Maximo Linear used to be a licensed add-on, and it is now included in Maximo Application Suite. It is used for assets where you need to understand where work is to be performed by knowing the measured position along the length of the linear asset. It is used with roads, airport runways, rail track and pipelines. 

A linear referencing method is used to position a point or segment in three dimensions, x, y and z, where the x dimension is parallel with the linear asset, y is at a tangent, and z is a measure above or below the linear asset. For example, there is a pothole 105 feet past the 57mile marker post on a road. The marker post is a reference point. 

Work on electric transmission or distribution lines is given by referencing the tower or pole, which will be point assets (or locationsA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More), a nameplate identifies them. Work can be performed between towers/poles, but this will still reference the downstream tower/pole with additional fields or a note to provide the offset for a point or segment beyond the last tower/pole. If measurements are not important to identifying the position of work, then you need to consider whether the linear assets feature should be used.

The Linear Assets functionality touches many parts of Maximo Manage including the Assets application where the asset is marked as linear. We’ll be identifying the Maximo applications where linear functionality exists, but first I’ll introduce a few terms. The mile marker post is an example of a point feature, and features are added to the linear asset with the measures that position it along the linear asset. Features can also be linear, as a guard rail at the side of the road would be. Relationships are used to connect one linear asset with another, or with a non-linear asset or location. For example, another linear asset crosses the linear asset at a measure, that measurement can use another feature if it has been marked as a reference point, as a marker post would be.

Features

A feature is a class of physical object that you will find along a linear asset. For example, along a road you will find mile posts, guard rails and overhead gantries. A feature is not an asset, there would not be a serial number, and you would not collect costs against it, but there may be point assets that uses the feature as a reference point, and you may perform work on the features but in this case, you are booking time to the linear asset. For example, there are several gantries on a road, some of these have road signs showing distances to cities and towns, other gantries have a set of LCD lane displays which are point assets. Each gantry is a feature which identifies where it is along the road, the linear asset. An inspection can be performed on the gantries for a stretch of the road, this is an inspection of the gantry itself rather than the LCD lane display assets.

A feature must be defined before it can be added to an asset and this is where the Features application is used. Features is a system level object. Each feature has an identifier name and description, MP – Mile Post, GuardRail – Guard Rail. A feature also has a type, POINT or LINEAR. A feature can be identified as a reference point whose measures are used to measure other aspects of the linear asset. Reference Points are normally point type features.

There are two other check boxes, Continuous is only used with the linear type and indicates that this feature exists for the whole length of the linear asset. There may be multiple asset features with the same feature, but they cannot overlap and there cannot be any gaps in the length of the linear asset where the feature is applied. The Shared field is used when there are two or more parallel linear assets, as you have with a road with multiple carriageways, or multiple parallel rail tracks. It allows a feature to be shared across the linear assets. Mile posts might be shared, a guard rail if specific to one carriage way would not be shared. If you have a central guard rail which is common to both carriageways, then you would need to give it a different name so that it can be shared.

Features can have a classification and a set of attributes, the specification. This would identify the characteristics of the feature, for a guard rail this would be the material, height, and profile. If you open the table details for the Specifications table window there are two fields, linear type and continuous which I’ll explain later (see Classifications).

The Where Used tab identifies the linear assets where the feature has been applied, if it exists elsewhere, you cannot delete the feature record.

Relationships

The relationships application is used to create an identifier for any relationship between two assets, or two configuration items (CIs). Relationships can be used with linear and non-linear assets, CIs are used in Maximo IT. The relationship INTERSECTS would describe one linear asset intersecting with another.

The field – Is Reference Point – is used with linear assets. If set, then when a relationship is added to a linear asset, an asset feature is also created at the same linear measurement. The reference point asset feature can then be used to locate work.

The table window called Asset Relationship Rules defines whether a relationship can be used between two assets based on their classification and/or specification values. There is a Source Classification and a Target Classification, if they were both set to ROAD for the INTERSECTS relationship, then the relationship could only be used on an asset that had the classification of ROAD and it could only be related to another asset with a classification of ROAD. If you tried to use it elsewhere an error message would be received.

The Allow Override field when set will turn error messages which stop the use of relationship being used which would break the Asset Relationship Rules and make them warnings instead giving the user the option to ignore the warning and override the asset relationship rule.

Classifications

For linear assets, a classification with the Use With Objects of Asset, Feature and Relation, are all relevant. 

