Last Updated on December 28, 2022 by maximosecrets

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Hello, and welcome back to Maximo Bite Size. A series of videos on the functional aspects of Maximo Manage.

Title

Good morning and welcome to the seventh episode in the series on Maintenance Planning. I’m Andrew Jeffery and today we will be discussing the Master PMs application. A Master PM is a template for a Preventive Maintenance record which is used to generate frequency-based work orders and inspections.

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Learning Objectives

Master PMs are templates for creating Preventive Maintenance records which in turn generate frequency-based work orders and inspections. In the first part of today’s video, we will look at the main tab of the Master PM application and how PMs are created and updated from the Master PM. We’ll then explore other areas of the Master PM application, the Frequency tabs and the tabs for Seasonal Dates and Job Plan Sequence. We’ll finish by looking at Master PMs used by the Asset Templates application.

So, let’s get started.

Master PM

The first thing that you will notice with the Master PM application is that it has some of the same tabs as you will find in the Preventive Maintenance application, Frequency, Seasonal Dates and Job Plan Sequence. If you are familiar with PMs, you should not find Master PMs difficult, as it is a template for generating PM records. The second thing that you might notice is that there is no Status field, not even a field for setting whether the Master PM is Active or Inactive.

Whereas the PM application exists at the SiteA structural element of a Maximo database that is used for data separation. More level, it references a location, asset, or route, all of which are site-level objects, the Master PM exists at the System level and can be used to generate PMs in multiple sites and across multiple organizations. However, I think it easier to consider the Master PM as being Organization specific and I’ll explain why as we go through this video.

Originally Master PMs had to be associated with a Rotating Item . In the example shown it is PUMP100 from Item Set SET1 and you can choose whether PMs are to be created for locationsA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More or assets by using the two fields ‘Create Associated PMs for Item’s Location?’ and ‘Create Associated PMs for Item’s Asset?’ . After you have set up the Master PM fields you could then generate PM records by using the action Create Associated PMs . The dialog that opens provides you with a list of assets and locations that reference the same item and where the Master PM hadn’t already been used to create associated PM’s. Obviously, this would only be for assets if you hadn’t selected ‘Create Associated PMs for Item’s Location?’ and vice versa. The creation of PMs from the Master PM is then restricted to the OrganizationsA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing and is often aligned to a legal entity of an organisation. More that belong to the Item Set referenced by the Item.

The fields that would be copied to the generated PM records from the Master PM are the fields across the four tabs. If you make changes to the Master PM, you can also update existing Preventive Maintenance records that reference the Master PM, but you do not need to update all the fields. There are five fields used to control what fields are updated from the Master PM, therefore what we’ll do is discuss each of these five groups of fields in turn. I won’t go into as much detail as I would do normally as the following three videos are all on various aspects of the Preventive Maintenance application.

In the Work Order Information section there are four fields, Work Type, Work Order Status, Work Order Priority and Interruptible. You should consider all these fields as mandatory although Work Type is not. These fields are copied onto the generated PM record and will then flow through to the work orders generated from the PM. Work Types are defined against an organization in Maximo, this is part of the reason for considering Master PMs only at the organization level. The work types you can select are those defined against the work order class of WORKORDER. The Work Order Status would normally be one of the statuses between APPR (approved) and INPRG (In Progress) depending on your work order processes, the default is WSCH (Waiting to be Scheduled). The Work Order Priority should be restricted in the range 0 to 999, but there is no validation, and you would get an error if you tried something outside of this range when you go to create or update the PM records from the Master PM. Interruptible would be set if you allow long duration work orders to be stopped and continued by the same shift the following day, as opposed to being continued by the next shift. I should mention also that the PM Description, its long description, and any linked documents are also copied through to the PM created when you use the Create Associated PMs action. 

If you make a change to these four fields and you want to update the associated PMs, then you set the field ‘Update Work Order Information on Existing PMs?’ and then use the action Update Associated PMs. The dialog that opens only gives you the ability to select one or more Sites, therefore it will update all PMs on those selected sites that have been associated with the Master PM. The description is not updated, this only copied when you first create the PM records. 

