How Does Every One Else Do It
How Does Every One Else Do It
(OP)
Guys,
How do you track every thing going on? I have nine divisions my group supports (15 different buildings), all extremely different. We receive 4-5 new system / change requests, 8 - 10 new urgent maintenance items, and have 5 team members with each having 2 - 4 items they are working on weekly. Currently we utilize two spread sheets to track this and there is a lot of double or triple entry.
Does any one use a software package to do this? If so what? How do your users request changes (Web form, email, phone, fax)?
Thank you ahead of time for your help.
How do you track every thing going on? I have nine divisions my group supports (15 different buildings), all extremely different. We receive 4-5 new system / change requests, 8 - 10 new urgent maintenance items, and have 5 team members with each having 2 - 4 items they are working on weekly. Currently we utilize two spread sheets to track this and there is a lot of double or triple entry.
Does any one use a software package to do this? If so what? How do your users request changes (Web form, email, phone, fax)?
Thank you ahead of time for your help.
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
Greg Akhibi
Clearwaters Consulting Ltd
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
Is the spreadsheet difficult to interpret? Maybe you should be using something like an Access database. Are the duplicate entries identical? Some vetting of the entries are also possible in Excel, but is probably easier in Access, i.e., checking to see if there are any open tasks with similar parameters, e.g., location, responsible engineer, etc.
TTFN
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
Break Down of current Process
Change / New System Requests –
The Manager or assistant manager of the division affected fills out a request form. Some time these are typed or hand written. This form includes the following info, authorizing manager, contact person, division, location, description of change wanted, ROI info, what the change is to (equipment wise), and priority. These forms are then in turn faxed, mailed, or emailed to us. Then a secretary enters this data into an Excel spread sheet.
Then I go in the spread sheet put estimated time, estimated cost of needed equipment, any concerns, prioritize based on other project. and if it is a rush job then the person assigned.
Then once a week the Director of our company goes through and priorities the projects and adds any that he thinks need to be added.
Then through out the week we update the status with time left, time worked, and when completed. If we complete an item, we have to fill out a form (which all the data is in the Excel work book) and email it to every one involved. Then when we deployed it we need to re email this form updated to say deployed.
Fixes / Bugs / Outages –
We go into a program called Magic, this program was meant to track computer hardware programs. Our IT department has locked down this program to the point that there is no easy way to track problems on a single piece equipment. It was also not meant to get the detail we are looking for.
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We have looked at a number of other solutions to combine all this in to a single process but have not see any we care for. We are hoping for a web based application. I also looked at DataStream MP2 and 7i. 7i is to costly, and MP2 would require us to create a web page in house to customize it as much as we wanted. We have found some open source applications, but most would require some major modification.
Any one have any ideas?
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
Where is this "detail" that you're looking for? Are they part of the original trouble ticket?
You still seem to be describing a relational database system with custom reports. Hypothetically, in such a database, you can call up historical tickets correlated to whatever field you desire and ask for whatever ancillary details you want.
Likewise a relational database report will show up duplicate workorders that can then be pruned.
TTFN
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
I realize a database would work, but I was hoping for a web based application that would work and if possible is open source so we can modify it.
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
As long as anybody can go into the database and make alterations, you will be face with double entries.
Suggestion:
1 Appoint a database manager with the authority to add or delete from records
2 Any suggestions, whether from the director or ceo must be sent to that officer.
3 If your magic program is not of any particular use, then scrap it. Otherwise make sure issues that are specifically addressed by the Magic program are not entered into the spreadsheet. This can be done by adding an identifier on the request form to indicate the nature of the problem. This way items that will be captured by the Magic software would be eliminated at data entry.
Greg Akhibi
Clearwaters Consulting Ltd
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
TTFN
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
A work request is entered electronically and if the request is accepted it is generated into a work order and you can estimate the cost, proritize, schedule, assign to a person, link to a piece of equipment and track the history of all work done to that equipment. These features just scratch the surface but you get the idea. ?It also has user security so you can control access to each function.
Google CMMS and see what you get.
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
You are correct in realizing the need for customization. We built an intranet portal for the entire organization (400 users) to use, and have created linked Access apps with special functionality for more limited audiences, mainly in the Engineering group. The cost of MP2 seats And the complexity of the UI made this necessary.
I suspect a relational database with web access is where you'll end up. Question is how will you get there? Something like MP2 costs more up front but is transactionally more robust.
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It
Thank you
RE: How Does Every One Else Do It