Last Updated on October 27, 2024 by maximosecrets
Contents
Technician is a Maximo Mobile application which will also be found on the desktop in the Work Orders module and Role Based Applications. There may be some differences between the mobile application and the role-based application, and I aim to uncover those differences. Maximo Mobile aims to be an offline solution, the Role Based Application performs the same functions, but only works online from a browser.
This is the second article on the Role-Based Application – Technician and the screenshots have been taken with an iPad in landscape mode. The first article was focused on the creation of a new work order and its immediate review. This second article will go into more depth in the review and changes that can be made on existing work orders, but I will leave the starting of the work order and work order completion to the next article.
The environment I am using is MAS 8.11.0, Maximo Manage 8.7.2 and Maximo Mobile 8.11.0.
Assigned Work
When the Technician application opens, along the top and on the left is a query – Assigned work. There are four other queries PMs due this week, Work created by me, which we saw in the first part of this series, My work order and Work order history.
I am logged in as HUNTER and I know that there is only one work order assigned. If you go to the Work Order Tracking application and using the Advanced Search, make a query using the Assigned Labor field (ASSIGNMENT.LABORCODE) setting it to the labor code of your login user, then this should derive a similar set of work orders. The query is excluding work orders at Waiting to be Approved status (WAPPR) and it only fetches work orders for your current Default Insert SiteA structural element of a Maximo database that is used for data separation. More, the one shown in your Profile – Default Information. I’ll go through the object structures being used in the last article in this series, but in this case, it is MXAPIWODETAIL and the query is ASSIGNEDWOLIST.
The one work order displayed was created in the first Technician article, it is work order 1285 with work type CM (Corrective Maintenance) and a description of Replace fridge/freezer. Last week my old fridge/freezer broke, it was 23 years old, I’ve called this asset AJE1010. I have added quite a few bits of data to this work order to show features of the Technician application. With a few days before Christmas, I am relieved to say that we now have a fridge/freezer installed and all my sleepless nights wondering whether it would fit were unnecessary. Now my new fibre optic cable installed only a few weeks ago is laying across the garden lawn (brought down in winds), more things to worry about, if there is no internet our family guests might boycott us, perhaps I should raise another work order.
When you first log in to the Technician application there is a blue banner across the top which says Get materials & tools. I’ll cover that also in a later article. On the top right are two buttons which toggle between a work order list and a map view. We are looking at the work order list, although it shows just the one work order.
The Map View shows your work orders on a map if they have Latitude(Y) and Longitude(X) settings which are normally derived through a Service AddressA Service Address is a postal address and/or a record that positions a point on a map. More associated with the primary Location or Asset on the work order. The one work order 1285 assigned to HUNTER is at the same location as the user (green dot), this would indicate that the technician had arrived at site.
If there had been multiple work orders assigned to HUNTER these would be listed at the bottom of the screen and you use the (>) button at the end of each record to navigate to that work order.
There is a set of map tools and to demonstrate these I will need to set up some data, I doubt whether I will cover this during this set of articles.
Search, Filter, Sort
Each work order in the query is displayed in its own panel which has three sections:
- Top section has the Description followed by the work type and work order number, and on the right the status, priority, and a button (>) to open the work order.
- Middle section has the Asset number with below this the asset description and below this the location description but no reference to the location, only its description. On the right you see the formatted address from the service address.
- Bottom section (left) has a series of buttons, those which are shown are dependent on the work order data. From left to right they are:
- Safety plan
- Planned materials and tools
- Map (if it is enabled)
- Work log
- Meters
- Bottom section (right) has the timer buttons for:
- Start work
- Pause work
- Stop work
In the middle section for work orders that are overdue there is a message in red text for example “Overdue since: Yesterday, December 20, 2021”. The date in the message is using the scheduled finish. This is the message I received today (21st December) I took my screenshots yesterday when the work order was not overdue.
At the top of the screen is a Search button which opens a search bar that spans the width of the application. This allows you to search by description, asset number, asset description or location description, service address, work type, or status, for example you can search either In Progress or INPRG.
Previously I had experimented with how to search for compound words, for example to find a way of searching for feed water pump, and not any pump, or a description with feed, or water in it. Using square brackets worked [feed water pump]. An asterisk (*) and curly brackets {} also worked. But with some more experimentation on “water pump” it only worked as “water pump]” or “water pump*” (without double-quotes), i.e., only with some form of delimiter at the end of the search bar, but not at the front.
