How You Define and Edit Work Requirement Details in Redwood

Requirement Status

If a header is defined, you see a requirement status of Draft. Navigate to each tab to further define the forecast method, affected assets, and work definition(s) that are required to forecast the requirement. Once defined, it is expected that the requirement’s status will automatically move to Ready to Forecast. At any time, if any of the minimum criteria are deleted, the status may return to Draft.

Promote to Planning

Once you have verified the forecast preview and are ready to promote the requirement to planning, click the Release to Planning action, moving the status from Ready to Forecast to Active. The system will automatically regenerate the forecast, allowing you to view the results in the Forecast Tab, as well as Manage Forecasts page.

It is generally recommended to promote a requirement to planning immediately after confirming the forecast modeling, initialization options and forecast preview. Delay in promoting a requirement may result in due dates being stuck in the past, skipped for promotion, or skipped for work order creation as they would be calculated as being due in the past.

It is only recommended to leave a work requirement or asset in a Ready to Forecast status if:

The requirement start date is in the future, or the first due dates are far into the future.
You are still defining or validating the forecast method and initialization options.
You are waiting on assets to be created and added to the requirement.
An existing asset is not ready to be maintained yet, with due dates expected in the future.
Note: Due Dates in the past that are in a Ready to Forecast status won't be promoted to Active status if you don't promote the requirement before their due date.

Revert to Ready to Forecast

A requirement, as well as an affected asset, can be reverted from planning in Active status and returned to Ready to Forecast status. The system will automatically regenerate the forecast, allowing you to view the results in the Forecast Tab:

Due Dates in the past or present will not have their status updated.
Due Dates in the future will be updated from Active to a Ready to Forecast status if they do not have a work order or have been skipped.

You should only revert it if you need to make significant changes to its modeling or to resolve a forecasting issue. Here are some considerations:

If edits are made in a timely manner and the requirement or asset is promoted back to planning before any due dates occur in the past, then there should not be any impact. The system will automatically regenerate the forecast, allowing you to view the results in the Manage Forecasts page.
If edits aren't made on time, you can't promote the requirement or asset back to planning, then due dates in the past may or may not be generated, which could result in gaps in the forecast, skipping intervals or incorrect due dates calculations.

Pattern Tab

The pattern tab is used to further define the selected forecast methods. You must define at least one method here, based on your selection in the header, in order to generate a forecast:

Method	Action Required	Options
Calendar	You must select a calendar pattern if this method was selected in the header, else you will not see this region. You can choose from a globally defined pattern, or one created specifically for the parent program. Optionally, you can create a new pattern by clicking the Create Pattern action.	If you also select a Meter method, they will compete on each interval, earliest due date wins.
Day	You must enter in number of days between due dates if this method was selected in the header, else you will not see this region.	Select if the Method to Calculate Next Due will be based on the Base Interval or the Last Completion. It is generally recommended to use the Last Completion option. When paired with the Next Work Order Only parameter set to Yes on the Options tab, the system will wait until the latest work order is completed, then forecast dates recalculated, before creating the next work order.
Meter	You must define at least one meter if this method was selected in the header, else you will not see this region.	For an asset or asset-route based requirement, you can add one or more meters. The list of meters comes from the asset and only those that are active and enabled for maintenance programs can be selected. For an item or mixed assets requirement, the list of meters will include all meters that are active and enabled for maintenance programs.
Condition Event	You must define at least one condition event code if this method was selected in the header, else you will not see this region.	Any active condition event code, as of the current date, can be selected. Note: It is recommended to only select this option if you are using the special action to create condition-based work orders, or you are using Connected Assets. Additionally, do not define duplicate rows with the same event code, else multiple work orders will be created.

Note: You can update forecast methods for a requirement at any time. However, care should be taken, especially if work orders are already created. In this case, it is generally recommended to end date and create a new requirement if the forecast method changes. If work orders have not been created, then after updating an existing or changing to a new method, you must recreate the forecast preview to view the changes, prior to releasing to planning.

