Siebel Field Service Guide > Scheduling and Dispatch > Appointment Booking System >

Best Practice: Preventive Maintenance and the ABS

The optional Preventive Maintenance module allows users to set triggers on assets, which, when tripped, automatically create service requests and activities for these assets. There are two types of triggers, time-based and threshold-based.

Threshold-based preventive maintenance depends on asset readings (such as the number of copies made on a copier) and are reactive (taking a reading results in creating a service request). The service requests that the Preventive Maintenance Engine creates usually require immediate action, as opposed to action in the future. Immediate actions use the Siebel Contract Scheduling module. The ABS is involved only if the service call can be delayed more than a specified number of days. For more information, see Contract Scheduling.

Time-based preventive maintenance triggers, for legal or contractual reasons, require periodic, proactive checks on equipment. The Preventive Maintenance Engine generates service requests and future activities. One of the activities could be an outbound call from the dispatcher or customer service representative to schedule a time for service. When the customer service representative calls the customer, the representative can use the ABS to negotiate a time.