Good morning and welcome to Maximo Bite Size, a podcast on the functionality of Maximo Manage. Today is the sixth episode in the series on Maintenance Planning and we will be discussing Routes and Collections.

Routes and Collections both have a set of locationsA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More and assets, but what is the difference and where would you use each of them?

Routes

A Route has a set of locations or assets, and these are called route stops. Think of a walking inspection around the plant where you maintain assets, you will go to visit assets and locations in turn, probably on a prescribed route that you repeat on another occasion. The sequence field on the route stops determines the order in which the assets and locations are visited.

A Route is applied to a work order. The route stops then create child work orders, tasks, or are entered into the Multiple Assets, Locations and CIs table that you can see in the Work Order Tracking application’s main tab.

A work order can reference multiple locations and/or assets, but they must be in the same site as the work order. A route is then defined at the site level to ensure that all its assets and locations that are referenced as route stops are in the same site.

On a Route Stop there is a Job Plan field which is enabled only when the route will create child work orders. A Route Stop can also reference an Inspection Form, this allows an inspection covering multiple locations and assets to be covered in a single work order. For more complex inspections, the route stop may reference a job plan which has tasks and the job plan, or its tasks can reference an inspection form.

When the route will create child work orders and the route stops reference both a job plan and an inspection form and the job plan references an inspection form on its header, then it is the inspection form referenced on the route stop that is applied to the child work order, and not the one from the job plan header.

The Routes application will be found in the Planning module. There is no status field for a route. It is applied to a work order using the action Apply Route in the Work Order Tracking application, it is also commonly applied through PM work order generation by using the Route field on a Preventive Maintenance record.

On the Route Stops there are five hidden fields RTS1-RTS5 which will be copied to the work order record and attributes WORTS1-WORTS5 when the route is applied to the work order, these fields can only be used if creating child work orders or tasks. If you configure the route header and wish to copy over the fields to the work order when the route is applied, then a crossover domain can be configured.

There is a checkbox on the Route’s header called ‘Route Stops Inherit Status Changes’ which when set will set the Inherit Status Changes attribute on the work order. For example, when set and child work orders are being created, then the child work orders will receive their status changes from the parent work order.

On the Route Stop there is a field called Total Work Units which will be copied to the similar named field on the work order. This is part of functionality called Dynamic Job Plans. Route Stops also support linear assets and when a route stop is a linear segment the Total Work Units is derived from the length of the linear segment.

The Route Stops can be selected into the Multiple Assets, Locations and CI’s table window on Ticket and Work Order based applications including the Activities and Tasks application.

Collections

The Collections application will be found in the IT Infrastructure module. It has a header and a set of lines called Collection Details, which represent assets, locations, or configuration items.

A Collection exists at the system level and its assets, locations or configuration items can exist in different sites and different organizations. To be used the Collection must be made Active.

The Details of a Collection are created by using the action ‘Add Assets to Collections’ from the List tab of the Assets application and acts on a selected set of assets. There is a similar action in the Locations and the Configuration Items applications. There is no sequence field in the Collection Details.

A Collection can be used in Security Groups to provide data restrictions, so that you can restrict for a security group the set of locations, assets, and configuration items which a user can see.

The Collection Details can be selected into the Multiple Assets, Locations and CI’s table window on Ticket and Work Order based applications including the Activities and Tasks application.

Differences between Routes and Collections

• A Route is defined at the SiteA structural element of a Maximo database that is used for data separation. More level, a Collection is defined at the System level.
• The Route Stops of a Route must belong to the same site as the route, the Collection Details can belong to different sites or organizations.
• A Route has no status, a Collection has an Active checkbox.
• A Collection can reference a Configuration Item, but a Route cannot.
• A Collection can be used in Security Groups, a Route cannot.

Route or a Collection, how do I decide?

Use routes for inspections of assets and locations or for grouping work together, a round would be implemented with a route. Use routes if you are using linear assets.

Use collections for campaigns where it is easy to add locations or assets to create a set of records which the campaign will be based on. Use collections for security of location or asset data.

If your need is for something temporary that is created, used, and then deleted, then a collection should be used. If you have a need to add many locations, assets or configuration items to the Multiple Assets, Locations and CIs table on ticket or work order based applications, and you have no existing route, then use a collection and then apply the records from the collection.

I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode when we will be discussing Master PMs.

The music is called Drag Race from the group called TrackTribe, please check them out on TrackTribe.com, all one word.

Until another time, goodbye.