Track and forecast calibration and maintenance of your equipment. Find, sort, prompt and understand the equipment tracking requirements of each piece of equipment or a defined group. Record the justification to return equipment to an “In Service” status. Includes electronic signatures, intuitive scheduling and easily retrievable records. Every employee with database access can quickly look up the status of their equipment and any scheduled service. Highly configurable reports can show you what’s going on with a piece of equipment, a grouping or designated equipment over a date range.
Managing your equipment maintenance is easy once you have populated your equipment database. Records are managed according to your set schedule, and will prompt you to take action. Equipment should be organized according to how you do business
Initial data entry can be accomplished in one of two ways. When you already have data stored in another format or database, the easiest way is to import the data from a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet should include all or most of the data you wish to include in your database. Note however, that there is a minimum amount of data required for an equipment maintenance record to be useful. This data includes:
Note that if you exclude any data, the database will treat the field as a blank when sorting. For example, if you enter a digital caliper and leave the field, “Steward” empty, the “Steward” sort function will not list the caliper.
The main Equipment form becomes active upon opening the database. Equipment is listed on the left side of the form according to the sort by method. Details appear on the right, depending if you have a header or an equipment detail highlighted. You can list equipment by any or all of the following:
The Add Service form allows you to add individual services required for an equipment item. It includes the service type, such as calibration, oil change, wipe down, tool change or etc. A service interval is entered if the service is meant to be recurring. A supplier name is entered, along with next due date and how long the equipment is expected to be out. The form also allows you to enter instructions for accomplishing the service.
Let’s say that you’re looking in the database for equipment that is due for service. Click “Due date” in the “List By” field of the main Equipment form and your database will show a collapsed list of equipment, by due date type.
Click the item on the list named, “Due Within 2 Weeks.”
To send equipment out for maintenance or service, click the blue text (hyperlink) under the heading, “Service Required” to bring up the Send Out form.
Note that if the equipment’s service item has already been sent out for service, there will be an S icon just to the left of the service item hyperlink. Additionally, if the S icon is visible, by clicking on the service item hyperlink, instead of invoking the Send Out form, the Complete Service form will appear.
To enter a completion date for a specific maintenance item, click the blue hyperlink text under the heading, “Service Required” of the main Equipment form to bring up the Service Complete form. Note that the Send Out form will appear instead, if the equipment service item has not already been sent out for service.
The Service History form allows you to look at the service history for any equipment. Service history is listed in descending order with the most recent completed service at the top.
The Service History form can be sorted to show only one type of service, if desired.
Each service record has a hyperlink field for you to add or edit a link to certificates and reports, (or their scanned images). It is good practice to organize all service certificates and reports on your local network for safe storage and easy retrieval.
Users with QA permission level are able to edit service history records to correct a known error.
Equipment status analysis:
On 1/18/2017, the equipment was declared In Service. On 3/15/2017, the equipment was sent out for service for a change of tires. The service item status was changed to Out For Service. The equipment status automatically changed to Out For Service.
On 3/16/2017, the tire change was completed and the service item status for this service type was changed to In Service. However, the equipment was also sent out for an overhaul. The equipment status automatically changed to Out For Service.
On 3/25/2017, the equipment was returned to service as Conditional Use. It seems that the engine easily overheated, and so the equipment was returned to service with the condition that it can only be operated with air temperature less that 70 degrees F.
On 4/15/2017, the equipment was again sent out for service to fix the overheating problem. An oil change was scheduled to be performed at the same time. The equipment status automatically changed to Out For Service.
On 4/16/2017, the oil change was completed, and the service item status was entered as In Service. However, the equipment status remained Out For Service, since the overhaul was not yet completed.
On 4/25/2017, the overhaul was completed and the service item status was changed to In Service. Since there were no outstanding service items, the equipment service automatically changed to In Service.
Enter the Service Item Status from the pull down.
If a certificate or report link is desired, add the hyperlink to the Certificate/Report field.
Enter the person approving the completion of the service using the drop down list. Click Okay to complete the service.
If there are no past due service items, the electronic signature will return the equipment to an “In Service” state, if the In Service status was selected for the Service Item Status.
Once the service item is completed, the database uses the interval to calculate a new scheduled due date. The new due date appears on the main equipment form in the lower right.
Searching for a record is easy. In Tree Mode, you can group records by:
You can choose to show only Active records, inactive records, or active and inactive records.
In Find Mode, you can query records by reference number or text string. The search results will produce a record list of exact matches.
The third search type is Jump to Record. Use this feature when you already know the serial or asset (ID) number of the record. The database will jump directly to that record.
The following reports can be created from the Reports Menu:
Report Filters are available to zoom in on only the records you wish to see.
The Grouping and Sorting function helps you to organize the data presented in your report.
The Save Filter feature allows you to save report queries that are run frequently. It’s easy to Load a saved filter to run a weekly or monthly report.
This database is accompanied by the QDB Central database. Its purpose is to store data that is common to any of the other Quality Data Bay products that you may have implemented, either as a separate or a combined, multi-purpose database. Data stored in the QDB Central database include:
This database includes customization options. Customize and optimize how you interact with the database.