Work Definition Tab

The work definition tab is used to define what work and how often it will be performed on a forecasted interval and due date. At least one work definition must be active for a requirement to be forecasted and work orders to be created. If you define a single work definition, it will be used to create a work order on each due date. If you define more than one work definition, they will either merge or suppress on each due date and interval. Additional details about merge and suppress are covered in the section How You Model the Merging and Suppressing of Work Definitions.

Work Definition Options

The top region of the tab will allow you to determine when the forecast will start, how it will use a cycle or intervals or not, and how multiple work definitions will interact with each other on each interval.

Field	Options
Start Date	This is the work requirement start date from the header. You can optionally update the value here, as the forecast will begin from this date. Optionally, for an item or mixed assets requirement, you can define a Forecast Start Date for each Asset using the Asset Tab’s Initialize Forecast action. If defined, that date will be used as the start date for forecasting the individual asset. Additional details are covered in the sections for the Asset tab and Manage Forecast. Note: Care should be taken when setting a date at the asset level. It is generally recommended for introducing new assets after a requirement is created and forecasted, allowing for the initialization of an individual asset’s forecast.
Forecast using a cycle	Option to define whether the work requirement is to be forecasted based on the intervals in a cycle or not. By default, this is set to No. Therefore, the forecast will just repeat based on the forecast method and each work definition will be due. This is the equivalent of repeating on a cycle of one interval. If set to Yes, you must define the number of intervals in a cycle, using a value greater than one. Additionally, you should review the current requirement options of suppress and merge to determine how they interact on overlapping intervals.
Number of Intervals per Cycle	Number of intervals that occur during each cycle. This field is required if the Forecast using a cycle option is set to Yes. You can use intervals to define which work definitions fall on an interval and if they merge or suppress when more than one definition falls on the same interval. Intervals can also be helpful, along with the forecast method, to generate a forecast that falls on certain periods. You can only set a value greater than one1 to forecast using a cycle of intervals. To have a single repeating interval, set the Forecast using a cycle option to No.
Program concurrent Work Requirements	Displays the option defined at program level to handle scenarios where one or more work requirements are due on the same interval.
Override Program setting for concurrent requirements	Option to define whether the concurrent requirements option defined at program level is to be overridden and defined only within the work requirement. By default, a newly created requirement will have this option set to Yes. Merge and suppress options, that support multiple work definitions across intervals in a cycle, are best modeled and forecasted within a single work requirement. If set to Yes, the work requirement is forecasted independently of other work requirements. Additionally, the selected suppress or merge option is applied to each work definition on each interval. If set to No, the work requirement will use the Program level options. Additionally, the merge and suppress across work definitions is enabled globally by setting the asset maintenance parameter, Allow Suppress and Merge across Work Requirements in a Maintenance Program. We recommend setting this parameter to No, thereby disabling this capability unless you have an established business requirement and fully understand its capability and limitations. If this parameter set to No, then the override isn’t needed, but it will not impact anything if the option is set = Yes in this page.
If Work Definitions are concurrent	This field is required if the Override Program setting for concurrent requirements option is set to Yes. The valid values are Suppress and Merge: Suppress: This option is only applicable if you have a cycle of intervals. If set, then the work requirement with the highest cycle interval is included when creating the forecast and work order. In other words, the work requirement with a lower cycle interval is suppressed by a work requirement with a higher cycle interval. Merge: This option is available for both cycle options. If there is not a cycle of intervals, then by default all work definitions must merge. However, for a cycle of intervals, you can optionally select this option.

List of Work Definitions

The bottom region is used to include on or more work definitions and which interval they are due, if on a cycle of intervals. The latest version of the work definition is selected when a row is defined. However, when a work order is created, the system will always pick the latest version for the corresponding due date.

Note: Work Definitions must be setup in the contextual Organization of the parent Program. If the Program is enabled for assets across organizations, then you must setup matching Work Definitions, using the same Name, in each Organization where work orders will be created from forecasted due dates.

To add a work definition, click the Add Work Definition button and select from or enter values in the following fields.

Field

Description

Name

Name of the work definition. The latest version as of the current date will be used.

Code

Unique code of the work definition, this value is read only.

