Creating Maintenance Jobs

Maintenance jobs allow companies to schedule maintenance and repair tasks for equipment, Work Centers, and Containers, and accumulate job costs, including materials and machine costs. Scheduled maintenance jobs and times are integrated with the Master Production Calendar and offer users the ability to plan and schedule both production and maintenance work in one central location.

Maintenance jobs can also be used in conjunction with DEACOM's MRO process. This feature also allows the ability to leverage MRP to regularly re-order parts contained on the Bill of Materials attached to MRO items. In addition, maintenance costs are stored and available for reporting within the main application via Accounting Reporting. More information on this option is available via Maintenance Reporting.

Some companies may also find using Triggers helpful when creating Maintenance Jobs so that the recipient is aware of when maintenance is beginning, ending, how much of a part was used in the job, etc. A Trigger is a stored procedure that runs automatically when changes or updates to important tables have been made in the system. For information on creating and using Triggers, refer to the Configuring Triggers Best Practice page.

Configuration

The following items are required in order to create and schedule maintenance jobs in DEACOM:

  • Job Categories - Used to define and group Jobs that share common characteristics, Job Categories should be created for the various types of maintenance being performed.
  • Facilities - Facilities refer to unique or separate production locations that concentrate resources such as workers, machinery, and other capital. Setup information is available via Setting up a Warehouse.
  • Shop Areas - Shop Areas represent a collection of similar machines used in the production process or throughout the facility.
  • Containers - Containers represent storage units that hold inventory. Setup information is available via Managing Assets.
  • Work Centers - Work Centers correspond to a specific machine within a given Shop Area. Work Centers must be assigned to a Shop Area and Shop Areas may contain several Work Centers. Setup information is available via Managing Assets.
  • Maintenance Parts, BOM Revisions, and Routings - Maintenance items, marked as non-stocked, allow users to define the maintenance task. BOM Revisions define the supplies and steps for the maintenance work required. Routings are a series of pre-defined processing steps, listed in order of sequence, necessary to complete an item or maintenance task. Setup information is available via Managing Maintenance Parts and BOMs and Managing Routings.
    • Companies also have the option to create ad-hoc maintenance jobs (versus utilizing MRO) in situations where the material list and need for the task is not known until the machine breaks down. In these situations, BOM Revisions and Routings are not required.
    • For companies that will regularly utilize MRO, we recommend creating maintenance BOMs and Routings to easily schedule regular maintenance tasks.
  • Maintenance tasks - Added to Work Centers, maintenance tasks are used to ensure machines operate smoothly and efficiently while minimizing unplanned downtime. Setup information is available via Creating Maintenance Tasks.
  • MRP Groups - If using MRP for maintenance, MRP Groups should be configured and assigned to items that share similar characteristics. Setup information is available via Configuring Options for Use in MRP.
    • This feature is designed so that when a Job is created in MRP, all items belonging to the same MRP Group will be added to the same multi-line Job versus creating multiple single-line Jobs.
  • Work Flows - As noted above, Work Flows can be useful for controlling the overall creation and processing of Jobs. For more information, refer to Configuring Work Flows.
  • Security - DEACOM offers a variety of security settings specific to maintenance job entry and modification. Setup info is available via Managing Users and User Security.
    • At a minimum, users should have access to the "Production menu" and "Jobs -- create maintenance jobs" security settings.
    • More advanced security settings include "Production -- MRO Management", "Production -- job management", and "Jobs -- set jobs to active". The last option controls access to the "Status" field on Jobs. The request status allows users to enter a request for maintenance work that then requires approval by a supervisor.

Process

Understanding the Shop Area selection process

  • When using MRO to create maintenance jobs for Work Center, the Job's Shop Area is supplied from the one specified on the Work Center for which the maintenance work is being performed.
  • When using MRO to create maintenance jobs for Containers, no Shop Area will be populated on the maintenance job, but may be supplied by the user.
  • When creating maintenance jobs outside of MRO, the system uses the following hierarchy for indicating the Shop Area:
    • The Default Shop Area specified on the revision of the latest maintenance item added to the job.
    • The default Shop Area for the Facility selected on the Job. If there is no default Shop Area for the Facility on the Job the Shop Area field will be blank but may be filled in by the user.

Using MRO

Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) is used to describe the process and activities relating to the repair and scheduled maintenance of equipment, Work Centers, or Containers associated with both a company’s physical plant and production or order fulfillment capabilities. MRO planning provides several benefits to customers, including lower parts and labor costs, minimized downtime, and enhanced scheduling capability. MRO is the easiest and most efficient way to review what maintenance tasks need to be performed and select tasks for job creation. To generate an MRO report and create Maintenance Jobs, perform the following:

