1. Capital Asset Management Implementation Guide
  2. Understanding Maintenance Routes

Understanding Maintenance Routes

Create a maintenance route when you need to perform identical routine maintenance tasks, such as equipment inspections, on multiple pieces of equipment.

When you use maintenance routes, you eliminate the need for separate work orders for each piece of equipment within the maintenance route. For example, if you have 25 pumps of a similar style and configuration for which you perform a routine inspection every week, you can:

  • Set up a PM service type to perform a weekly inspection for one pump.

  • Apply the other pumps to the PM for the first pump.

When the service type for the weekly inspection comes due, the system generates a PM for each pump, but generates only one work order for the original pump. When the system creates a work order for a maintenance route PM, it stores the associated equipment in the work order record type that you specify in equipment constants.

You complete the work order for a maintenance route by accessing the work order directly from Work With Work Orders (P48201) or by using Preventive Maintenance Backlog (P12071).

When you complete the work order, the system indicates a completed status for all of the pieces of equipment that are included in the maintenance route. Use this method when you have completed the maintenance task for all of the pieces of equipment.

The system recycles only the original PM. It does not recycle the PMs for the associated equipment.

You can create a maintenance route by using a virtual or logical piece of equipment, such as a production line or department. The logical equipment encompasses the equipment that you want to include in the route. If you use a logical piece of equipment as the basis for a maintenance route, you must create an equipment master for the logical piece of equipment.

You use Preventive Maintenance Backlog to specify individual pieces of equipment for which you want to indicate a status of complete. This action is useful if you have completed the maintenance task for some of the equipment in a maintenance route but do not want to indicate a status of complete for other equipment. For example, a piece of equipment that is scheduled for inspection might not be available on the date of the inspection.

When you use the Preventive Maintenance Backlog program to complete individual PMs, the status of the work order remains open. To complete the work order for a maintenance route, you must manually change the work order status.