There are two other fields in the adjacent Lead Time section which are also copied when the ‘Update Work Order Information on Existing PMs?’ is set. You need to set the Lead Time Active field first before being able to set the Lead Time (Days) value. Lead Time is the additional time needed to prepare for a work order generated from a PM, and is an allowance normally associated with items or services that need to be purchased. Think of this as the number of days that a work order might be expected to be in a waiting for material state.

Master PM – Frequency

On the Frequency tab you can set both time and meter based frequencies using the two tabs shown at the bottom of the screenshot, but first a word on the section called Work Order Generation Information .

The field ‘Use Last Work Order’s Start Information to Calculate Next Due Frequency?’ is an important field, and I’ll explain it first from the context of the Preventive Maintenance application. Over the years as I have toured existing UK Maximo clients, this field is always set, and many have said something similar to “Yeah, I always wondered what that field does”. The field help doesn’t give too much away – Use Last Target Start Date.

PMs in Maximo have either a fixed or floating schedule. With a fixed schedule Maximo uses the Last Start Date field on the PM to determine the Target Start Date of the next generated work order. The Last Start Date is the Target Start Date of the last generated work order. Therefore, a 3 monthly fixed schedule starting on 1st January will generate work orders on 1st April, 1st July, and 1st October. With a fixed schedule the field ‘Use Last Work Order’s Start Information to Calculate Next Due Frequency?’ needs to be set.

With a floating schedule the field ‘Use Last Work Order’s Start Information to Calculate Next Due Frequency?’ is not set and Maximo waits for when the last generated work order is completed or closed before calculating when the next work order to be generated from the PM will fall due. For example, if a work order is completed on the 7th of April, the Last Completion Date on the PM will be set, and the next due date will be 3 months afterwards on the 7th of July. You cannot generate work orders in advance with floating schedules, but you could generate all of the work orders for the year with a fixed schedule, not that this is good practise.

On a Master PM the field ‘Use Last Work Order’s Start Information to Calculate Next Due Frequency?’ defaults to creating floating schedules rather than fixed schedules which is what many clients would want to use on the generated PMs, so this field is often set on the Master PM to create the fixed schedule PMs. You can update all PMs for the chosen sites when you make a change to this field by making sure the field Update Existing PMs is set before you use the action Update Associated PMs.

The adjacent Extended Date and Adjust Next Due Date fields work together and there are the same two fields on a PM, so I’ll explain the fields first in the context of a PM. Before any work orders can be generated from the PM using the frequency criteria you need to first provide an Estimated Next Due Date value , think of this as the seed date on which the frequency is applied to calculate when the next work order will fall due. If the Estimated Next Due Date is 1-Jan and you are about to generate the work order for it, then if Adjust Next Due Date is not selected the Estimated Next Due Date will be set to the frequency plus the old Estimated Next Due Date, e.g., 1-Apr. If Adjust Next Due Date is set and there is an Extended Date, then it uses the Extended Date plus the frequency, so if you gave an Extended Date of 14-Jan the Estimated Next Due Date would be 14-Apr.

So why do we have an Extended Date on a Master PM? It is so that you can give an Extended Date to all PMs that belong to the Master PM in a site. That could be many PMs, so you need to be careful when you use this. The most likely reason is to avoid PM work from taking place for a short period when resources are overstretched because of a planned outage, or because of high operational demand when resources will mainly be used for reactive work.

Back on the Master PM application, the Extended Date will be read-only if you do not have a Next Due Date value in the Time Based Frequency tab. The Extended Date is updated on the PMs associated with the Master PM when you use the action Update Associated PMs, and the field Update Existing PMs is set. Whether you also choose to set Adjust Next Due Date is a decision which you will also have to make. You can only set this field when on Fixed Schedules and the ‘Use Last Work Order’s Start Information to Calculate Next Due Frequency?’ is set, and like getting access to the Extended Date field you must save the record before the read-only nature of the field is lifted. If it is a fixed schedule, the chances are you do not want Maximo to adjust the next due date based on the extended date, so do not set the Adjust Next Due Date field. Going back to the previous example, I think it is more likely that you would want the Estimated Next Due Date to be 1-Apr rather than 14-Apr following the Extended Date set for 14-Jan. 

