2 Overview to Equipment Identification

This chapter contains the following topics:

2.1 Objectives

  • To create equipment master information

  • To create supplemental equipment information

  • To locate equipment information

  • To access other programs from an equipment identification program

  • To review parent and component relationships and history online

2.2 About Equipment Identification

You must identify every piece of your equipment in the system before you can use Equipment/Plant Maintenance. After you create the necessary equipment identification information, you can:

  • Account for equipment in quantities

  • Search for equipment status, location, and activity online

  • Track historical, current, and planned physical locations for a piece of equipment

  • Keep detailed maintenance and project logs

  • View assembly components individually or in groups

Identifying equipment consists of the following tasks:

  • Creating an equipment master

  • Entering additional detailed information

  • Searching for equipment information

  • Working with message logs

  • Reviewing parent and component information

2.2.1 How Does the System Use Equipment Identification?

Equipment identification is the foundation of several JD Edwards World systems, in addition to Equipment/Plant Maintenance. When you identify equipment, consider the following issues:

  • Type of information required

  • Category codes and equipment identification

  • Equipment identification numbers

  • Parent and component relationships

2.2.2 Types of Equipment Identification Information

Equipment identification consists of four types of information:

  • Equipment master

  • Supplemental data

  • Specification data

  • Message logs

You must create an equipment master for every piece of equipment to use the system's management features, such as scheduling equipment for preventive maintenance and tracking maintenance costs. You can also include supplemental data and message logs to further define equipment in the system.

Equipment Master

The equipment master is a repository of the standard information related to a specific piece of equipment. You must create an equipment master for every piece of equipment to manage equipment inventory, costs, warranties, billing, preventive maintenance, and so on.

In Equipment/Plant Maintenance, you use the equipment master to:

  • Set up equipment for maintenance processing

  • Set up parent/component relationships and track components as both equipment and inventory

  • Link parts inventory to specific equipment

For example, you can set up preventive maintenance (PM) schedules for a large ventilation fan. You can identify a motor from inventory as one of the components of a fan. You can set up PMs for the motor as well, and attach parts lists to both the motor and the fan.

Supplemental Data

You can use supplemental data to record information that is important to your organization but is not included on the equipment master. Supplemental data is entirely user defined. You can use columnar and text formats to enter supplemental data. You can also establish security for supplemental data by user identification.

Specification Data

You can use specification data to record and track static information not included on the equipment master. For example, you might record nameplate data.

Message Logs

In addition to supplemental data, you can indicate the status and condition of a piece of equipment using the free-form remark capability of message logs. You can associate message logs with equipment to record operator notes or maintenance problems for equipment. You can also attach tickler dates to maintenance due messages so that they will appear at specified dates or intervals based on units, such as miles or hours.

Depending on the type of information that you want to maintain, you can use equipment messages to meet any of your information needs. Use equipment messages to:

  • Note special procedures for scheduled or preventive maintenance tasks

  • Report on actual maintenance

  • Log problems or complaints about a specific piece of equipment

2.2.3 Category Codes and Equipment Identification

Set up category codes to further classify equipment for tracking, reporting, and data selection throughout the system. You can define up to 23 category codes to meet your organization's information needs. Use these category codes in the equipment master to describe equipment and group similar types of equipment.

If you use Equipment/Plant Maintenance with the JD Edwards World Fixed Assets system, the two systems access the same category code tables. The system displays the first 5 or first 10 category codes on the Equipment Search screen. Typically, Equipment/Plant Maintenance users access this screen more frequently than Fixed Asset users. In addition, Equipment/Plant Maintenance users frequently use the first 10 category codes as selection criteria for several tasks, such as selecting equipment for updating meter readings, selecting equipment for updating PM schedules, and so on. You should reserve as many of the first 10 category codes in the equipment master as you need for equipment maintenance purposes.

2.2.4 Equipment Identification Numbers

You can use up to three numbers to identify equipment throughout your system:

  • Item number

  • Unit number

  • Serial number

Every equipment master in your system must include an item number. You can also enter unit and serial numbers. You must define which of these numbers is used as the primary number for identifying equipment in your system. Any identification number that you assign to a piece of equipment on the equipment master must be unique throughout your entire system.

2.2.5 Parent and Component Relationships

You can set up parent and component relationships to group individual pieces of equipment. For example, when you create master information, you can identify a building as a parent item. One of its components might be an air conditioner. The component of one item can also be the parent of another. For example, the air conditioner might be the parent of a number of components, including a motor, filters, and a compressor. Those components, in turn, might be the parents of still other components, and so on.

You can establish up to 25 hierarchical levels of parent and component relationships. The system assigns each component a number according to its level in the hierarchy. This is particularly useful to track and report on complex equipment assemblies.

The following graphic illustrates a typical relationship between parent and component equipment:

Figure 2-1 Relationship Between Parent and Component Equipment

Description of Figure 2-1 follows
Description of "Figure 2-1 Relationship Between Parent and Component Equipment"