The search bar allows you to make a search by scanning on the location or asset, but when I tried this, I received the System message “The operation is insecure”, so I’ve raised an IBM Support case for this to see what is needed to correct this, it is an iPad I am using. I tried this also on the Maximo Mobile application and a Scan screen opens with an option for Code or NFC tag. I tested this successfully with a barcode and a QR code, I don’t have an NFC tag to try. The code read is transferred into the search bar and it initiates the search.
I have now received an answer from IBM Support and to have a barcode scanner work on an iPad there is an addition which is needed to the System Property mxe.sec.header.Content_Security_Policy it requires the addition of “worker-src ‘self’ blob: ;“ (without double quotes) adding to the end of the current value.
When you have made a search the (X) button next to the search bar, clears the search.
The second button is a search filter with options to filter by one or more values of the Asset, Location, Status or Work Type. I’ve clicked the Work Type field on the left and the right-hand side shows a search bar with the descriptions of 25 work types. Unfortunately, this hasn’t filtered the work types according to the organization of the default insert site of the user and as it doesn’t show the organization it looks as if the work types are repeated, from the screenshot you can see there are two Event Reports. I’ve raised a case with IBM Support.
In further testing I discovered (and reported to IBM Support):
- Asset does not filter by Site – there is no filter by status, so Decommissioned assets are shown.
- Location does not filter by Site – there is no filter by status, so Decommissioned locationsA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More are shown.
- Work Types are from the class of WORKORDER. I found four Activity work types, but there were only three in the database and there are no TRA – Action work types, they must be being excluded.
Above the list of records there is a Search bar and a Select All which appears for Status and Work Type, but not for Asset or Location.
The fourth button across performs a sort. The default sort is by Priority ascending, but you can change to descending using the down arrow. The problem here is that any workorders with a null priority will appear first before those with the highest WOPRIORITY value which could be 999 (Highest) rather than 1 (Lowest).
You can sort by multiple criteria including Status, Description Asset, Location, and Work Type, by using the plus sign on the right-hand side. You use the drag button on the left-hand side to change the order.
You might have noticed that there are two Location options, if you choose the wrong one to sort by you will receive a System Message (BMXAA9105E) – Invalid OSLC order by identifier locationnum specified. Make sure the identifier is included in the resource definition. This has been reported to IBM Support as well.
Notice the Reset button at the bottom which will return the sort order to Priority ascending.
Review Work Order
If you navigate from the records in any of the queries by using the (>) button on the right-hand side, you will come to the Review Work Order screen which we saw in the first article, it is read-only. As I have provided more data to the work order there are more buttons, and a few extra fields are displayed. Some of these fields are only displayed if there is data to show.
At the top there will be a message to Review safety plan if the work order has a hazard. I’ll discuss this in the next section of this article.
The work order description, work type and work order number are displayed with the status and priority on the right. You can change the status from this button. The pencil button will take you through to the Edit Work Order screen. Below this is the long description with a button that will take you to a screen where the long description can be modified. On the right is the Scheduled Start and Scheduled Finish Date, the Duration, and the Service Address (Formatted AddressThe Formatted Address is the address returned by a map provider when a location is found on a map. More field) with the button that will take you to the Map.
The work order classification is displayed, but not the classification description, or its position in the hierarchy, for example a centrifugal pump would just show CNTRFGL but this noun might be used with a fan or compressor, equally a numeric classification would not be descriptive. I’ve raised an IBM Idea to show the full description. The work order Specification attributes are not yet displayed.
Below this is a set of buttons for Materials and Tools, Work Log, Set GPS Location, Tasks, and Report Work. We will go through each of these buttons shortly.
Below the buttons is the Asset and Location section which shows the asset up/down status, currently up. Below this is the asset number, asset description and location description but not the location number. To the right would be an image of the asset if there was one to display. The (>) button above where the image would be, would take you to the Asset Manager role-based application.
There are three buttons shown. The first is to confirm the asset and I couldn’t get this to work on my iPad, but I did from the Maximo Mobile application. When you scan a barcode, QR code or NFC tag it compares with the asset number and displays a message asking whether you scanned the right asset and whether you are at the location on the work order. You have then two choices to rescan the asset or use OK.