On the Time Based Frequency tab, you set the numeric Frequency value and the Frequency Units , which can be Days, Weeks, Months or Years. The Alert Lead (Days) field is the number of days ahead of time now that Maximo will look when the status is changed on a Corrective Maintenance work order to see if there are any PM work orders that can be generated so that the Corrective and PM work orders are performed together. There is a setting in the PM Options dialog in the Organizations application, which is needed to set this status, it does not happen automatically. To update any of the time-based frequency changes through to associated PMs, then the field ‘Update Time Based Information in Existing PMs?’ must be set prior to using the action Update Associated PMs. 

The Next Due Date (Used During PM Create Only) field is useful in that when you use the Create Associated PMs action you can set the initial Estimated Next Due Date field, the seed date from which all time-based frequency calculations will start. As the field label suggests this field is not copied to the PMs when the Update Associated PMs action is used.

Master PM – Meter-Based Frequency

The Meter Based Frequency tab is used for creating PMs based on the usage of the asset. You do need to check that the meter you choose is of type CONTINUOUS and will exist on all the assets or locations that reference the Master PM where you are adding the meter, otherwise you may get an error message something like ‘BMXAA2777E – Cannot update meter RUNHOURS to associated PM 1040. Check whether meter RUNHOURS is attached to asset/location 1990.’. Notice that while you are adding the meter to the Master PM record Maximo is looking at the PM records associated with the Master PM and checking whether the asset or location has the meter that you are adding. In this example PM 1040 references asset 1990 which has no meters; therefore, you cannot create a meter-based PM for this asset. 

If you are going to use meter-based frequencies on Master PMs that reference a rotating item, then you should also be using a Meter Group and adding the Meter Group to the Rotating Item in the Item Master application. This will ensure that the meters do exist on all the assets or locations that reference the rotating item, and this will in turn eliminate the message if you choose one of the meters that exist in the meter group.

Assuming you can add meter records to the Meter Based Frequency table window then you will need to provide a positive, non-zero frequency which is in the Unit of Measure provided by the meter. You will have three other numeric fields you can use, First Start Reading, Alert Lead, and Generate WO Ahead By. 

The First Start Reading field is an initial reading that copies over to the Next Meter Reading value in the Next Work Order Projections section on the associated PM. This is the seed value from which other meter-based calculations are made. The default of zero will work for most new assets, for existing assets you will need to make sure there is a relatively recent meter reading.

The Alert Lead works in a similar manner to the field on the Time Based Frequency tab and determines whether a Corrective Maintenance work order, one with a work type of CM, will cause the generation of the PM earlier than its Estimated Next Due Date, this will occur if the Alert Lead is a value greater than the Units to Go value. 

The Generate WO Ahead By is a tolerance value which you set to generate a work order early rather than waiting until the current meter reading of the asset has exceeded the sum of the meter reading taken at the last PM work order generation, plus the frequency. The Units to Go value on the PM considers this tolerance. You do want to set a positive value for the field Generate WO Ahead By, one to reflect how often meter readings are taken, if less frequent, then a larger number of the tolerance is needed, if you take meter readings frequently then you can have a much smaller value for this field.

The Meter Based Frequency table window can have multiple meters if those meters exist on the assets and locations that will be referenced by the PMs to be generated from the Master PM. To push the changes you make through to existing PMs, including any new PM meters, then you will need to set the field ‘Update Meter Based Information in Existing PMs?’ before using the action Update Associated PMs.

Master PM – Seasonal Dates

The Seasonal Dates tab is quite quick to explain.

