Creating Schedules for Recurring Work Orders

Sometimes work such as preventive maintenance tasks is done on a recurring basis. The Work Order Management system provides a mechanism for creating a schedule for when these tasks will be performed. In order to configure a recurring work order, a template will be associated with the schedule for when the tasks will be performed. The template work order will be associated with the schedule and used to generate a new work order at specified intervals. To generate the work orders, the WOUTRS utility is run with a specified starting and ending date range.

When the utility is run, all the schedules are examined to verify if a work order is required that falls within the date range entered by the user. If a match is found, the necessary work order(s) is/are generated. The WOUTRS utility does not permit a work order number to be entered so when it is run it will generate the work orders for all schedules that have matching criteria.

When creating the schedule in WOUPSC, the user assigns a Schedule ID and Description to identify the order.

It is recommended that the user develop a naming schema for the schedules.
The user may also define a value in the WO Prefix field that will be used to assign a work order number when the utility is run to create the new work orders.
The prefix may be different for each schedule.
Using prefixes may be a good way to differentiate the work orders created by the various schedules versus those created by other users.

If the WO Prefix is assigned, the user is also allowed to assign a number in the Value field that will be used to create the work order number for the work orders created using the schedule. The Template WO field is a required field that is used to tell the system which template work order it should use. The work order number must have already been created in the WOUPWO page since it will be validated when the WOUTRS utility is run to generate the work orders that use the schedule. The creation of work orders may optionally be restricted to certain time periods by putting a date and or month (seasons) in the following fields:

To specify dates: fill out the "Start Dt" and "End Dt" fields.
To specify seasonal work: enter month numbers in the "Seasonal from:" and "to:" fields.

A priority may be defined using the required criteria, but there is no programming to enforce priorities. The field is for inquiry and reporting purposes only.

The "Frequency" fields are required fields that are used to tell the system how often the work orders are to be generated and when. It consists of two fields:

The first field contains a number that references how many days, weeks or months to use in determining when to create the new work order.
The second field contains a list of values defined in the WOUPCD page with a Code ID of FREQ.
These fields work together to determine how frequently a work order is generated.

The list of values defined in the WOUPCD page with a Code ID of FREQ includes the following:

DAYC – Days After Completion.
DAYS – Days After Schedule.
MOC – Months After Completion.
MOS – Months After Schedule.
WKC – Weeks After Completion.
WKS – Weeks After Schedule.
YRX – Years After Completion.
YRS – Years After Schedule.

Note that these values are the only ones that will work with the program so the user needs to ensure that the values are not deleted from the table.

The Frequency fields work as follows:

Frequency fields that have a description that includes the words "After Completion" will use the number in the first field and calculate when the next work order should be generated based on the date in the Last Complete Date on the schedule record.
The "Last Complete Dt" field is updated whenever a work order using the schedule is completed.
For example, if the numeric field is 1, the last completed date is 05/01/2016, and the second field is set to WKC, then the next work order would be created with a Scheduled date of 05/08/2016. If the number field was set to 2, then the next work order would be created with a Scheduled date of 05/15/2016.
Frequency fields that have a description that includes the words "After Schedule" will use the number in the first field and calculate when the next work order should be generated based on the date in the "Last Schedule Dt" on the schedule record.
The Last Schedule Dt field is updated whenever a work order using the schedule is created.
For example, if the numeric field is 1, the Last Schedule Dt is 05/02/2016, and the second field is set to WKS, then the next work order would be created with a Scheduled date of 05/08/2016 even if the prior work order was not completed until after it was scheduled.
In the example above, if the WOUTRS utility is run, then the next work order generated would have a Scheduled date of 04/08/2016 and the Last Schedule Dt field in this schedule would be set to 04/08/2016. If the work order with the Scheduled date of 04/08/2016 is completed on 04/11/2016 then the Last Complete Dt field would be set to 04/11/2016 and the next time the utility is run it would use the 04/08/2016 date in the calculation.

The WOUTRS utility will examine all of the schedules in the WOUPSC page to determine if any work orders need to be created for that schedule. In order for a work order to be created the following statements must be true:

The schedule has a Status of "AC" (Active).
If a Start Dt and/or End Dt is present in the schedule, then the Starting Transaction Date and Ending Transaction Date values entered in the utility fall within the date range defined in the schedule.
IF a value is present in the "Seasonal from:" and "to:" fields in the schedule, then the Starting Transaction Date and Ending Transaction Date values entered in the utility fall within the month range defined in the schedule.
The next scheduled date calculated using the Frequency fields falls between the Starting Transaction Date and Ending Transaction Date values entered on the utility.