The second button shown allows you to enter meter readings, and the third changes the up/down status of the asset. I have some screenshots of these later in this article. There is a fourth button which shows the work order history for the asset. There is no work order history for asset AJE1010, hence why this button was not displayed.
There is a section for Attachments which we covered in the first article; the screenshot is showing the one attachment which was a photo of my notebook. Creating a Follow-up Work Order, I will cover in one of the future articles.
The last section shows who created the work order and when, the Reported Date, and their contact phone. Note. This is the Primary Phone number coming from the Person record of the person who created the record and not the work order Phone field. I don’t believe this is correct because it could be many months between the date when the work order was created to a technician going to site, the person to contact about a work order could change several times in this period, the original reported by person may have even left the company and couldn’t be contacted. I have raised a case with IBM Support about this, it will probably end-up as another IBM Idea.
In the next section we will discuss reviewing the Safety Plan. Once the Safety Plan has been reviewed a Safety Plan section will appear above the Attachments section which allows the Safety Plan to be reviewed additional times, perhaps by others who may be working on the same work order.
Review Safety
If the work order has hazards in the Safety Plan tab of the Work Order Tracking application, then they will be visible when you use the Review Safety button. There are currently two sections for Hazardous Materials and other Hazards.
The hazard description is displayed followed by the descriptions of the precautions. For example, for the hazardous material of Asbestos there were two precautions, Wear respirator mask and Wear gloves. For Hazards, a hazard description of – Customer has one or more dogs, with the precaution of Dog Biscuits is shown. In case you were wondering, yes, we have a dog, called Reggie, and no we don’t have asbestos in our house.
If this is the first time the user is reviewing the safety plan, it will initially show Not Reviewed at the top of the Safety Plan panel. After reading the safety plan you should use the blue tick button.
After reading the Safety Plan and using the blue tick button, the date/time it was reviewed will be saved. The new WORKORDER database field for this is SPLANREVIEWDATE. There is no field to indicate who read the Safety Plan and I’ve raised an IBM Idea about this, there could be multiple persons assigned to the same work order.
Once the Safety Plan has been reviewed, I couldn’t find a way of reversing this. After the Safety Plan has been reviewed it will appear as a section just above the Attachments in the Review Work Order screen so that it is possible for others who may be working on the work order to review the hazards and precautions they should take.
Materials and Tools
The first button in the Review Work Order screen is the Materials and Tools button. The dialog that opens shows two sections for the planned materials and planned tools. All records are read-only.
The materials section shows the item concatenated with its description, the storeroom and on the right the quantity required. The tools section shows the tool item concatenated with its description, the tool hours and storeroom (if applicable), and on the right the quantity of the tool.
You close the dialog using the (X) at the top of the side panel.
In case you were wondering the Materials and Tools panel displays the planned records, not reservations. It does not show Planned Services.
There is a button at the top of the Materials and Tools side panel with two options Get Reserved Items and Request Materials. These are new options added to the Technician application since the last time I reviewed it two years ago.
Note. This button is only displayed when the Materials and Tools button is used from the Review Work Order screen and it is not shown when the same button is used from the Assigned Work screen, the screen that displays multiple work orders.
The Get Reserved Items screen only shows reserved material items and not tool items. You can issue the reserved quantity by using the selection box on the right and then using the blue Get Selected button.
When you issue a tool, you need to provide an Issue To person, the person who will be responsible for the tools return to the storeroom. This might be the reason why Tools are excluded from the Get Reserved Items screen, but in case it has been overlooked I have raised an IBM Idea for this.
Incidentally I did another test seeing whether a reserved rotating item could be selected. The reservation was displayed, and I selected it, but after using the blue Get Selected button another screen opened with the message – Select rotating asset for Fire extinguisher needed for Kitchen, and then the screen hung with a spinning wheel. In this message the “Fire extinguisher needed for Kitchen” is what I had entered in the Remarks field for the reservation. I’ve opened an IBM Support case for the spinning wheel.
After the blue Get Selected button has been used there will be a green background confirmation message – Reserved items added. The Report Work screen now opens and shows the issued item under the Materials Used section, in my case a quantity of one of the Z-RAGS items from the Central Storeroom.