The Active Days are the days of the week in which you are happy for a work order to be generated. If you only work Monday to Fridays, then you should only select those days of the week and deselect Saturday and Sunday. If a work order falls due on a Saturday or Sunday then the Target Start Date will occur on the following Monday, unless on the PM record the field ‘Schedule Early on Frequency Conflict?’ is set, in which case it will be the Friday. The PM will also allow you to set an Active Time, which would normally be the start time of the shift when the work order will be scheduled and assigned.

The Active Dates table window allows you to build multiple periods using the Start Day, Start Month and End Day, End Month fields, Start Day/End Day are values between 1 and 31 but it validates the day number in the chosen month. An active period is the time at which you accept a work order to be generated, if it falls outside of the period, then Maximo will generate the work order to start on the first day of the next active period. For example, some PM work cannot be performed during wintertime, so you may set the active period from 1-Mar to 30-Nov, leaving the three winter months of December, January and February when the work order will not be generated during this time.

Don’t forget to set the field ‘Update Existing PMs Seasonal Dates?’ if you make changes and you wish to roll those changes through to existing PMs associated with the Master PM.

Master PM – Job Plan Sequence

The Job Plan Sequence is also easy to explain. 

Multiple Job Plans can be associated with a Master PM in the same way it can on a PM. If you add or update these records, then you need to set ‘Update Job Plan Sequence in Existing PMs?’ before using the action Update Associated PMs.

The Job Plan Sequence in many cases is the Job Plan you wish to perform every time the PM generates a work order. The Sequence is then set to 1, meaning every occurrence of generating a work order. If you had a monthly PM with slightly different Job Plans performed every 3, 6 and 12 months, then there would be four different Job Plans in the Job Plan Sequence table with the monthly Job Plan having a sequence of 1, the 3-monthly with a sequence of 3, the 6-monthly with a sequence of 6 and the yearly with a sequence of 12, e.g. every 12th generation of a work order the job will be that for the annual maintenance.

A Job Plan sequence with two records with sequence of 1 and 3 might be a monthly PM where every quarter (3rd occurrence) you do a slightly longer job. When you look at the sequence in this context think of the nth occurrence of generating a work order.

Job Plans have Labor, Materials, Services and Tools all of which either exist at the organization level or will require an organization being entered, for example a storeroom from which an item will be sourced or a vendor from which the item will be purchased. Job Plans are often entered at the organization level because of this. A Master PM is highly likely to reference at least one Job Plan, hence another reason why it is easier to consider a Master PM as existing at the organization level.

Master PMs on Asset Templates

An Asset Template is a template for generating assets or updating the assets that belong to an asset template. One of the pieces of information you can associate with an Asset Template is one or more Master PMs . When assets are created from the Asset Template using the Generate New Assets action, then a PM record is created for each asset generated, and for each Master PM that is referenced on the Asset Template.

An Asset Template does not reference a Rotating Item, although there is a hidden field. So, Asset Templates were created for non-rotating assets and when Asset Templates were introduced Master PMs were allowed to exist without referencing a Rotating Item. 

If you have several similar PMs and you want to update all of them in a similar way, for example you are moving from a time based PM to a time and meter based PM, or you wish to adjust the Job Plan Sequence, then it is possible to link the PMs to the same Master PM, then go to the Master PM application and update the PMs associated with it, which you might do for just the element that was changed, the Meter Frequency or the Job Plan Sequence.
This can be done whether the Master PM references a rotating item, or not, and if the Master PM does reference a Rotating Item, then the PM need not reference a location or asset that belongs to the rotating item. The Master PM action Update Associated PMs is finding the PMs that reference the Master PM and updating those records, it doesn’t matter whether the asset or location references the same rotating item, or not.

There is a field on a PM apart from the reference to the Master PM, ‘Override Updates from Master PM’ when set stops the Master PM from updating the PM in the future.

Thank you for watching

I hope you have enjoyed this video on Master PMs, I hope you found it useful, and thank you for watching. We would like to see you back in our next episode when we will start the review of the Preventive Maintenance application. Don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button, and if you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up.

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Until another time, Goodbye.