In the Attributes table window details, there are two fields used with Linear assets. Linear Type can have a value of POINT or LINEAR. When set to POINT the start and end measures must be the same. When set to LINEAR the start and end measures must be different. For example, on a ROAD classification there may be a SPEED attribute indicating the speed limit which is applicable over a linear segment of the road.

The Continuous field can only be set when the Linear Type is LINEAR. When set it means that this attribute spans the whole length of the linear asset although this may be spread across multiple records in the linear asset’s specification. For example, the SPEED attribute is set to continuous, as there should always be a speed limit, but this speed limit varies along the linear asset and the specification attribute will therefore be referenced several times.

There are two hidden attributes on the Attributes table of a Classification. The Linked To Section and the Linked to Attribute are used to explicitly link an attribute to another attribute of the same specification. For example, an attribute of material could exist multiple times in different sections, a road has several layers. If you had the attribute of thickness you would want to be explicit over which attribute this was linked to, the material attribute that is referenced in a particular section of the same specification.

Assets

There are several parts of the Assets application where linear details are entered, the main tab, Meters, Specifications, Features, Relationships, and Work tabs all have linear references.

An asset is defined as a linear asset when the field Linear is set. For an asset which is not marked as linear then the linear capabilities will be hidden, they reveal themselves when the Linear field is set, a Maximo feature known as Conditional User Interface (Conditional UI).

Assets Tab

When the Linear field is set you must define both a linear referencing model and the start and end measures of the linear asset, you do this from the fields in the section Linear Referencing Details. The direction field gives an indication of the general direction of the linear asset. The four compass points are provided but the domain could be extended to the 8 compass points. Upstream and downstream might be used with pipelines. The Linear Referencing Method (LRM) is a label that is defined in the Add/Modify Linear Referencing Methods action and dialog. This defines the units of measure in all three axis and what reference label will be given to zero in the y and z axis, for example on a road this may be MIDLINE (y axis) and SURFACE (z axis).

On the linear asset you enter the Start Measure, which is normally set at zero, and the End Measure as the length of the linear asset. A label is associated with both the start and end measures to reinforce the direction of travel along the linear asset. 

Maximo Linear allows the Start Measure and End Measure to be modified after a period when there are features, relationships, service requests and work orders, for example to split a linear asset. You may get several error messages, and these may be dependent on OrganizationsA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing. More application settings.

Asset Features

The Features tab is where you reference the features and their measures along the linear asset. For example, if you had a mile post along a linear asset 100 miles long, then there are 100 records to add, 100 asset features. An asset feature should have a label to identify it, but it is not mandatory, but consider it so if the feature is going to be a reference point.

When you reference the feature, its details, classification, and specification are copied to the new asset feature record. It is possible for an asset feature to be created automatically from a relationship, for example when one linear asset crosses another linear asset. When you create an asset feature you will provide the start and end measures in the section called Linear Segment Details. You can provide absolute measures, which you would for mile posts, but you can also provide relative measures by providing an offset from a reference point. For example, the second mile post could reference the label of the first mile post, by saying the reference point offset is 1 mile. When defining reference points, it is better to define these as absolute values to make them easier to read.

For a point type asset feature only the Start column is relevant, the End column of fields is used with the linear type. The same Linear Segment Details section will be found in various places in the applications that support linear assets.

The Features tab has two table windows, the top one defines the asset features and their measures. The lower table window is the specification copied from the Features record and is the specification of the current asset feature in the top table window. These values should be changed to reflect actual values. For example, a guard rail starting just after mile post 10 (MP 10) might be a different material to the guard rail starting between MP 51 and MP 53.

At the bottom of the Features tab is the Linear Visual Control, a display that mimics different aspects of the asset over the length of the linear asset. The Features section will show yellow diamonds for each point feature and yellow bars for each linear feature. All the mile posts will be in the same horizontal line, all asset features with the same feature will be shown on the same horizontal line. There is balloon-tip text (hover-over text) to provide the full name and start and end measures. These are defined in the Organizations application, Asset Options, in the section called Linear Visual Control Message Configuration. There is a section in the same dialog called Linear Visual Control Symbology if you wanted to change the symbol colours.

Many features will be reference points and will be referenced on other linear records. So, what happens if you later realise that the absolute measure for the asset feature reference point was inaccurate? Maximo supports the change to the measures and will recalibrate other linear records that are measured from the reference point. It will also recalibrate a reference point that was measured from another reference point, but as mentioned earlier it is better to give asset features which are reference points an absolute measure rather than a relative measure based on another reference point.

