Scheduling Units for Preventive Maintenance

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Once you have entered a description of a preventive maintenance task, you assign units to that task. For example, if a task description contains a check list for inspecting heating ducts in a space, you give MainBoss a list of all the spaces that require such an inspection. You also specify a schedule for those inspections; for example, some spaces may only need to be checked every five years while others may require inspections every six months. Each unit may have a different schedule.

Note: In the process of scheduling a particular unit, you can modify the general task description with specific information about that particular unit. For example, suppose that the original task describes monthly maintenance for forklift trucks. Also suppose that one of your trucks is a different model from the others and requires a slightly different maintenance procedure than the rest. You could create a task description that applied to the forklift trucks in general; then when you were scheduling the trucks for maintenance, you could specify any special additional instructions that the one truck needed.

To start assigning units to a preventive maintenance task, you click the Add Unit button in the Assigned Units section of the Task editor window. For more about the Task editor, see Creating and Editing Tasks. Clicking the Add Unit button opens a window that contains the following:

Task: The identification code for the task (taken from the original task description).
Subject: A one-line description of the task for this unit. By default, this is taken from the "Subject" of the original task, but you can change it if desired.

Unit: This section specifies the unit you are assigning to the task.

Equipment: Select this if the unit is a piece of equipment.
Space: Select this if the unit is a space.
Building: The building where the unit is found.
Unit: The code of the unit. The drop-down list will only contain equipment if you selected Equipment and spaces if you selected Space.
Location: The location of the unit, as specified in the Equipment table or the Spaces table.
Add Schedule: Clicking this lets you specify a schedule for performing the maintenance task on this unit. For more information, see Specifying Task Schedules.
Note that MainBoss lets you set several schedules for the same task. For example, if you want a particular piece of equipment to be serviced every 90 days or every 1000 hours of use, whichever comes first, you would set up two schedules: one for every 90 days and one for every 1000 hours of use. MainBoss would automatically generate a work order for servicing the equipment whenever either criterion was met.
As another case where multiple schedules would be useful, you might have schedules that change depending on time of year. For example, you might have an air-conditioning unit that needs to be inspected every month during the summer, but only every three months during the winter. In this case, you could set up two separate schedules, one covering the summer and one covering the winter.
Edit: To use this button, first click an entry in the list of schedules, then click Edit. MainBoss opens a window where you can edit the schedule.

Delete: To use this button, first click an entry in the list of schedules, then click Delete. MainBoss deletes the entry.

Note: The remaining sections of this window are exactly the same as those in the original Task editor. Any values you set in these sections add to or replace the values from the original task. For more information about the Task editor window and about the fields each section of the window, see Creating and Editing Tasks.

Description: Lets you specify a description that will be added to the description in the original task.
Properties: Any properties you specify here will be used instead of the properties in the original task. The one exception is "Work Duration"—if you fill a value into "Work Duration", work orders generated for this unit will add the given "Work Duration" to the "Work Duration" from the original task, plus the prototype work order interval established in Administration —> Preferences —> Work Orders. For example, if the "Work Duration" for this unit is 1 day, you are saying that work on this unit takes one day longer than the "standard" interval for the task given in the original task description.
Labor: Lets you specify labor information that will be used in addition to the labor information from the original task. For example, if you specify that a particular worker will spend an hour on this unit, that will be added in addition to all the labor specified in the original task.
Material: Lets you specify information about materials that will be used in addition to the materials from the original task.
Close: Lets you specify closing information that will be added to the closing information from the original task.
Select for Printing: Checkmarking this box indicates that you want to checkmark the Select for Printing box in any work orders generated from this task for this unit. For more information about the use of Select for Printing in work orders, see Creating and Editing Work Orders.
Save & New: Saves the current record and clears fields in the window so you can enter a new record.
Clone: Copies most of the information from this unit assignment and creates a new unit assignment based on that information.
Delete: Deletes the entire unit assignment.
Save: Saves the current record, but leaves all data as is. You can then continue to edit the same record.
Cancel: Closes the window. MainBoss discards any information that you haven't already saved with Save.

For more information on tasks, see Tasks. For more on the task browser, see Browsing Tasks. For general information on using MainBoss editors, see Browsers and Editors.

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