Blog

Computerized maintenance management systems are hard to get right. Maintenance managers and operations executives are focused on the big picture—they want to know how maintenance affects the bottom line and they need a CMMS that gives them accurate, up-to-date data (and one that doesn’t bust the budget). At the same time, the people on the shop floor—the ones actually doing the scheduling, generating the work orders, and completing the maintenance tasks—want a straightforward, easy-to-use system that makes day-to-day maintenance operations easier and more efficient. MaintiMizer Web Edition is one of the few systems on the market today that meets—and in some cases, exceeds—expectations.

That’s not surprising when you consider that MaintiMizer Web Edition is just the latest CMMS offering from Ashcom Technologies. For more than 20 years, Ashcom’s developers and programmers have been creating high-function, high-value CMMS. In this Web Edition, they’ve created a system that integrates real-world suggestions from MaintiMizer users with the latest ideas in maintenance management thinking from their own industry experts.

The biggest change from previous versions of MaintiMizer is that this edition is now Web-based. That makes it easy to get started, whether or not you’ve used previous versions of the system. In fact, the entire system (including the remarkably jargon-free documentation) comes on only one disk. Anyone with basic knowledge of Microsoft SQL server can install it in minutes, or you can do what most other organizations have done and have Ashcom install it for you remotely. That way you’ll know that MaintiMizer is installed correctly from the start.

One of the biggest challenges to using a new system (even if it’s only an upgrade) is getting everything set up just the way you want it. With other systems, you have to sacrifice your company’s way of doing things to a preset template. That’s not the case with MaintiMizer Web Edition—you can edit the labels, headings, and notes; add attachments; and define screens to see as much or as little as you want.

Another challenge is getting all of your data entered. If you’ve used previous versions of MaintiMizer, you can import your data directly to MaintiMizer Web Edition. If not, you have a couple of choices. You can scan most of your data in (although you may still have to enter some of it by hand) or you can have Ashcom staff help with data entry.

When you first open MaintiMizer Web Edition, you’re greeted by the Home page “dashboard” screen. Just like the dashboard in your car, this screen shows critical information at a glance—closed, open, and overdue work orders; parts where the quantity on hand is less than your preset minimum; and open purchase orders over the last 7 days. Even if you never get another chance to look at MaintiMizer all day, you have enough basic information to keep things running smoothly.

MaintiMizer Web Edition is organized into “modules” that correspond to the most frequently-used maintenance management functions: Work Order, Preventive Maintenance/Equipment, Inventory, Vendor/Purchase Order, and Timecard. (There are also Utility and Help modules to help you manage and learn the system.) You access the modules through the menu bar at the top of each screen.

The screens themselves are straightforward and easy to read, without extra graphics to slow the system down or clutter the page. Because the screens look similar from module to module, it takes less time to become comfortable using the entire system. Drop down menus, look-up fields (noted by a magnifying glass icon), and calendars make the system easy to navigate and use, even for people with limited computer experience. (If you can use the Internet, you can use MaintiMizer Web Edition.)

Each of the modules lets you quickly and easily capture, track, and report your maintenance information. For example, the work ordermodule opens to a dashboard that shows open work orders by type as well as those open over the past 7 days. To add or edit a work order, you use the drop down menu at the top of the screen. Because MaintiMizer Web Edition automatically assigns a unique number to each work order, searching and tracking is easy. To check the status of a work order, you simply click on the Search button at the bottom of the screen and type in the unique work order number. Of course, if you don’t know the number (and who does?), you can simply click on the magnifying glass icon to open a list of all work orders.

The other modules are just as straightforward. The Preventive Maintenance/Equipment module gives you a place (other than in those bulky basement files or your foreman’s memory) to store all of your equipment-related information, from location to start-up instructions to preventive maintenance schedules. (You can even attach items like schematics and maps.) The Inventory and Vendor modules work the same way, consolidating all of your information in one place.

One particularly time- and frustration-saving function is the “work request” feature. Users can quickly and easily enter a work request directly into MaintiMizer Web Edition. That request then goes to the maintenance department, which uses the information to create a work order—without reentering any data. (That means no more lost notes or messages requesting work and no more data entry errors.) Users can easily check the status of their requests by using the “search work request” feature, which shows at a glance when maintenance requests are scheduled for completion. (And that means no more frustrating, time-wasting phone calls from people double-checking—or triple-checking—the status of their maintenance requests.)

MaintiMizer Web Edition has several practical applications that make it clear that it was designed by people with actual maintenance experience. The weekly schedule workup page shows at a glance exactly what work orders have been scheduled for the upcoming week so maintenance staff can be scheduled efficiently and effectively. Similarly, the daily schedule workup shows exactly what each employee already has scheduled for the day so it’s always clear who is available to take an emergency call.

Reporting is at the heart of MaintiMizer Web Edition, and generating reports is easy. Each module has a number of preset reports that can be generated with one click of the mouse. For example, in the work order module you can create a work order analysis, a backlog review, a craft hour/cost report, a top 20 items recap, an activity summary review, a summary of work order costs, a detailed work order report, a material/labor cost report, and a failure analysis. You can also create your own custom reports.

