Last Updated on November 19, 2022 by maximosecrets

Good morning and welcome to Maximo Bite Size, a podcast on the functionality of Maximo Manage. Today is the third episode in the series on Asset Management and we will be discussing three applications Meters, Meter Groups and Condition Monitoring. 

Meter functionality can be applied to both Locations and Assets in Maximo. All three applications will be found in the Assets module.

We’ll have a look at the Meters application first.

Meters

There are three types of Meters. A CONTINUOUS meter is one where the meter reading increments over time unless it is reset, or it rolls over. Think of a utility meter or the meter in your car that tells you how many miles or kilometers have been travelled. This is the most common meter type as it is the type used with meter-based Preventive Maintenance.

A GAUGE meter records a numeric measurement the readings of which can fluctuate over time. Think of the pressure gauge on a car tyre, you could record the measurement at the start of each week and when it drops below a certain level you need to take action. The CHARACTERISTIC meter is used for an observation, the values of which can be selected from a domain set of values. This might be how filthy your car is from Clean, Minor Dirt, Dirty, Very Dirty, and you would take action when the observation value you make at the beginning of the week assesses your car as Dirty or Very Dirty.

With a CONTINUOUS meter you need to decide whether the meter reading type is an ACTUAL or a DELTA reading when compared to the previous reading. With a CHARACTERISTIC meter you will need to specify the ALN Domain to be used for the observations, other types of domains can’t be used. For a CONTINUOUS or GAUGE meter it is a good idea to indicate the unit of measure, but this is not needed for a CHARACTERISTIC meter.

The Where Used tab indicates where the meter has been referenced on a Location, Asset, Preventive Maintenance, Item, or Condition Monitoring record. A meter on an Item or Tool is most often used for measuring fluid consumption. There is an action for viewing the meter groups where the meter has been referenced.

There is no status field for a Meter and Meters are added at the System level in Maximo.

Meter Groups

A Meter Group as the name implies is a set of meters that are used together. When a meter group is applied to an asset or location the meters in the meter group are copied over to become asset meters or location meters. The Sequence field is used to sort the meters in the meter group. All three meter types can exist in a meter group.

One advantage of using a meter group is that a new meter can be added to the meter group, and you can choose whether it should also be added to all assets and locationsA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More that reference this meter group. The field ‘Apply This Meter Where Group Is Used?’ is defaulted from the ‘Apply New Meters Where Group Is Used?’ field that is in the header of the meter group, the field on the new meter can be modified until you save the meter to the meter group, it is then read-only.

For CONTINUOUS type meters you need to setup the meter. You should add the value at which the meter will rollover back to zero. You need to decide on the Average Calculation Method which has options for ALL – all readings are considered, STATIC – you need to enter a value in the Static Average field, or SLIDING-DAYS or SLIDING-READINGS and for both you will need to enter the Sliding Window Size.

The Average Units/Day will be calculated on the location meter or asset meter if the meter type is CONTINUOUS. For the two SLIDING methods the calculation will consider the readings taken over the last n days, or the last n readings. For example, readings are taken at the same time of day, 7 days/week. With SLIDING-DAYS and a Sliding Window Size of 5, the calculation will be based over the average delta change over the last 5 days. For SLIDING-READINGS and a Sliding Window Size of 5, the calculation will be based over the average delta change over the last 5 meter readings. As a meter reading is performed each day of the week, this will give the same result as SLIDING-DAYS. However, if no meter readings are taken on a Saturday or Sunday then there will be a difference in the average between the two calculation methods. The Average Units/Day determines when a meter-based Preventive Maintenance task will fall due.

Meter Groups can be referenced on an Asset Template, and this adds the associated meters to the asset template. A Meter Group can also be referenced on an Item or Tool of type Rotating. When an asset is created and references the item or tool, then the meter group is copied, and the asset meters created for the set of meters in the meter group. A Meter Group on a Rotating Item will also copy the meter group to a location when it references the Item Master item.

There is no status field for a Meter Group and Meters Groups are added at the System level in Maximo.

Condition Monitoring

Meters of type GAUGE or CHARACTERISTIC can be referenced with their location or asset to create a condition monitoring point. When a record is created in the Condition Monitoring application the key field POINTNUM is copied to the location meter or asset meter record.

The relevance of creating this link will only become apparent when meter readings are entered, as the meter reading for GAUGE and CHARACTERISTIC meters will also be copied to create a Measurement record against the condition monitoring point. For GAUGE the reading value will be entered in the field marked Measurement, for CHARACTERISTIC meters the reading value will be entered in the Observation field.

If a measurement falls outside of the action limits a work order can be generated manually or automatically applying the referenced Job Plan or by generation of a work order from the referenced PM. When an observation is made for a CHARACTERISTIC meter the Job Plan or PM associated with the domain value will be used on the work order created. The automatic work order generation uses the Cron Task called MeasurePointWoGenCronTask. The work orders generated are visible from the Condition Monitoring record.

When a work order is generated, the work priority referenced on the condition monitoring point can be copied. The work order is at a status of Waiting to be Approved (WAPPR) and there is no work type. A Crossover Domain on the WORKORDER object can be configured with additional fields added to the Condition Monitoring application to overcome this limitation.

There is no status field for a Condition Monitoring Point. As these records will always reference either a location or asset then this is a SiteA structural element of a Maximo database that is used for data separation. More level object in Maximo.

I hope you enjoyed this podcast and I look forward to seeing you back on the next episode when we will spend time on Location and Asset Meters.

The music is called Busy City from the talented group called TrackTribe, please check them out on TrackTribe.com, all one word.

Until another time, goodbye.