I don’t intend to work through the second option – Material Request at this point, but I just thought I would show the screen. The bottom three fields for Required Date, Priority and Drop To, look as if they are defaults for the items you wish to request.
Work Log
The second button in the Review Work Order screen is the Work Log, this opens the side bar and shows any existing work log records it also allows the logged in user to create a work log record. There is an existing work log record from Mike Wilson to say “Don’t forget you need to be at home on Wednesday”. The log note records are grouped based on the day the log note was created, in this case – 5 days ago, December 15, 2023.
At the bottom of the Work Log panel, you can create a new log note. What you enter here is the log note summary and you submit this using the arrow button which will be activated as soon as something is typed into the field with the title Add a note.
The top button is new since I reviewed this nearly two years ago, it opens the long description.
I entered in the Note summary – OK thanks Mike for reminding me, it’s been on my mind constantly for last week.
There is a rich-text formatting toolbar for the long description, and below this you can choose the Work Log Type with CLIENTNOTE being the default. Right at the bottom is a check box called Visibility which will make the log note visible to the requester if the work order had originated from a service request.
After using the blue submit button in the top right of the screen, the Work Log record will be saved, and it appears in the top half of the left-hand panel of the Work Log. The log notes have been styled to try and represent a chat history.
Tasks, Report Work, Scan Asset
The fourth button shows the tasks of the work order. This work order is under Flow Control, hence there is a padlock symbol next to each task. If the work order was not under flow control, then a tick button will be shown and instead of the message – Complete task first, the task status would be shown. Normally after you complete the first task its status is changed from Waiting on approval to Completed and the large blue tick button would be shown alongside the next task and the button is replaced with a green tick for the completed task.
Below the task identifier (it is the TaskID and not the Sequence field) and its description other details may be shown. The button on the far-right may need to be activated to see these, it is a down-arrow indicating press this to open the details, the button will then change to an up-arrow symbol, an indicator to close the details.
Additional information includes the task status, the asset and location on the task with their descriptions, the task long description, a section for meters and measurements and a link to Conduct an Inspection. I’ll be covering all of these in the next Technician articles.
A few pages ago we issued the Z-RAGS item from the Central Storeroom, you can see it referenced under the section Materials Used. If the work order has not reached approved status, then apart from entering a Failure Report, the Labor, Materials and Tools would not have a button allowing you to enter records. Work Order 1285 is at APPR state, and you can Add Labor Time, Get Reserved Items or Add Material Items, or Add Tools Used. I’ll be exploring each of these in the next article.
In the Asset and Location section there are three buttons, the first is Scan Asset. On my iPad I received the System Message – The operation is insecure – I have raised an IBM Support call with regards to this. It works OK from the Technician application on the Maximo Mobile application on an iPhone. When you scan a barcode, QR code or NFC tag it compares with the asset number and displays a message asking whether you scanned the right asset and whether you are at the location on the work order. You have then two choices to rescan the asset or use OK.
Meter Readings
I had set-up some meters for the asset AJE1010 – Hotpoint Fridge/Freezer. The first two OPERATING and NOISE are Characteristic type meters which both have the YORN domain which allows for entries of 0 – YES, 1 – NO, or 2 – N/A (not applicable). You can see the last meter reading taken on 17th October 2023 at 13:02 had set both values to 0 – YES. The fridge/freezer was still operating, but starting to make a noise, possibly on its last legs.
The third meter is of type Gauge, with a meter name of TEMP-C with the meter’s unit of measure shown in parenthesis rather than the description of the meter. The temperature last measured was -2.25.
The fourth meter is of type Continuous, with a meter name of RUNHOURS with unit of measure shown in parenthesis. The run hours recorded on 17th October was 202,008.
If the location had meters, then these would be shown in a similar section after the asset meters.
There are two buttons at the top, we’ll start with the plus button.
The plus button is used for entering meter readings. The two Characteristic meters have a button for selecting the value from the domain and the Gauge and Continuous meters you would enter the new value. There is no indicator for a Continuous meter on whether the value being entered is an Actual or Delta value, I’ve raised an IBM Idea for this.
After you have entered values the tick button at the top of the side panel has a blue background and this would save the meter readings.
Notice that when you enter the meter readings the meter descriptions are being provided.
