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Meters and Preventive Maintenance

Meters record usage: hours run, miles driven, cycles completed. They drive two things: units-of-production depreciation, and maintenance schedules that fall due at a reading. A schedule can also fall due on a date, or on whichever comes first. The Maintenance due tab lists what is due, and a scheduled task can start a workflow for each one.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → ERP - Operations:

  • Asset Register — the console: Meters and maintenance on each asset's card, and the Maintenance due tab
  • Asset Meters — the meters datastore
  • Maintenance Schedules — the schedules datastore, where the workflow a schedule raises is set

Admin Panel → Fixed Assets:

  • Fixed Assets — the same console

Adding a meter and recording readings

  1. Open the asset's card and, under Meters and maintenance, click Add a meter.
  2. Enter a short Meter code (ODO, HRS), a Name and the Unit.
  3. Set Rolls over at if the meter wraps (a six-digit odometer rolls over at 999999; 0 means never).
  4. Enter the Reading at set-up and the Date of that reading, and click Add meter.
  5. To record a reading, type it in New reading on the meter's row, set the date, and click Record.

A reading below the last one is accepted only if the meter has a rollover point, and is then read as continued usage. Readings must be in date order and not in the future. Each reading re-checks meter-based maintenance.

Scheduling maintenance

  1. On the card, click Add a schedule.
  2. Describe the Work and choose Due by: A date, A meter reading, or Date or meter, whichever comes first.
  3. For a date, enter Every (days) (365 is yearly). For a meter, choose the Meter and Every (units).
  4. Optionally set Next due on and Next due at reading; blank works them out from acquisition or the current reading plus the interval.
  5. Click Save schedule.

Working the due list

On Maintenance due, set Due as at. Each due schedule shows the asset, the work, the trigger and Why it is due (a date passed, or a meter reading reached). When the work is done, enter the date and, for a meter schedule, the reading it was done at, and click Done. The schedule is rescheduled from that date and reading plus its intervals. Assets in use, impaired or held for sale all appear; disposed assets do not.

Raising the work automatically

The scheduled task Asset Preventive Maintenance (raise due work) runs daily and starts a workflow run for each due schedule that names a workflow, once per occurrence. It ships disabled and in preview; the hosting administrator or an architect switches it on in the platform's scheduled tasks (see Scheduling). The workflow is set in the schedule's Workflow field on the Maintenance Schedules datastore, as the workflow's ID number; the console does not offer it. A due schedule with no workflow is only listed on Maintenance due. Build the workflow itself in the Workflow Builder.

What goes wrong

  • "Reading X is below the previous Y and this meter has no rollover point."
  • "This meter was last read on DATE … a new one must be dated on or after that."
  • "Enter the meter reading the work was done at": a meter schedule needs the reading when you mark it done.
  • "No next due point was set" after Done: the schedule has no interval, so it will never come round again. Edit it.
  • Nothing is raised: the task is off, still in preview, or the schedule has no workflow.

Worked example

A plant hire firm services each excavator every 250 hours or yearly. Each machine has an HRS meter and a schedule due by Date or meter, whichever comes first, every 365 days or 250 units, with a "Service request" workflow set on the Maintenance Schedules datastore. Operators record hours weekly. When one passes 250 hours, the daily task starts the workflow, the workshop does the service, and the supervisor marks it Done at 1,262 hours, so the next service falls due at 1,512 or in a year.

Recommendations

  • Read meters on a fixed cadence, including the reading after a rollover.
  • Use "whichever comes first" for anything that ages as well as wears.
  • Attach a workflow to schedules you want raised automatically, then switch the task on.
  • Review Maintenance due weekly as a forward plan.