Asset Specification

A linear asset can have a classification and a specification of attributes. Each attribute has a start and end measure; therefore, the same attribute may exist many times over the length of the linear asset, consider how many times the speed limit may change on a road.

On the Specification tab header there is a From and To field, these help to filter the attributes to those that are relevant over this span of the linear segment. The Specifications tab also has a Linear Visual Control and the label and balloon tips can be configured for the asset specifications in the Organizations – Asset Options. The Linear Visual Control is filtered by the same filtering applied in the Specifications table window.

As a specification attribute may exist multiple times along the linear asset, you may end up with overlaps, for example the SPEED attribute may show 50mph from 0 to 15 miles and 60mph from 13 to 30 miles, creating an overlap between 13 and 15 miles. Similarly, if the measures for the 60mph SPEED attribute was moved to 17 to 30 miles, then a gap now exists between 15 and 17 miles. Both are likely to be incorrect. There is a report called the Linear Gaps and Overlaps Report to help with these scenarios.

The action View Asset SpecificationThe Asset Specification is a set of attributes associated with the Asset Classification that describe the asset. More History shows a history of changes to the asset specification, you can see the specification at a past date and time. This dialog also supports changes to the specification attributes of linear assets.

Asset Relationships

The Assets application has a Relationships tab where the linear asset can be related to other assets. The linear asset is normally the source asset, and you provide a relationship name and a target asset or a target location. The target asset need not be a linear asset. You also need to provide the source start measure and source end measure, the point or segment along the linear asset where the target asset/location has its relationship. If the target asset is a linear asset, then the target start measure and target end measure will also be needed. You cannot create a relationship to a target asset or location in a different site to the source asset.

At the bottom of the Relationships tab is the Linear Visual Control, there is a section which shows you where the point target assets and locations exist along the linear asset. A bar will be shown if another linear asset runs in parallel over a span of the linear asset. The Organizations application Asset Options dialog controls the balloon text that is displayed for a relationship, and the symbology used for colours, etc.

The View Asset Relationship History action shows the asset relationships which existed at a past point in time over a segment of the linear asset.

Asset Work Tab

The Work tab on the Assets application has two tabs for Work Orders and Tickets, both show the Linear Visual Control. Both table windows show the Start and End Measure and there is a From and To fields in the header which will apply a filter for work orders or tickets performed over a segment of the linear asset.

There could be many work orders or tickets that reference a linear asset. The table windows may need additional fields to help you to select the records that you wish to see in the Linear Visual Control. For example, mowing the verges along the road linear asset may be performed across several work orders, and you would want to filter by the work package, the parent work order. If the table window filter results in a single work order the Linear Visual Control also filters by that work order.

The Linear Visual Control has a section on the left for Work, and this splits between Work Orders and Tickets. The next level in the hierarchy is the work order or ticket number, and for work orders the bottom level in the tree is its progress. It is this progress bar which helps you to identify areas along the linear asset which have not yet been mowed, or where progress has been reported on areas that overlap. As for other areas of the Linear Visual Control you can change the balloon text for Tickets, Work Orders and Work Order Progress and the symbology/colours can also be changed for all three, the object is MULTIASSETLOCCI or MULTIASSETLOCCIPR.

Asset Meters

Continuous meters are placed at different points along the linear asset, I like to think of them as fixed. For gauge and characteristics meters the measurement or observation is made at a position along the linear asset that is not fixed but is recorded at the point in time when the measurement or observation was recorded, I think of this as floating, although several measurements on the same meter may occur at the exact same point. Fixed and floating are not terms used by IBM.

Let’s think about continuous meters first. If you wanted to record the number of accidents or the number of animal roadkill’s along different segments of the linear asset you could not do this with a single meter name, because it would not be unique for the linear asset. You would need to provide different meter names for each segment.

The meters tab has a Linear Segment Details section below the section for Continuous MeterA Meter is an identifier for recording meter readings, measurements and observations on assets or locations. More Details. Adding a new meter name for each segment where you wanted to record a continuous meter is a bit laborious, as each meter must first be created in the Meters application. If we took a slightly different example of measuring traffic volume along fixed positions of the linear asset then you could add a non-linear asset for each camera, position these with a relationship and have the same meter name associated with each camera asset. If from time to time you moved the camera you would change the measurement of the relationship to the camera target asset. The meter reading in this case is occurring on the non-linear camera asset, rather than the linear asset.

