Functional Archives - Maximo Concepts

Meter Change Out in Maximo for Transportation

I recently came across a feature in Maximo that can be really useful in scenarios where meter reset/meter changes are not so rare occurrences.

You may come across several scenarios where the meter on an asset is either replaced or reset due to certain maintenance activities. These maintenance activities could either be a scheduled maintenance like overhaul or be an unscheduled corrective maintenance due to a component or meter failure. In either case the meter reading of the meter in Maximo would have to be reset to a new value.

First thing that would strike you would be to enter the new reading on the asset through the enter meter reading option. But that wouldn’t work for continuous meters since if the new reading is less than the old reading, the meter reading will actually rollover and the life to date reading will show incorrect value. And if the new meter reading is more than the old reading, Maximo will accept the new meter reading but the life to date reading will still be incorrect.

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This is where the meter change out feature of the Asset(tr) application comes into picture. The meter change out functionality updates the last meter reading of the meter with the new reading and also maintains the life to date reading. You also have the option to update the life to date reading while performing the meter change. See how it works –

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Until next time!

Calculation for Units to Go in Preventive Maintenance (CM)

Needless to say, the calculation of units to go in ACM is a bit trickier than how it’s calculated in base Maximo. People who have worked on it can understand where I am coming from.

Units to Go is calculated based on the PLUSALFEVENT (Maintenance Event) record which is created when the PM is made ACTIVE. These are the records displayed in the Maintenance Plan tab in the Asset (CM) application.

It is these PLUSALFEVENT records that are utilized by the BDI process to decide when Work Orders should be created from the PMs and also to decide whether the PM is overdue, past its warning point etc.

The ‘Left’ value on the Maintenance Plan tab is essentially the units to go for the associated PM in Assets (CM).

The calculation for units to go is:

Units to Go = Due Count – Current Count

Where Due Count = Active Count + PM Meter Frequency

The Active Count is the meter count calculated at the Active Date of maintenance event (PLUSALFEVENT.ACTIVEDATE).

Every time a work order for a maintenance event is completed, a new maintenance event (PLUSALFEVENT) entry is created with an Active Date same as that of the work order completion date. The same date is stamped as inactive date on the old maintenance event record.

So every time the active date from the most recent maintenance event record is used to calculate the Due Count for the PM.

The Current Count is the meter count at the current system date and time.

BMXAA7901E – You cannot log in at this time. Contact the system administrator

Whenever you try to login into Maximo, for whatever reasons if you are not able to login, Maximo throws the error – “BMXAA7901E – You cannot log in at this time. Contact the system administrator”. Whether it’s wrong password or a blocked account or some administrative activity is going on, the same message is displayed every time.

Out of curiosity I tried to find out why is it that the actual issue with the failed login is not shown and this is what I found – IBM says that “Alerting a user that they have entered an invalid username or password is a violation of emerging security best practices. Giving a potential hacker any details on a system they are not authenticated against is a risk. These messages were generalized intentionally.”

So that means it’s intentional. Though at times it could be frustrating to not know the reason why Maximo is not letting you in but the intention seems to be valid. I also found out that in the previous versions on Maximo, the actual error message was displayed if the login failed.

So the question is, with all the VPNs and SSL enabled networks to protect us from hackers, is it really necessary to hide the reason of the unsuccessful login?

Work Order not Generated from PM

Sometimes there is this situation where when you try to create work order from PM, the system shows the message that the work order has been created but when you try to search that work order in the work order tracking application, it doesn’t exists.

One of the reasons for this is if the PM was created when the admin mode is on (which could be the case of initial data upload), entry in the PMANCESTOR is not created for that PM. When the work order is being generated for this PM, even though the message for successful work order creation is displayed, the work order is actually not created because of the missing entry in the PMANCESTOR.

Alert and Warning Intervals in PM (CM)

Alert and warning interval in Preventive Maintenance (CM) have always been confusing. Let me explain you what they are and how to set them.

Alert interval is the point at which a work order is generated. This interval is checked by BDI to generate work order.

Warning interval is the point at which a warning is issued to inform you that a preventive maintenance (PM) record is almost overdue.This interval is checked by BDI to generate warning.

The Assets (CM) application color-codes warnings and overdue PMs.

If the alert interval is null, BDI would create the work order at the moment the PM is generated. So it should never be null.