Description

Description of the work definition, this value is read only.

Due at Cycle Interval

Interval in the cycle of intervals on which the work definition is due. This field is only displayed and editable if you are using a cycle of intervals. Else, the field is not viewable.

This value must be greater or equal to 1 and lesser or equal to the total number of intervals defined within the cycle.

If more than one work definition is defined on the same interval in a cycle, then the merge and suppress options will apply from the top region.

Repeats in Cycle

Option to indicate that work definition repeats on each iteration of the cycle interval over the life of the cycle. This field is only displayed and editable if you are using a cycle of intervals. Else, the field is not viewable.

If set to Yes, then only ever increment of the interval over the cycle it will be due.

For example, if you have a cycle of 12 intervals, here's how this indicator works:

Number of Intervals	Due at Cycle Interval	Repeats in Cycle	Outcome
12	1	No	Due only on Interval 1
12	1	Yes	Due on all intervals, 1 to12
12	3	No	Due only on Interval 3
12	3	Yes	Due on intervals 3, 6, 9 and 12
12	6	No	Due only on Interval 6
12	6	Yes	Due on intervals 6 and 12
12	12	Yes or No	Due only on Interval 12

Edit

Let's you edit a work definition row if it isn't disabled and if the work requirement status is Draft or Ready to Forecast.

Edit

Let's you delete a work definition row if it isn't disabled, if the work requirement status is Draft or Ready to Forecast, and no work orders have been created. If work orders have been created, you can only Disable a work definition.

Disable

Let's you disable a work definition row if the work requirement status is Draft or Ready to Forecast, and work orders have been created. Disabling will no longer consider the work definition in future forecast dates.

Enable

Let's you enable a disabled work definition row if the work requirement status is Draft or Ready to Forecast.

Work Definition Merge and Suppress Verification Using the Redwood Page

From the Work Definitions tab, you can review if the work requirement uses a cycle of intervals or not, as well as manage the list of applicable work definitions.

If the requirement is enabled for cycles, you may want to understand at which intervals the work definition is due over a cycle. Additionally, if you have more than work definition, you may want to understand at which intervals the work definition is due, as well as the outcome of merge and suppress rules.

Verify the outcome of the merge and suppress options by generating a preview forecast and verify the results in the Forecast tab. The suppressed column in the forecast results tab will indicate if a work definition is suppressed or not, meaning it is due and is merged, on an interval.

Assets Tab

The Asset tab is used to manage the affected asset(s) for the work requirement. For an asset or asset-route based requirement, there's a single row; but for an item-based requirement, there's a list of every asset based on that item for an organization that's maintainable. For a mixed asset requirement, you will add and remove assets from the list.

For each asset, this page lists:

Asset details, including its description, serial number and operating and maintenance organizations.
Indication of its ability to create work orders or not, from the asset definition.
Work Order Creation option that defaults from the work requirement, but you can update it here.
Indication if work orders have been created by this work requirement or not. This controls if an asset can be initialized in the forecast or not.
Asset status that tells if it is included or excluded from the affected assets list.
Forecast status that tells you if the asset will be forecasted or not. This applies only to included assets, as excluded assets are not considered by the forecast. Additional details are covered in the Initialize Forecast section below.
Indication if an initialization option defined or not, such as a historical last completed date.

Each asset will display both an operating and maintenance organization. If the asset operates in a maintenance organization, as defined in the asset definition, then the forecast for the asset will always be created as due in the same organization. There is not any capability to override and select a different organization in the requirement and organizational relationships between maintenance organizations have no impact. If an asset operates in a non-maintenance organization, such as a manufacturing or other inventory organization, then by default it will be forecasted and have work orders created in the parent program’s organization, unless a primary organization relationship is defined.

Item-based Requirement

For an item-based requirement, if the Include Assets attribute is set to Automatically include assets, then rendering the Assets tab shows each asset as implicitly included in the forecast with a status shown Included. Alternatively, if you select the option Manually include assets, then each asset is implicitly excluded in the forecast with a status shown Excluded.

