IFS Mobile Work Order provides functionality to plan, execute and report in work orders on a mobile device. This solution is applicable to Asset-intensive industries, Service/Energy and Utility industries, as well as for Industrial or Process Manufacturers carrying out internal maintenance work in large plants and facilities. The solution supports both separate and route work order processes with the ability to work offline for the entire process.
IFS Mobile Work Order is compatible with Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 10, iOS and Android devices.
IFS Mobile Work Order is integrated with the following components and product areas within IFS Applications:
In order to work with the application it is required to do certain configurations and basic data set up in the enterprise explorer. The basic data setup comprises with defining maintenance employee in organization basic data, followed by setting up mobile maintenance basic data, mobile object synchronization data and mobile part basic data. This is in addition to the standard data set-up for a User to create, plan and execute Work Orders and answer Employee Surveys. Further details on setting up mobile basic data can be found under the process Define Mobile Work Order Basics. For details on configurations required to do in the enterprise explorer and in mobile application can be found in Configure IFS Mobile Work Order.
Once the work orders are planned in IFS/Work Order Management they can be transferred to IFS Mobile Work Order. A work order can be transferred to a particular mobile user or to a common pool of work orders. When a work order is transferred to the pool, it will be synchronized with the mobile users that have access to the work order site. The user who first accepts the work order from the pool will be considered the owner of the work and it will be removed from all other mobile users.
Note: If the work order is scheduled by the Mobile Workforce Management Scheduling Engine, it will not be possible to transfer the work order to the common pool of work orders.
The work orders will be transferred (or once accepted, removed from the pool) during synchronization between the mobile user and the server. IFS Mobile Work Order can be configured to set up how often synchronization is to be carried out between the mobile user and server. Once transferred, only a limited number of actions can be performed on the same work order in IFS/Work Order Management. For instance, it is possible to add new operations, material and tools-and-facilities, but it is not possible to edit fields owned by the mobile client or perform status changes on the work order. The Transferred Work Orders window has right mouse button option which can be used to un-assign already assigned work order to a mobile user at any stage of the work order. It is a decision that can be taken by a supervisory level user. Further, work orders in state POOL can also be directly assigned to a particular user from this window.
Once the work order is synchronized to the device it will appear to the mobile user with one of the following statuses:
Once Accepted you can further plan the work to be done, e.g., enter material or tools-and-facilities which are required or raise a purchase request for a part.
Automatic Time Report records will be created either as travel or work time between following state changes
When the work order is in the On Route state the automatic Time Report record will be based on the mobile users Default Travel Time Craft and when the work order is in the Started state the automatic Time Report will be based on the mobile users Default Craft. If you have setup an eForm to be triggered for a work order state change then the mobile user will need to complete the eForm before the state change will occur. Further, for all state changes two records will be created in the Work Order Journal. One will represent the date/time the change was made in IFS Mobile Work Order, the second will represent the date/time the change was created in IFS Applications.
The following is the list of actions that can be performed on a mobile work order. Note that it will only be possible to create or modify Work Order Actions when the work order is in the Work Request, Fault Report, Accepted, On Route or Started states.
It is possible to create a separate work order while engineer is on site. This can be, for example where a new fault is identified during work and needs to be addressed by the mobile user or another employee. Once the work order is created, you can choose to return it to IFS/Work Order Management or retain it. Work orders created by the mobile user will receive an identifier with the prefix N, e.g., N1001010. This identifier will be used for the lifetime of the work order on the mobile. When the work order is sent to IFS/Work Order Management, the identifier will be set as the Originating System ID, the Originating System will be set to "MWO" and the work order number will be generated automatically based on the work Order regular number series. If the New Work Order wizard is opened when viewing a separate work order or on a round work order action the mobile user will be asked to copy the work order details. It is also possible for the mobile user to specify that the work order is to be created as a child work order. It is possible for the mobile user to create a Fault Report or Work Request. By changing the type of separate work order that is to be created will flex the fields that are displayed to the mobile user, for example by selecting Fault Report fault fields such as Discovery and Symptom will be displayed. It is also possible for the mobile user to specify the work order state that separate work order should be created with.
When the work order is created or completed on the mobile device, you will be prompted on whether you want to return the work order or retain it. When you choose to return it, the work order will be transferred back to IFS/Work Order Management during synchronization. If the mobile user chooses to retain the work order then it will be possible to Return the work order at a later stage or it can be Unassigned by a user with access to the Transferred Work Orders screen. On completing the work order a prompt will be given to start return travel. If the mobile user answers yes to this then a Time Report record will be created based on the mobile users Default Travel Craft and will be closed when the mobile user completes the return travel. Once the work order is returned to IFS/Work Order Management you can continue the work order flow, i.e., authorize work order transactions and finish the work order.
Note: If the work order is owned by IFS Mobile Work Order (i.e., the work order is transferred to a mobile user), the authorizing of work order transactions should be avoided. This is done to avoid any sync failures due to IFS Mobile Work Order being an offline product.
It is possible to view Historical Separate Work Order based in IFS Mobile Work Order based on the Object ID on the Historical Work Order. Historical Work Orders can be viewed from the Work Order or Object Information screens. Historical Separate Work Orders will be synchronized based on the Equipment Objects available to the mobile user and filtered based on the Application Parameters HIST_DATE_LIMIT and HISTORY_LIMIT. HIST_DATE_LIMIT specifies how many days in the past the historical work orders will be synchronized based on Actual Finish date and HISTORY_LIMIT specifies how many records will be synchronize per equipment object.
In order to mange the stock that require to execute material demands in work orders, a separate feature called My Stock is available in the home screen. All the parts in user warehouse/s list under this feature with information such as how much on hand, available to use and reserved. Further, it is possible to know the locations of the parts which are available to use, reservation details and in which orders the parts are used. In addition to that, information about stock deficientices are also notified in work order level under planned material list.
In addition to handling work orders, it is possible to handle purchase order receipts and stock movement between warehouses including remote warehouses in the mobile device. For more information on this please refer to activity descriptions in the process models.
All above described functionalities in IFS mobile application can be configured in order to flex the usage depending on different business scenarios needed by various customers using IFS systems. In order to learn more on configuring IFS Mobile application please refer to Configure IFS Mobile Work Order
The IFS Mobile Work Order solution relies on the IFS/Mobile Framework. For details on this framework, how the synchronization process works and failure handling please refer to the F1 Technical documentation under Touch Apps. As part of the framework it is possible to amend the IFS Mobile Work Order screens using the UI Designer.