How to make fields accept different set of values though having same table domain associated

In the illustration shown below custom fields Leader on two different applications “Assets” and “Locations”, have same custom domain associated. We had a requirement whereby these fields were expected to be populated based on validation applicable as per the field (for this illustration I will take Asset application should accept active person while Locations should accept inactive ones only). 

The domain is of type table domain and pulls records from PERSON object. And the fields pulled all records from the underlying table for selection.

Though it appears that the dynamic behavior won’t be feasible without code, it is not so.

The only trick required is making use of maximo bind variables as required.

Modify the list where clause (and validation where as well) of the domain as below and you are done

(:&APPNAME&='ASSET' and status='ACTIVE') or (:&APPNAME&='LOCATION' and status='INACTIVE')

Verify that domain is working perfectly well for both the fields.

Purchasing non stock materials

If you approve a Work Order which has direct issue material lines on it, the Work Order status changes to WMATL. When you run the reorder process, MAXIMO creates the PR for the item mentioned in WO. This process populates PR and PR Line number against WO material line as read-only information. If you run the reorder process once again, MAXIMO does not pick up this WO lines again. If you cancel the PR or delete the  material line from PR, MAXIMO removes the PR number & PR Line reference number from the WO, thus making the WO material line again to be picked up for reordering.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team 

Lead Time Usage in Reorder Calculation

When an Item is requested on a storeroom a storeroom reservation (SR) is done. All the reservations are aggregated and checked against the current stock before reordering. The Direct Issue request (VR) are directly requested to the Vendor without any aggregation.  During Reorder Process Lead time is used in calculation.

Important Parameters Used:
Lead Time (Inventory application)
Promised Lead Time (Item Vendor Tab in Item Master or in Inventory application)
Additional Lead Time (Re-Order Processes: Both the Action Items in Inventory application)

            The following is a diagrammatic representation of how the Lead Times are used:

During the reorder action (in both stock replenishment and Direct Issue) one can give the additional Lead Time which is added to the Lead time (inventory) or Promised Lead Time (Vendor Item) to calculate the time fence (or the time in the distant future to look ahead for any demand).

As shown in the diagram, the reservations on store (SR1 and SR2) will be used in the reorder calculation as they are within the time region determined by the Lead Time and the Additional Lead Time. Reservation(s) falling beyond this time region are not considered.

Similarly Direct Issue requests VR1, VR2 and VR3 are re-ordered and VR4 is not.

Important Notes for Stock Reorder:
When Items are reordered the ‘Required Date’ is the earliest date of all the required dates. In the example above for storeroom if:
Current Balance = 10
SR1: Qty = 5 and Date = +5
SR2: Qty = 8 and Date = +10
The Purchase Request (for stock) will be created based on the required date of SR1 alone (+5) even if SR1 can be satisfied from current stock.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Selection of Job Plan on PM work orders with route associated

If you generate Work Orders from a PM with route associated, the Work Order representing route stop will consider the Job Plan from Route Definition (Route Stop). If there is no Job Plan associated with Route Stop, the Work Order will have the Job Plan from PM definition.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Work Order - Putting it to Actuals

There are separate applications in maximo to report actuals against a work order.

1. Quick Reporting [generally used by technician/supervisor or equivalent roles to report Labor, Material or Tool usage]

2. Labor Reporting [generally used by supervisor or equivalent roles to report Labor (only)]

This facilitates making minimal information visible to them by hiding planning and scheduling information, yet be able to put actuals entries.

Alternatively, this can also be done in Work Order Tracking application as well.

One can 

Use “Copy Planned Labor” button to copy labor.Use “Select Reserved Items” button to copy materialsUse “Select Planned Tools” button to copy tools.

This copies the plans (Task and Child WO) mentioned in the planned tab to Actual tab, after which the quantity, work start/finish time details can be supplied.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Automatic Lead-time Updation

There is a parameter in the Storeroom application called as

Recent Lead Time Weight in % = X% (in storeroom application)

This is used to update the Lead-time in Inventory application.

The Lead-time formula is:

New lead-time = old lead-time*(1-X%)  + Receipt Time*X%

Where receipt time is the difference in (receipt) Actual Date and Ordered Date. If actual date is earlier to order date the lead-time is not calculated.

Additional Note:

There is also an average delivery/lead-time by Vendor-Item in the Vendor Analysis (action item in inventory application). This calculation is a simple average of all the delivery/lead-times for that Item by that Vendor.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Receiving against a Purchase Order

When you have received all the ordered against an item on PO, the receipts are completed, and the receipt completed checkbox get checked. If you want to short-close a PO, then you can use “Complete Receipts” action item available in PO application. This action item will check receipt completed checkbox and will not allow further receipts against the PO.
However, if there is a successive return transaction, receipt completed checkbox gets unchecked and the PO again opens up for further receipt.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Creating specification for an asset

If you have a rotating asset defined (by associating a rotating item to it), then you cannot associate the specification to this asset. You can associate the specification to the item and during association of item to the asset, item’s specification will automatically get copied to the asset along with attribute and their values.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Contracts rates Vs rates on PRs/POs

If you have mentioned a direct issue item with rate (unit cost) & suggested vendor in a Work Order and approved it. If there exists a contract for the same item and also during reordering process, if Consider Contracts When Creating PRs/POs? checkbox is checked, MAXIMO’s reorder process will ignore the rate and vendor mentioned in Work Order, and will consider the rate and vendor from Contract.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Filtering records in maximo

You use List tab in an application to search a particular record based on search criteria mentioned in list tab or advanced search. Hence, you can search for all the approved Work Orders by mentioning status as "APPR" in search criteria, which internally works as SQL LIKE statement. 

