Customizing the Work Order Grid to Provide Visual Cues

Challenge:

Management of the work backlog is a frequent topic of maintenance and reliability conference presentations.  The list of open work orders might include undone work, work that has been done but was never closed, projects that may never be done and deferred work.  One way to help manage the work backlog is colored cues to encourage users to take action to reduce the backlog before the work becomes past due.  This is a newer feature in Mainsaver added in version M20.

Methodology:

1. 1. Decide on a color scheme.  Note that if a work order meets 2 or more of the color criteria, the first color criteria will take priority.  This means in the scheme below that if a work order is priority 1 and it is past due, it would have yellow shading and not pink.a. Priority 1 = Yellow
      b. Due in 1 day = Orange
      c. Past Due Date = Pink
   2. Initial Setup: Open the System Administration Module. Security and Settings, Table View Background Color Setup.

3. The expression builder   must contain a true/false type expression similar to a query however date computation functions are available to determine how late or early a work order might be compared to the due date.  Some examples are below.  An expression is only needed for color shading.  White background will remain as the default.

4. Each criterion has an area for a title or description.

5. Any color (Select Color button) in the palette may be chosen but test for appearance

6. To test, exit and re-enter the Maintenance module and retrieve a table view.  Adjust colors as appropriate.