It’s important to set the Include Assets option correctly during the initial creation of the requirement header and before assets are explicitly included or excluded, and before Asset initialization options are defined. Else, if you change the option afterwards, any explicit exclusion or inclusion of assets, along with initialization options, are reversed and deleted.

The Automatically include assets option should be used when you expect most or all the assets for an item to be forecasted in the same work requirement. This also means that any new asset that's created is also implicitly Included and considered by the forecast. You can then explicitly Exclude only certain assets from the affected list of assets. The Exclude All option is available but should be used with caution. The Include All option is also available and is typically used to reverse all the previously explicitly excluded assets. This means the assets will return to being implicitly included. If you want to exclude all the assets and start from scratch by explicitly including only certain assets, it's a better practice to change the Include Assets option to Manually include assets.

The Manually include assets option should be used if you want to explicitly define which assets are included in the forecast. This means that the work requirement doesn't consider any of the assets based on that item by default, as they're each implicitly excluded. You can see the list of assets on the affected items page and each asset has a status of Excluded by default. You can explicitly include the assets that you want to forecast by selecting one or more rows and clicking the Include action button, as the status will change to Included. For assets that were previously included, you can choose to exclude them by clicking the Exclude action button, and their status turns gray again. This means the asset returns to being implicitly excluded. You can also use the Include All and Exclude All action buttons. If you want to include all the assets and start from scratch by explicitly excluding only certain assets, it's a better practice to change the Include Assets option to Automatically include assets.

Mixed Assets Requirement

For this option, you must manually include assets by searching and adding them one at the time. Remember, there is not any validation against an item, so you can search, select, and add any asset enabled for work orders and maintenance programs, depending on the parent Program’s option for assets across organizations. For a parent program that is not defined for assets across organizations, you will only be able to select active assets in its contextual organization.

You can also remove an Asset by using the Exclude action. This will delete it from the affected assets list, along with any initialization options that may have been defined.

Initialize Forecast for an Asset

You can optionally define how an included asset will be forecasted, and work orders created, by selecting an asset and clicking the action, rendering the Initialize Forecast drawer. The drawer has these options:

Optionally define how the first due date will be calculated for each asset. It is highly recommended during the initial implementation of a work requirement, as well as the introduction of new affected assets in the future, to initialize an asset’s first due date by setting these values. Additional details are covered in the section How You Manage Maintenance Forecasts:
- Historical Last Completed Date: Enter the last date the work definition(s) were accomplished in an external application or legacy system. The date must be before the current date.
- Historical Last Interval: If the work requirement is cycle-based with intervals, then enter the interval at which you last completed maintenance on the Last Completed Date.
- Forecast Start Date: You can optionally enter a date if you wish for the forecast to begin on a date in the future. If not set, then the system will use the requirement start date. It is recommended that you only set a date in the future, greater than the current date.
Optionally update how work orders are created for a forecast due date. By default, assets will inherit the Work Order Creation option from the work requirement header. On this drawer, you can optionally update the value:
- Work Orders are Automatically created for a forecasted due date.
- However, if you wish to manually create work orders for each due date using the Maintenance Forecast page or special action in the REST API, then you can set this option to Manually. If set to Manually, the Generate Maintenance Work Orders scheduled process ignores the forecasted due dates and work orders aren't created.
Optionally update an asset’s Forecast Status, overriding the requirement status. The values are:
- Active – asset will be considered in preview and planning forecasts.
- Ready to Forecast - asset will be considered only in preview forecasts. It is still included in the work requirement but will only be forecasted for preview.
- Draft – asset will never be forecasted. It is still included in the work requirement but won’t be forecasted

Forecast Status

Each result row will display the Forecast Status, which is based off both the requirement and asset’s individual forecast status. For an asset or asset route-based work requirement, this status is inherited from the work requirement and it not updatable here. For an item or mixed asset-based requirement, the status is inherited from the work requirement, but you can optionally override its value at the asset level.