When you enter a meter reading you may pick up a System message, for example for a continuous meter expecting an actual meter reading, then if you enter a value lower than the previous meter reading you may receive a message like “The new reading (50) entered on 1/2/24 4:51:11 pm should be greater than the previous reading (150) entered on (12/1/23 4:48:00 pm).”.
For a meter of type Characteristic then the button beside the value will provide the values and descriptions of the associated domain, you select one value.
The second button at the top of the Meters side panel, the button with three vertical dots, has one option – Enter old readings. This is the same as the screen used for entering current meter readings except it shows two fields at the top for the date and time. This defaults to date and time now.
It may appear as if there is no date or time lookup for these two fields, you do get these when you are using a PC/laptop browser. They do exist except as there is a default you need to first clear the field using the ‘X’ button and then the lookup button will be displayed allowing you to find a past date or scroll for a time.
Downtime Reporting
The third button in the Asset and Location section, if an asset is referenced, allows you to change the asset up/down status. Initially the two buttons will indicate whether the asset is up (left button) or down (right button), and the Status Date and Time, and the Downtime Code fields will not be shown. If you press the right-hand button to indicate the asset is down, then the three fields will be displayed.
The Status Date and Time fields default to date/time now. You can change the Status Date by pressing in the field, and the date lookup will open, similarly for the time element. The Downtime Code button will show the domain values and descriptions for you to select one, I had chosen Breakdown.
You use the blue tick button at the top right of the panel to save the changes and to set the asset status down, in this case.
To set the asset status back up you use the button again. This time the Current Status field will show the date (but not time) and the right-hand button will be highlighted indicating that the status is currently down. You use the up-arrow button, and the Status Date and Time will be displayed, but not the Downtime Code. In the Work Order Tracking application, the downtime code is defaulted to that used when setting the asset as down, but you can modify it, I’ve raised an IBM Support case about this.
Note. You can enter future dates both when setting the asset down or bringing it back up again, however, the date used when the asset is returned to service must be later than that used when it was taken out of service.
Edit Work Order
In the Review Work Order screen there is pencil button next to the status and priority which will take you through to the Edit Work Order screen. You can change the Description, Long Description, Work Order Priority and the Scheduled Start and Finish dates and times. The Long Description is not editable but notice the button next to it.
Further down the Edit Work Order screen you will be able to change the Work Type, Asset and Location. For the Asset and Location, you can use a Scan or Search, but I received the same message as before when using the scan.
The long description button opens a dialog with a rich text formatting toolbar, not quite the same as that used for Log Notes. The three buttons at the end of the toolbar open a second line of buttons with the button for outdent and indent.
There is no save button but when you try to navigate back to the work order you will be asked whether you wish to Save or Discard Changes.
The Asset Search provides the ability to search by asset number, description, or location description. There is a filter button which takes you to the Filter screen shown. Here you can filter by one or more Locations, Rotating Items, Serial Numbers, Asset TypeThe Asset Type is used for grouping assets and is used in the Health application of the Maximo Application Suite. More or Vendor, or by a combination of these fields. When you select the Filter field on the left the right-hand side shows the possible values with a selection box where you can select multiple values.
There is a Search bar for each of these filter fields. Notice the Reset button at the bottom on the left-hand side.
While the filter allows you to search by Rotating Item, Vendor, Asset Type, etc, it will return the records found to the Asset List. The same 16 assets belonging to the Rotating Item PUMP100 can be found without using the filter but by using the Search bar. There is no column for Rotating Item in this display, but it can still be used for searching. Similarly, there is no column for Vendor, but vendor TRN will find four asset records, but if you searched by the vendor name – Trane – it wouldn’t find an asset, it needs to be a field in the asset object that is part of the dataset.
Incidentally the Location Search just shows the location and description with a search bar, there is no filter capability. This is inconsistent with creating a new Service Request where you can filter by Status and Type.
While I could use the Edit Work Order screen for changing the asset, this is not the same as a Move or Swap, so I will not use this to indicate the asset number for the new fridge/freezer, but I will indicate whether this is possible or not after I have explored other areas of the Technician application.
We have now reached 30 pages for this 2nd article on the Technician application. In the next article I will focus on Reporting Work, but I am also conscious that there is a growing number of areas where I have said we would go into more details later. I suspect that a fourth article will be needed to cover off all the things I have found.
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