Maintenance / Corrective Maintenance / Background Data – Inventory Manager

Using Fleet Management or the Equipment Table When Storing Parts in Vehicles

As an inventory manager, you are able to flexibly define multiple storage locations for parts. For example, you can define locations to be warehouses, storage closets, rooms, portable carts, or craftspersons' vehicles.

When storing parts in vehicles, consider whether you need the more extensive features of the Archibus Fleet Management application. This application enables you to track and report on vehicles separately when it comes to preventive maintenance, drivers, vehicle schedules, and so on.

For example, you can create schedules for vehicle assignments and shop times, and assign vehicles to department or employees.

Using the Equipment table for vehicles

If you do not need the full feature set of Fleet Management, you can enter the vehicles you are using as storage locations into the Equipment (eq) table. Having vehicles in the Equipment table means that, just as with any other piece of equipment, the vehicles can be subject to preventive maintenance and asset management tasks without much customization.

The process is as follows:

You first create an equipment record for the mobile storage units (vehicles or carts). See Adding Equipment.
You then define the mobile storage as a storage location, entering the Equipment Code in the Mobile Asset Code field. See Defining Storage Locations.
A supervisor or craftsperson can use the Maintenance Console to reserve parts from the mobile storage locations. See Estimating parts and storage locations.
Use tasks, such as the Manage Parts Inventory to track and mange parts for these mobile storage locations. For example, you could add parts as newly received if a craftsperson purchases parts and stores them in their vehicle. Or, you can put in a supply requisition to transfer parts to a vehicle if the parts are needed there. See Managing Parts Inventory.
Create preventive maintenance schedules for maintenance on this vehicle, just as you would for other types of equipment. See Define PM Schedules.

Using the Archibus Fleet Management application

If you plan to use the Fleet Management application either now or at a later date, it is best to manage the fleet as vehicles from the start. In this case, we suggest that you update your schema to include the Vehicles table, as well as adding a foreign key from the Parts in Storage Locations table (pt_store_loc_pt) to the Vehicle table. This would enable you to migrate to Fleet Management in the future with reduced data-migration requirements.

The following table shows the suggested fields to include in the Vehicles table when you update your schema.

afm_flds.table_name	field_name	ml_heading	afm_type	allow_null	data_type	is_atxt	afm_module	primary_key	ref_table	afm_size	string_format	is_tc_traceable	validate_data
vehicle	ac_id	Account Code	2,050	1	1	0	1	0	ac	32	10	0	1
vehicle	comments	Comments	2,050	1	12	0	1	0		500	5	0	1
vehicle	date_assign	Date Assigned to Dept.	2,050	1	9	0	1	0		0	5	0	1
vehicle	date_assign_em	Date Assigned to Employee	2,050	1	9	0	1	0		0	5	0	1
vehicle	description	Vehicle Description	2,050	1	1	0	1	0		100	5	0	1
vehicle	dp_id	Perm. Dept. Assigned	2,050	1	1	0	1	0	dp	16	10	0	1
vehicle	dv_id	Perm. Div. Assigned	2,050	1	1	0	1	0	dv	16	10	0	1
vehicle	em_id	Perm. Employee Assigned	2,050	1	1	0	1	0	em	35	10	0	1
vehicle	license	vehicle License Plate	2,050	1	1	0	1	0		10	5	0	1
vehicle	loc_vehicle	Vehicle Location	2,050	1	1	0	1	0		50	5	0	1
vehicle	num_serial	Serial Number	2,050	1	1	0	1	0		22	5	0	1
vehicle	option1	Option 1	2,050	1	1	0	1	0		16	5	0	1
vehicle	option2	vehicle Option 2	2,050	1	1	0	1	0		16	5	0	1
vehicle	vehicle_id	Vehicle Code	2,065	0	1	1	1	1		12	10	1	1