When generating the forecast for the requirement, the system will first look at the requirement’s status:

Ready to Forecast: All forecast rows will initially be set to a status of Ready to Forecast. These forecast lines can only be viewed on the Forecast tab and will not be seen in the Manage Forecasts page, as the dates will not be available for work order creation. This capability allows you to finetune your modeling, reforecast as many times as are needed to confirm your criteria. Once you are satisfied, you can release the requirement it to planning, regenerate the forecast and the forecast rows will move to the status of Active.
Active: Forecast rows with a status of Active means they can be viewed not only in the Forecast tab, but also in the Manage Forecasts page and will be available for work order creation

If you initialize the forecast for an asset, then its status may be different that other assets in the forecast rows. This allows you to prohibit an asset from any forecast or keep it in a status of Ready to Forecast until it is ready to Release to Planning. In general, you should only override the requirement’s status at the asset level for certain scenarios, as recommended below.

Note: An included asset will be overridden by the forecast status when generating a forecast.

Common scenarios and recommendations to override an asset’s forecast status:

Work Requirement Status	Asset Status	Update To	Recommendation
Draft	Active, by default	Draft if you don’t wish for the asset to be considered in either forecast once the requirement status is promoted. Ready to Forecast if you only want the asset to be considered only in the forecast preview.	It is recommended to leave the status in Active at this point unless you explicitly want to exclude it from any forecasting.
Ready to Forecast	Active, by default	Draft if you want to remove it from the forecast preview and not consider it in either forecast once the requirement status is promoted. Ready to Forecast if you have verified the forecast preview but are not ready to release the asset to planning.	It is recommended to leave the status in Active unless you explicitly want to exclude it from the planning forecast.
Active	Ready to Forecast	Draft if you want to remove it from the forecast preview and not consider it in either forecast once the requirement status is promoted. Active if you wish to promote it to the planning forecast.	You can leave an asset in Ready to Forecast status if you have verified the forecast preview but are not ready to release the asset to planning. One promoted to Active, you should generate the forecast again, allowing you to view it in the Forecast tab, as well as the Manage Forecasts page.
Active	Active, by default	Draft if you want to remove it from all forecasting. Ready to Forecast if you wish to remove it from the planning forecast.	It is recommended to leave the status in Active unless you want to demote the asset from planning. Future due dates will be deleted, if they don’t have a work order, the next time the forecast is generated.

Options Tab

The options tab allows you to view and adjust work order and forecast options. For a work order, these fields can be optionally set and edited. For the Generate Work Orders program, give these details:

Field	Description
Create Work Orders Option	Option that controls if work orders are created Automatically default or Manually for a forecasted due date. Work Orders are automatically created for a forecasted due date. However, if you wish to manually create work orders for each due date using the Maintenance Forecast page or the special action in the REST API, then you can set this option to Manually. If set to Manually, the Generate Maintenance Work Orders scheduled process ignores the forecasted due dates and work orders aren't created. Note: It's recommended to leave the option at the default value of Automatically unless your business process uses the Maintenance Forecast page or REST API exclusively to create work orders for these due dates.
Work Order Status	Option that controls the status of the work orders created for a due date. You can select from the predefined values: Unreleased (default), Released, or On-hold. You can also select customer-defined values that are created based on these predefined system status values.
Firm Work Orders	Option that controls if the work orders created for a due date are set as Yes or No (default) for Firm, which controls if they're scheduled or not respectively.
Work Order Priority	Optional field that sets the priority of the work orders created for a due date. Valid values are positive whole numbers. No default priority is defined.
Next work order only	Option that controls the behavior of the creation of work orders from the forecast. By default, the value is set to No. This means that work orders are created for forecasted due dates within the work order creation window that's defined for the organization. When you set the option to Yes, work orders are only created for the next due date in the forecast. When the open work order is completed, a new work order is created for the next forecasted due date. We recommend you schedule the Generate Maintenance Work Orders scheduled process daily to create new work orders. We recommend that if Day or Meter Intervals are used as the forecast method, you select the Next work order option to Yes. This includes setting the Method to Calculate Next Due to Last Completion. This allows a dynamic adjustment of future due dates within the forecast horizon based on previous work order completion and meter reading entry. Else, the forecast may not dynamically forecast taking into consideration the last completion of a work order for a maintenance program. If you regularly have work orders that aren't completed before the next forecasted due date, enable the capability to adjust future due dates in the forecast based on either the scheduled or actual completion date of the last open work order in history, along with the latest meter reading. See the How You Manage Maintenance Forecasts section to learn more.