One particularly valuable report is the “cost of maintaining equipment,” which is found in the Preventive Maintenance/Equipment module. With that calculation you’ll have the facts you need to make an informed repair or replace decision. Purchase order and labor statistics reports can also be created with just a single click.

One of the most useful features of MaintiMizer Web Edition is its dynamic query builder, which is located in the Utility module. The query builder makes it easy to quickly retrieve your maintenance management data, either to view on screen or export to an Excel file. You build your query by following the pull down menus, and when you’re finished, you can save your query to be recalled at any time.

The need for system and data security is also fully addressed by MaintiMizer Web Edition. System security features let you control who can access what data, and automatically created audit logs track all changes. (This is also critical for complying with OSHA, ISO, and other regulations.)

Given its functionality, MaintiMizer Web Edition is surprisingly affordable, particularly when you consider that you’re getting the resources of a full-service maintenance management consulting company along with your software. You may never need Ashcom’s expertise, but it’s nice to know it’s there if you do.

The bottom line: MaintiMizer Web Edition is a high-function, high-value CMMS that meets—and in some cases, exceeds—both the big picture and day-to-day needs of your organization. And isn’t that why you’re buying a CMMS in the first place?

Source by Timothy Good

Microsoft Dynamics GP modifications and custom programming scenarios should be considered when third party add-ons are too expensive or too complex to implement.  If this is the case – you can relatively quickly and cost effectively develop your own custom module.  We recommend to review such software development tools as Great Plains Dexterity, eConnect, SQL stored procedures, Modifier with VBA, GP Integration Manager.  In this small publication we would like to give you customization specification for custom invoice mailer via email:

1.       Writing PDF documents automatically for the whole batch.  The most elegant approach to achieve this task is to deploy Dex cursor, which will come through each SOP invoice in the selected batch and will write this invoice into PDF file (where the name of the file should be something unique, like invoice number).  You have to deploy real PDF writer from Adobe, free versions of PDF printers will not do the job, as GP Dexterity deploys PDF writer driver.  There is one additional secret to know – you will need to set programmable delay between two invoices in the row, to give PDF writer enough time to finish PDF generation (otherwise you will get blank invoices or invoices of the same content)

2.       Deploying SQL mail at the server.  We recommend you to deploy SQL mail or xp_sendmail extended stored procedure.  However other emailing options will also do the job.  In order to avoid security problems (obviously you do not want all the GP users to have the right to execute xp_sendmail), we recommend you to separate emailing routine into SQL scheduled task (which could be executed say every 30 minutes)

3.       Custom Invoice Status table.  Here you will be logging invoice info, when Dexterity cursor will place it for the following emailing, then when SQL mail will process the document you will change the status to completed or emailed

4.       Alternative email solutions.  If you would like to deploy Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal, then please review Electronic Document Delivery module for BP, as it allows you to map SOP invoices to be emailed or delivered to the customer automatically.  Obviously Great Plains Business Portal Implementation should take additional overhead, but this solution comes from MBS directly and its is supported by Microsoft

Source by Andrew Karasev

User interfaces can be classified into the following three categories:

• Command language based interfaces

• Menu-based interfaces

• Direct manipulation interfaces

Command Language-based Interface

A command language-based interface – as the name itself suggests, is based on designing a command language which the user can use to issue the commands. The user is expected to frame the appropriate commands in the language and type them in appropriately whenever required. A simple command language-based interface might simply assign unique names to the different commands. However, a more sophisticated command language-based interface may allow users to compose complex commands by using a set of primitive commands. Such a facility to compose commands dramatically reduces the number of command names one would have to remember. Thus, a command language-based interface can be made concise requiring minimal typing by the user. Command language-based interfaces allow fast interaction with the computer and simplify the input of complex commands.

Menu-based Interface

An important advantage of a menu-based interface over a command language-based interface is that a menu-based interface does not require the users to remember the exact syntax of the commands. A menu-based interface is based on recognition of the command names, rather than recollection. Further, in a menu-based interface the typing effort is minimal as most interactions are carried out through menu selections using a pointing device. This factor is an important consideration for the occasional user who cannot type fast.

However, experienced users find a menu-based user interface to be slower than a command language-based interface because an experienced user can type fast and can get speed advantage by composing different primitive commands to express complex commands. Composing commands in a menu-based interface is not possible. This is because of the fact that actions involving logical connectives (and, or, etc.) are awkward to specify in a menu-based system. Also, if the number of choices is large, it is difficult to select from the menu. In fact, a major challenge in the design of a menu-based interface is to structure large number of menu choices into manageable forms.

Direct Manipulation Interfaces

Direct manipulation interfaces present the interface to the user in the form of visual models (i.e. icons or objects). For this reason, direct manipulation interfaces are sometimes called as iconic interface. In this type of interface, the user issues commands by performing actions on the visual representations of the objects, e.g. pull an icon representing a file into an icon representing a trash box, for deleting the file. Important advantages of iconic interfaces include the fact that the icons can be recognized by the users very easily, and that icons are language-independent. However, direct manipulation interfaces can be considered slow for experienced users. Also, it is difficult to give complex commands using a direct manipulation interface. For example, if one has to drag an icon representing the file to a trash box icon for deleting a file, then in order to delete all the files in the directory one has to perform this operation individually for all files – which could be very easily done by issuing a command like delete *.*.

Source by www.tuition.net.in