When setting the alert and warning interval, the Alert and Warning Interval State plays an important role. Here’s how –

Consider a PM with time based frequency as 30 days. Work order for this PM should be created on the 24^th days and the warning should be shown from the 27^th day. Let’s see how the alert and warning interval should be set to achieve this based on different interval state.

Maximo and the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things or IOT is one of the upcoming technologies in the market these days. What is IOT? – In Short, IOT is basically smart devices sending data related to their performance, state, etc. over the internet which can be acted upon, if required, without much human intervention.

There is an infograph which explains what IOT is all about and its applications. This is the most informative and interactive article that I have come across on IOT, make sure you turn to full screen mode when viewing this infograph.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-internet-of-things-a-primer/

How Maximo fits into the world of IOT?

Consider a scenario of a manufacturing unit which has its assets installed with sensors that can monitor the performance, state and other parameters of the asset and upload it to the network – basically smart assets. These performance parameters can then be picked up by Maximo and –

Parameter values can be updated against assets (meter reading) and
If any deviations are found, Investigation or corrective actions can be initiated through condition monitoring.

This can significantly reduce the downtime on the asset due to breakdowns and increase its reliability, efficiency & performance. This is just one example; there can be thousands of applications of IOT.

How IOT is transforming businesses? – have a look at the IBM IOT page. Do watch the customer stories.

http://www.ibm.com/analytics/us/en/internet-of-things

Bulk Meter Reading Import in Maximo for Transportation

When there are lots of assets and lots of meters to update on those assets, it becomes a real headache for the user to go to each asset and enter the meter readings. Maximo for Transportation gives the user the option to bulk import meter readings on multiple assets. The Fuel Transaction Import (Tr) application in the Data Import (Tr) module can be used for this purpose.

It doesn’t require any complex MIF setup or large flat files or XMLs to import the meter reading. It only requires a few one time settings in the Organization (Tr) application after which a file with meter readings as show below can be imported easily from the application.

These meter reading imports are not specific to transportation type asset, meter readings for all type of assets can be imported from this application.

For detailed steps on how to setup and import meter readings, refer the document attached below.

Meter Reading Upload in Maximo

Inventory Counting in Maximo for Transportation

As the name suggests Inventory Counting (Tr) application can be used to record physical count on items in the inventory. This application can come in handy while performing physical counts, cycle checks or surprise checks on a storeroom.

The application can be used to –

Record physical count on the stock – specific items, rotables, tools, etc.
Reconcile the balances if discrepancies are found.

For details on how to use the application refer the attached document.

Using Inventory Counting (Tr)

Asset Alias in Maximo for Transportation

Maximo for Transportation has a unique feature in the asset application known as the asset alias. This feature helps to create multiple aliases for an asset.

Consider the scenario of a transportation asset, say a rail car whose number is defined based on the type of bogies and the truck system attached to it. So if the configuration of the railcar is changed, the number also changes. In Maximo, changing of the configuration will result in decommissioning of the old asset and creating a new one with the new railcar number. This will result in lots of new record being created in the system and loss of history of the asset. Asset alias functionality can be used to avoid this. Every time the configuration of the railcar is changed, a new alias can be added to the asset and the old one can be deleted.

The best part of this feature is that the user doesn’t have to remember the asset number while working on the asset in Maximo. Simply putting the alias in the asset number field in work order or PM application would fetch the asset number for that alias. And this feature of fetching the asset based on alias works not only in the transportation applications but also in the base applications.

How to add alias to an asset? – Refer the ibm technote below.

Using Asset Aliases in Maximo for Transportation

Workflow Delegation in Maximo

The workflow engine of Maximo has a functionality which can be used to delegate workflow assignment to a specific person for a specific period of time.

This can be useful when a person is expected to be out of office and may not have access to Maximo. The person can setup the delegate in the person application in the workflow and work order section.

The table below shows how the workflow engine would assign the workflow to the person based on values in the three fields.

Workflow Delegate	Delegate From	Delegate To	Assignment Result
x	x	x	Workflow would be assigned to the intended person
wilson	x	x	Workflow would be always assigned to wilson
wilson	8/12/2015	x	From 8/12/15 onwards workflow would be always assigned to wilson
wilson	8/12/2015	8/31/2015	From 8/12/15 till 8/31/15 workflow would be assigned to wilson