For the forecast, these fields can be optional set and edited. They will be considered by the Generate Forecast program:

Field

Description

Forecast Window in Days

Optional value that represents the number of days into the future the maintenance forecast is created for each asset in this work requirement. If not defined, then either the number of days value at the program header or the organization parameter will be used. The lowest level of definition takes precedence.

It is generally recommended to only define a number of days value if the work requirement requires a forecast window that is longer in duration than the program header. Optionally, you can define for a shorter forecast window.

For example, you may have a program header that is defined to forecast out 90 days, but you have work requirement that is due every 180 days. Therefore, setting a value at the requirement level of at least 180 days is helpful to view the due dates in the forecast for planning visibility.

Work Order Window in Days

Optional value that represents the number of days into the future that work orders for maintenance forecast are created for each asset in this work requirement. If not defined, then either the number of days value at the program header or the organization parameter is used. The lowest level of definition takes precedence.

It is generally recommended to only define a number of days value if the work requirement requires a work order window that is longer in duration than the program header. Optionally, you can define for a shorter work order window.

For example, you may have a program header that is defined to create work orders out 45 days, but you have work requirement that is due every 180 days. Therefore, setting a value at the requirement level of at least 180 days is helpful to create work orders out into the future to support planning.

Forecast Tab

The Forecast tab allows you to preview the forecast and validate your forecast method, as well as each asset’s initialization options. Prior to promoting the requirement to planning, while in the status of Ready to Forecast, you can generate a forecast preview. Once the requirement is promoted to planning, you can also view the active forecast as well, or a mix of preview and active results rows by asset.

While initially displaying only results for the contextual work requirement, this tab will return results across programs and work requirements, allowing you to perform an impact analysis on existing PMs for the asset. Additional details around validating the forecast are covered in the section How You Manage Maintenance Forecasts.

Search and Filter

Use the keyword search to search by Work Requirement name, Asset Number or Asset Description. Upon entering the tab, the initial results will be rendered for the work requirement in context. These filters are also available to further refine your results:

Organization
Forecast Status
Due Date
Asset Number
Asset Description
Suppressed
Item Number
Item Description
Forecast Location
Program

Additionally, you can manage which columns are displayed during your session to further enhance visibility.

Results Rows

The results rows are a little different than the Maintenance Forecast page, as they will display details for each individual forecast line for a work definition, when it is due on an interval, and how it interacts with other work definitions, if defined. The results rows show these key columns.

Work Requirement
Asset
Asset Description
Serial Number
Forecast Location
Work Definition
Version
Forecast Sequence
Interval
Due Date
Forecast Status
Suppressed Yes/No
Last Forecast Date

This level of detail, previously only available in OTBI reporting, allows you to understand the outcome of your modeling, merge and suppress options and work definition repetition more clearly over each interval in the forecast window. You can also export the search results by clicking the export action icon. The downloaded excel file contains all the forecast line details. For each row, scrolling right will display all the additional forecast line details. This includes details about the forecast method, including these fields:

Calendar Pattern: Used to calculate the due date.
Day Interval: Number of days between intervals.
Meter Name: If more than one meter is defined, rows will display for each meter.
Meter Interval: Base utilization interval for calculating the due date.
Meter Utilization Rate: Value at the time of forecast creation, used with the Meter Interval for calculating the due date. Will either be the Daily Utilization or Calculated utilization rate defined for the asset meter.
Forecasted Meter Reading Value: Due at meter reading value as of the calculated due date.
Program: Parent program of the work requirement.

Each result row will display the Forecast Status, which is based off both the requirement and asset’s individual forecast status. For an asset or asset route-based work requirement, this status is inherited from the work requirement and it not updatable here. For an item or mixed asset-based requirement, the status is inherited from the asset, and will default to the work requirement status. You can optionally override it in the asset’s tab using the Initialize Forecast options.