If you want to search all the work Orders which are either waiting for approval or are approved, you can mention "WAPPR, APPR" in status field of search criteria, which internally works as SQL LIKE OR statement.

Similaly, you can mention "=WAPPR, =APPR"  or "%APPR%".

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Duplicating a record in maximo

Maximo provide a functionality to duplicate an existing record (like Work Order, Assets, Location, etc). By using this, MAXIMO copies almost all the information from the existing record into the new record. Some of the fields which are very specific to the existing records are not being copied like Schedule, Target Dates in a WO.

If you have created some extra customized fields in an application, then new field information also get copied to the new record.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Generating PM Work Orders based on Meter Readings

You can generate the PM Work Orders automatically on updating the meter readings instead of based on estimated dates. In order to achieve this you need to check following two check boxes in PM on Frequency tab:

• Generate WO Based on Meter Reading (Do Not Estimate)?
• Generate WO When Meter Frequency is Reached?

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Addition of Invoice charges to Work Order actuals

If there is variance between PO & Invoice price, on approval of Invoice, the variance amount get added to the actuals to the Work Order. Even if the Work order has been closed, the variances get updated.

However, if extra services such as freight charges etc are received in a separate invoice and if WO has already been closed, they cannot be charged to WO.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Ordering Direct Issue Materials in maximo

If you cancel a PR which has WO reference (because of direct issue materials), the planned items on WO become available again for re-ordering. The PR cancellation process removes the PR reference from WO.

If you convert a PR, which has WO reference (because of direct issue materials), into a PO and then approve the PO, maximo closes the PR. If you cancel that PO, maximo re-opens the PR. No impact on WO, because you can again convert that PR into a new PO.

If you cancel a WO which has direct issue items, and a PO has been raised for those items, maximo gives you a warning that a PO exists for this WO but you can cancel it. If you go ahead with the WO Cancellation, you cannot receive the material against the PO. However, if you close the WO instead of cancel, you can receive the material against closed work order.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Working on Tools

You can store/reserve the tools in maximo. There are two applications to support tools functionality “Tools” & “Stocked Tools”. The Tools application is similar to Item Master application and Stocked Tool similar to Inventory.

All the features applicable to item/inventory functionality are available to tools with exception of reordering.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

How is Required Date for an item in Work Plan populated

The Required Date for an item in Work Plan Materials tab is populated by Schedule Start Date for the 1^st time. It works in following way for different kind of items:

1. Stock Items – Required Date is read-only and gets populated by Schedule Start Date for the 1^st time. Further changes to Schedule Start date do not get a reflection in Required Date. However, during material reservation on WO approval, the materials get reserved as per the Schedule Start Date bypassing the required date.

2. Direct Items – Required Date is editable and gets populated by Schedule Start Date for the 1^st time. Further changes to Schedule Start date do not get a reflection in Required Date. You can manually edit this date and PRs get generated based on this date (Required Date).

In both the above cases, if Schedule Start Date has not been specified, then Target Start Date gets defaulted to Required Date. If both the dates are present, then Schedule Date takes precedence over Target Date. If none of the date exists, then system date is defaulted.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

How To Suppress PM Work Order Generation

If you do not want to generate the work order from a meter based PM based on estimated value, then you should check both “Generate WO Based on Meter Reading (Do Not Estimate)” & “Generate WO When Frequency is reached” check boxes.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Field Values While Creating Workorder From Preventive Maintenance

If you create a Work Order from a PM, which has a Job Plan attached to it, Maximo copies the Job Plan’s Duration to Work Order’s duration and also populates the Target Finish Date as target Start Date + Duration. However, manual creation of Work Order does not follow this rule.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

Issue And Return Of Materials On Work Order

You can return a material which was issued from inventory to Work Order. You can do so by inserting a new row in Work Order Material Actuals tab with Transaction Type as “Return”. However, if the issue to the Work Order was because of a direct-issue item, then you cannot use the Work Order Material Actuals. In this case, you can return the material to vendor by using Receiving application. Provide PO Number against which the material was received.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team

How Maximo Avoids Creation of Duplicate Work Orders

If you create a work order on an asset/location with a failure class & problem code and if there already exists a work order with same combination (asset/location, failure class & problem code), maximo gives you a warning stating that problem has already been reported. You can skip the creation or go ahead with the creation.

This is optional, depends upon the organization settings under Work Order Options>>Other Organization Options>>Display Duplicate Problem Warning section.

Courtesy: An old compilation from Infy Team