  1. Generate an MRO report to view maintenance tasks that are due to complete.
    1. Navigate to Production > MRO.
    2. Toggle the various settings, such as "Recurring Type" and "Date Based On" based on how the company performs maintenance.
    3. Select a specific Facility, Shop Area, Work Center Type, Work Center or Container, if desired.
      1. If a Work Center is selected, choose to either exclude or include its' Child Work Centers using the "Children" filter. More information on using Work Center families is available on the Managing Assets page.
    4. Click "View" to generate the MRO report.
  2. Review the maintenance tasks listed and select the tasks to create jobs for.
    1. To select individual tasks, double click in the "Selected" column on the line or lines containing the task(s) you wish to select. This will cause the word "Yes" to appear in the column.
    2. To select all the tasks displayed on the MRO report, click the "Order All" button. The word "Yes" will appear in the "Selected" column for all tasks on the report.
    3. To un-select all tasks at once, click "Order None".
  3. Create the jobs.
    1. Once all desired maintenance tasks are selected (indicated by a "Yes" in the "Selected" column), click "Create Job".
      1. Notes:
        1. Maintenance tasks assigned to the same MRO Groups will be placed on the same job.
        2. Maintenance (MRO) tasks are grouped by part number id, due date, and Work Center ID when creating jobs. In situations where two maintenance tasks are the exact same, they will not be merged into a single job if they belong to different Work Centers.
        3. Beginning in version 17.01.030, when creating multiple jobs for MRO, the system will display the resulting jobs in a job summary report instead of opening in separate edit job forms.
    2. Select the appropriate Facility to load the Edit Job form.
    3. Review the Job details.
      1. On the General tab, check the Job Category, Description, and Priority. In the case of MRO jobs, the header section will indicate the Facility and Shop Area where repair or maintenance work is to be performed and the Priority of the Job is used for scheduling purposes. When a Job contains multiple tasks (i.e. it has multiple lines), the tasks are listed according to their priority, set on the Maintenance Tab of the Work Center or Container.
      2. In addition, notice that the "Job Type" field is automatically set to "Maintenance" and verify the "Status" is accurate. A status of "Request" allows users to enter a request for maintenance work that then requires approval by a supervisor. If a user is restricted to only creating requests, their security
      3. On the Dates tab, check the "Due", "Planned Start", and "Planned Finish" dates, which are set automatically based on the MRO pre-filter selections.
      4. Review the lines of the Job, which indicate the non-stock MRO item(s) together with the appropriate MRO BOM Revisions and MRO Routings.
        1. Notes: Jobs created within MRO do not require a default BOM revision in order to create the Job. Revisions can still be used for MRO Jobs, they are just not required.
      5. If any Job data was modified, click "Save" to keep the changes, then exit the Edit Job form.
  4. At this point, the system has already created and scheduled the maintenance job using the information and dates specified. If more than one Job was created, the user will be brought to the Edit Job form for the next Job. (unless running in version 17.01.030 or higher, in which case the Job Summary screen, listing all the MRO jobs created will be displayed. Users can still edit jobs from this screen.) Review the details for the remaining Jobs, saving when appropriate and/or exiting once confirmed accurate. Once all Jobs have been reviewed and exited, the user will be returned to the MRO report, where the previously selected maintenance tasks will no longer be visible.

Creating ad hoc Maintenance Jobs

In situations where emergency maintenance work needs to be scheduled, users may create an ad hoc maintenance job. Another reason for ad hoc jobs are that the required materials are not know beforehand or a maintenance need due to a sudden machine breakdown. In addition, the custom adds form on the job can be used to indicate one-time required services or parts required to perform the maintenance. The general steps for creating ad-hoc maintenance jobs are as follows:

  1. Verify that a general maintenance task item is set up for use on ad hoc maintenance jobs. If one does not already exist, refer to Managing Maintenance Parts and BOMs for instructions.
  2. Navigate to Production > Job Entry.
  3. On the Edit Job form, set the "Job Type" to "Maintenance" and use the "Note" field to indicate what work needs to occur. These notes can later be added to print outs for clarity.
  4. Set other Job header fields appropriately.
  5. On the Dates tab, populate or verify the "Due", "Planned", "Planned Start" and "Planned Finish" dates.
  6. On the Lines portion, click "Add" to display the Edit Job Part form.
  7. Select the general maintenance task item in the "Part Number" field and enter a quantity of "1".
  8. To add any spare parts that may be needed on the Job, click "Custom Adds" and select them.
  9. If needed, click the "Routing" button and estimate the labor steps to perform the job.
  10. Save and close the job line to return to the Edit Job form.
  11. Click the "Save" and "Exit" button on the Edit Job form to create the job and complete the process.

FAQ & Diagnostic Tips

Can I enter negative numbers for metered MRO lines within WMS?

Yes, in situations where maintenance workers will need to enter negative numbers for a meter reading task, such as when recording a negative temperature, the WMS application allows negative numbers to be entered the completed/metered field on the scanner. Additional information regarding MRO and metered tasks is available via Production > MRO.

What options are available to charge costs to administrative and maintenance jobs?

Once the maintenance or administrative job has been created several different options, listed below, exist for charging costs to the jobs.

  • Create a purchase order that includes a general ledger expense line indicating the account to which service or consulting fees will be charged and then link the purchase order to the job. Note that the job is linked to the purchase order by selecting the job number on the "Misc 1" tab of the purchase order.
  • Create a purchase order that includes a stocked or non-stocked part for the parts needed as a result of the maintenance work required and then link the purchase order to the job..
  • Create items with an item type of "Supplies" to indicate they will be used in the maintenance of production equipment and then issue these parts to the job.