to other pieces of equipment by the Copy button found on the lower left side of the screen. That button will copy the PM list from another piece of equipment to the current equipment.

Several items define PM items. The most important are the Meter Type and the Do Every x Meter and Do Every x Days fields. The rest of the fields are defined below.

•Description – A short description of the PM item. This will carry over to the Work Orders.

•Do Every x Meter – If a Meter Type is specified this is how many meter units there should be between PM servicing. For a Meter Type of Miles a typical entry would be 3000.

•Do Every x Days – In addition to the Meter and Do Every x Meter entry is the maximum number of days between this PM service. A PM must have either or both of the Do Every entries.

The following items are defined by you in the Pick List Constants program (under the Equipment Menu):

•PM System – A drop down list of equipment systems (Engine, Electrical, Hydraulic, etc.).

•Mechanic Class – A user-defined drop down list of the skill level required.

•PM Category – A drop down list of user-defined categories such as PM, Overhaul, etc.

•Meter Type – A PM is triggered by a date or a meter. Dates are handled by the Do Every x Days field described below. If a PM is done by a meter such as Miles or Hours or Usage or Tons Hauled, it is selected from the user-defined drop down list. Anything can be used as a Meter Type. A bus company might have a People Count meter to trigger a PM item. Whatever the Meter type is, there must be an associated Meter Reading History to go along with it (more about Meter Reading below). Usage (from payroll time cards) is a special case where no Meter Readings are required. The Usage is always available from the normal payroll processing.

The Meter Type, Do Every X Meter and Do Every X Days are the heart of scheduling preventive maintenance items. A PM must have either days or meter intervals set (see PM Meters and Triggers below).

•Notes: Optional: Anything you want to show up on the printed work order.

•Standard Labor Hours: Optional: The expected time to do this PM.

•Standard Parts Amount: Optional: The expected Parts cost.

•Includes: Not yet implemented. A list of PM’s that include this PM.

•Last Done: Date, Work Order Number, Meter: Filled in by the system.

•Initial Date: When starting a PM system, it is necessary to know the last time this PM was done.

•Initial Meter: When starting a PM system, it is necessary to know the last meter reading this PM was done if there is a Do Every X Meter specified.

Parts Required

A page on the Equipment PM Item Maintenance allows for specifying a list of parts for this PM. When a Work Order is produced for this PM this parts list is copied to the PM to serve as starting list of required parts. This is all optional information.

PM Meters and Triggers

A PM item must have a Do Every X Days and/or Do Every X Meter specified.

Do Every X Days is simply controlled by the date a PM was last done and the current date. When running Work Order Calculate (more below), each PM item is inspected. If it has an Every X Days specified, the last date that this PM was competed is compared to the current date. If the PM is due or over due, a Work Order will be created for it.

Do Every X Meter requires that a Meter Type be specified. A typical Meter Type is Miles or Hours but the user can define any measurement for the Meter. If a Meter Type is specified, then the system needs to know the latest reading of that Meter. On the Equipment Maintenance there is a Meter Reading tab where meter reading can be entered for a vehicle.

When running Work Order Calculation, if a Meter Type and a Do Every X Meter is specified for a PM item, the last time that PM was completed is looked up and also the latest Meter Reading of the specified type (e.g. Miles). If the PM is due or overdue by Meter Readings it is put on a Work Order.

There is a special case for Meter Type "Usage". Usage doesn’t require a Meter Reading because the usage is accumulated from the actual charged use of the equipment as entered with the payroll data. The program always knows the cumulative usage so there is no need for an associated Meter Reading for Usage.

Meter Readings

In Equipment Maintenance there is a tab for Meter Readings. Meter Readings are only necessary for equipment with PMs that are triggered by a specified Meter Type and Do Every X Meter except for Meter Type "Usage".

Meter Reading must be gathered and entered into the system on a regular basis, perhaps weekly. An Equipment could have several PM Items each with a different Meter Type. For instance, one PM item might be triggered by Miles and another by the Hours meter. In that case the PM system needs to know the Meter History for both Hours and Miles.

When flagging a Work Order as complete (more below) the program requires that each PM that has a Meter Type (other than "Usage") have an up to date reading so that it "knows" at what Meter Reading a PM items was last completed. This is so the PM Item can be scheduled properly the next time the Do Every X Meter interval is up.

Odometers and other meters are subject to being changed so the PM System bases all its Meter Readings on a "Life Reading" concept. An example will make this more clear:

 A truck has an odometer reading 35,000 miles.

 Its broken odometer is replaced with one reading 23,000.

 The next reading from the new meter is 23,500 miles.

 The Life Reading is then 35,000 + 500 or 35,500 miles.

The PM System uses these Life Readings to decide if a "Do Every X Meter" PM Item is due.

Work Order Calculation

All this PM information gets used during the Work Order Calculation. This procedure goes through each PM Item for every vehicle and determines if the PM Item is due. If it is, a Work Order is generated.

Work Order Calculation is found under the Equipment Menu.

The Work Order Calculation programs needs only the current date and assumes a Meter Reading History that is reasonably current has been entered. The first pass simply produces a list of Equipment that have PM Items due. You can then use the check box list to remove any equipment from the list. Once the Generate Work Order button is pressed, then the actual Work Orders are generated.

Work Orders

Work Orders are created by the Work Order Calculation program or in Equipment Maintenance on the Work Order Tab. This tab will list all the Work Orders for the current equipment. Double-clicking on a work order in the grid will bring up the Equipment Work Order Maintenance screen where Work Orders can be viewed, modified, deleted or new ones created.

Work Orders provide several services:

•The first is a list of work to do on a piece of equipment. Notes and parts lists can be part of this. These Work Orders can be created automatically by the Work Order Calculation program or manually by the Work Order Maintenance sub-program.

•Next, the Work Order completed procedure lets the program know the completion date and meter readings (if required) on each PM Item.

•Labor and parts costs can be applied to Work Orders so that the true cost of maintaining a vehicle is known. Payroll postings can be applied to a Work Order as well as Inventory Posting. If you want these costs to be accumulated by Work Order, a reporting method must be implemented to show the Work Order that was performed.

•The Work Order provides a complete history of what was done on a piece of equipment and provides a place for notes and other information.

A Work Order consists of three elements:

•The Work Order Header that contains dates, descriptions and reasons, etc.

•The Work Order Line Items that contain the individual items of work and defines if a Preventive Maintenance item is part of this work order.

•The Work Order Parts contains a list of parts. The Work Order Calculation program will copy these from the PM Items to the Work Order automatically.