In the Assets application and the Enter Meter Readings dialog there is a Linear Segment Details section where you can record the meter reading, but you can change the position where the meter reading takes place, and you need to consider whether that is something that you want for a continuous meter. For a Gauge or Characteristic meter reading, recording the position along the linear asset where the measurement or observation was made, makes sense, but you cannot control whether to allow the Linear Segment Details to be changed or not, they can always be modified. This is an area where you might consider some configuration to determine when the Linear Segment Details can be changed from those entered against the asset meter.

In the Manage Meter ReadingA Meter Reading is a value entered at a date and time against an asset or location meter of any type. More History both the Continuous Meter Readings tab and the Characteristic and Gauge Meter Readings tabs show the Linear Segment Details from the meter reading, but these values cannot be changed. 

Service Requests

The Service Requests application allows you to reference a linear asset, after leaving the asset field the Feature and Feature Label fields appear beneath it and a little lower in the screen will be the Linear Segment Details section where you can enter the measures over which the service is needed. If you reference a Feature and Feature Label, then the Linear Segment Details will be filled from the measures on the asset feature. An example will be to identify a segment of road where there are a lot of potholes.

The table window Multiple Assets, Locations and CIs will also show the Feature and Feature Label fields and the Linear Segment Details section, which would allow you to individually reference the measurements where potholes exist.

The Self-Service Create Service Request and View Service Request applications also support the referencing of a linear asset and the point or span along the linear asset where a service is required. This linear support does not yet exist in the Role Based Application Service Requests or the Maximo Mobile equivalent.

If you create a work order from the service request the Linear Segment Details are copied to the work order, this includes copying the linear asset records in the Multiple Assets, Locations and CIs table.

Routes

Routes are used with inspections and on PMs where work needs to be performed on multiple assets and/or locations. When you enter a linear asset on a route stop the Feature and Feature Label fields will be displayed in the table details beneath the asset field and below this will be the Linear Segment Details section where you can enter the measures for where the inspection or work should be performed. For example, an inspection of the guard rails along the linear asset. 

As the same linear asset is likely to be referenced on multiple or all route stops, it is worth using the sequence to ensure that the correct order is maintained. A route stop description would also be useful. Grass mowing along the linear asset may be split into work segments by using the reference points. 

The Dynamic Job Plans feature may also be used with linear assets on routes stops. If there was one mile of grass mowing there might be ten work units, if there were two miles of grass mowing this might be twenty work units. The number of work units is used to dynamically change the duration, and labor, materials, services, and tools needed on the work order.

There is a Path Selector button for the route stops which is used to navigate from the linear asset through the asset relationships, and you can select assets and create route stops for them.

You can apply the route directly to a work order using the Apply Route action in the Work Order Tracking application or by referencing the route on a Preventive Maintenance record.

Preventive Maintenance

The Preventive Maintenance application allows you to reference a linear asset, after leaving the asset field the Feature and Feature Label fields appear beneath it. Below the Route field will be the Linear Segment Details section where you can enter the measures over which the PM requires work or an inspection to be performed. If you reference a Feature and Feature Label, then the Linear Segment Details will be filled from the measures on the asset feature.

When the PM generates a work order the Feature, Feature Label and the fields in the Linear Segment Details section will be copied to similar fields on the work order.

In the Quick Search menu where the Advanced Search exists there is an additional option called Filter By Linear Assets. The same action will be found on the Work Order Tracking, Quick Reporting and Assets applications. The dialog which opens allows you to search for PMs that reference a feature of a linear asset, or the PMs which reference one or multiple segments of the linear asset.

In the Frequency – Meters Based Frequency tab the asset meters that you can reference will be restricted to those that exist within the linear segment that you have specified on the Preventive Maintenance record. For example, the PM is an inspection between MP 20 and MP 30 (10 miles), the only asset meters that you can select are those positioned in the same segment of the linear asset, you would not be able to select an asset meter that was positioned at MP 10. 

Work Order Tracking

Linear Assets functionality is supported on both the Work Order Tracking and Quick Reporting applications. There is no linear capability on the Assignment Manager or the graphical applications of Maximo Scheduler, nor currently in the work order Role Based Applications or Maximo Mobile equivalent applications.

