Maximo List Archive

From: John (2012-12-15 19:55)

Making fields mandatory in Maximo does not guarantee accuracy.
This strategy is sometimes used however during work order creation where the user is required to enter a work order Target Start date.
Note: when parts are involved it does help the reservations process, or when specific events are scheduled, or contractor support is required.
This target start field could have been deemed a "Desired date" but usually still a guess on part of the user.
Note: some of the industry solutions have related date fields defined as "Need by" or "Start on" or "Not Later Than".
But to force the user to enter a Target Start date every single time a new work order (of any type) is created can be confusing.
There could be other work which is more important which needs to be done on that date.
Things to be Considered:
~The maintenance staff has finite size. The backlog is always changing.
~The requestor really doesn't know the availability of the staff or the existing backlog size and priorities
~What new work will come up between now and then that could be more important.
~Also, what happens when this work is not done and the target date is "to the left of today's date"?
~What happens when management then runs late reports and metrics?
~Is the planner supposed to continually adjust these work order target dates to maintain some type of accurate forecast?
~Maybe the concept is …. Make it electronically mandatory but it doesn't really have to be accurate. This makes measurements of any type questionable.
The system administrator would have set this field as mandatory.
I can understand if they made this field "procedurally required".
But other than that …. this type of design can cause increased user level frustration, and that leads to inaccurate data.
w/br
John Reeve
Manager, Practice Leader Maintenance and Reliability Solutions
Cell: 423 314 1312
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-reeve/11/644/9b2