When a linear asset is referenced, you can perform work on a linear segment by referencing the measurements of where work should be performed in the Linear Segment Details section. You can perform work on an asset feature of a linear asset, the Feature and Feature Label fields will appear a little below the asset field. The Multiple Assets, Locations and CIs table has similar capability to reference a Feature and Feature Label or to create points or segments in the Linear Segment Details section. Using this allows a work order to reference many point assets related to the linear asset, for example road lighting, or multiple linear segments, for example grass mowing.

The main work order tab or the Multiple Asset, Locations and CIs table is where linear measures will be found when a work order has been created from a Service Request or a Preventive Maintenance record or when a Route has been applied to the work order. You will not find these fields or the Linear Segment Details section on a child work order, if you wanted to change the measures on a child work order you would have to navigate to it. The same applies to a task, there are no linear fields, and the Activities and Tasks application does not support linear assets. However, if the task is queried from the Work Order Tracking application the Feature, Feature Label and the Linear Segment Details section can all be used.

If a work order references a linear asset either as the primary asset or in the Multiple Assets, Locations and CIs table, then below this table window will be another table window called Progress. The progress table window allows a user to report the progress of work along the linear asset. You use the New Row button and then in the Asset or Feature field you select the asset or feature records already referenced on the work order, so that you can provide progress for them. For example, the grass mowing over a 5 mile stretch of road may be made in several progress records, and they do not need to be reported linearly. There might be a stretch of grass mowed for 0.25 mile, then another similar length of grass mowed a mile further along the linear asset, leaving a part of the linear asset left with longer grass, perhaps this has some small trees and bushes which need to be cleared first. Maximo does not check that you are reporting progress on spans of the linear segment which may overlap, or where there are still gaps left to be mowed/cleared. To see progress visually the Work Tab of the Assets application has a Linear Visual Control.

Condition Monitoring

The Condition Monitoring application also supports linear assets, but not in the setup of the condition monitoring point, but in the Measurements table window where you will find the familiar set of fields in the Linear Segment Details section. You can enter a new measurement reading or observation and enter the measurements along the linear asset where the measurement reading, or observation was taken. After saving, this data is modifiable. The position where a reading was taken can then be changed for gauge or a characteristic meter, but it cannot be changed for a continuous meter.

When you generate a work order for the Measurement record it copies to the work order the Linear Segment Details. If you had taken several measurements at different positions along the linear asset, there could be more that one of these that exceeded the action limits. The Generate Work Order action will only consider the last measurement. However, the Cron Task called LinearMeasurementWoGenCronTask can consider all these measurements and there is a setting in the Organizations application and action PM Options and section Stand-alone Linear Asset Measurement Work Order Generation Process Settings that will enable this.

Maximo Spatial and Maximo Linear

The two add-on products Maximo Spatial and Maximo Linear were developed separately, but they now support each other, so that a GIS asset can be referenced as a linear asset. Linear segments can be displayed on the Map tabs of applications like Asset, Service Request and Work Order Tracking. There is a Linear tab in the Map Manager application and the checkbox – Activate Maximo Linear Graphic Layers – must be set. For each application there may be several layers, for example the Assets application has layers for the Asset Specification, Features, Relationships, Service Request and Work Orders. The linear asset shown on the map can have a change of colour for each linear segment where a value in the layer changes, a feature called dynamic segmentation, to show visually where there is a change to a specification attribute value, for example speed changes along the road.

Dynamic Job Plans

When you are performing work on a linear asset, for example grass mowing along a road, the work order duration, amount of labor needed, and the requirements for materials, services and tools are all dependent on the length of that part of the linear asset being mowed. There is a feature of the Job Plans application which will allow you to define how to calculate the work order duration and the labor, materials, services, and tool requirements.

When the – Is Dynamic – field is set, Dynamic Job Plan Information sections will appear on the Job Plan header, Job Plan tasks, and each of the tabs for labor, materials, services, and tools. There are five types of calculation, with Static being used if you do not want to adjust durations or quantities. Proportional will calculate durations and quantities in a linear manner, which is easy to understand for a linear asset, the longer the segment of grass mowing that is needed the longer it will take, and more work hours will be needed. Other calculations can use a specification attribute value or expression, the attribute of a linear feature can be referenced. Another calculation can use the records defined in the Resource Levels Management application, for example the hours of a mowing supervisor may be the same for 0-5 miles of grass mowing, but additional hours are needed for 5-10 miles of grass mowing. There is also a calculation that combines levels with a specification attribute expression. Each resource requirement can have a different dynamic calculation. Fortunately, there is an action called Simulate Dynamic Job Plan to check the effect of the settings that you make.