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CUSTOM

SOFTWARE

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Custom Fleet Maintenance Tracking Software

Central Contra Costa Transit Authority (commonly known as County Connection or CCCTA) began using its Centralized Inventory and Maintenance Software (CIMS) on July 1, 2012. The system was designed specifically for the management of fleets, vehicles, inventory, and work orders.

There were two primary goals for CIMS: proactive notification of preventive maintenance due, and accurate and simple tracking of every part and minute of service for the life of each vehicle.

The original system included:

  • Preventive Maintenance
  • Work Orders
  • Purchase Orders
  • Inventory Management
  • Receiving
  • Fleet and vehicle administration
  • Fueling
  • Physical inventory
  • Inventory adjustments
  • Reporting

After using CIMS for a few months, CCCTA
added a Facilities Work Orders module.

Additional system objectives included:
  • Minimum training
  • Consistency among modules
  • Browser-based interface
  • Use on tablets (iPads) and desktops
CCCTA contracted with DragonPoint Software, a Rockledge, FL-based software provider founded in 1988, to design, develop, and support CIMS.

Consistency Contributes to Ease of Use

Why is CIMS so easy to use?

 CIMS was built to support the way an actual fleet maintenance organization works, so the business process is sound. Training a mechanic? Show him how the application replaces paper work orders. Training a maintenance supervisor? Show him the preventive maintenance schedule. Training your purchasing agent? Show her how parts and purchase orders work together. 

Because modules are based on a number of consistent standards, once you know how to use one part of the system, you know how to use all of it.

Each module is based on two primary approaches to presenting information:

  • List screens. These are Excel-like lists of information that you can filter by entering criteria into one or more fields.
 
  • Details screens. All details are accessed by choosing a record in the list. Depending on the complexity of the information, details display on the same page as the list or on multiple tabs.

Once you understand how the list and details work, you can work with any module in CIMS.

The proof? After no more than 4 hours of training, mechanics were completing work orders on their iPads.

Work Orders

The challenge was to create screens that do a lot and are easy to use.

For example, the Work Orders list (or Find) screen was specifically designed to accomplish all of the following tasks (and more) on one screen.

  • Open a specific work order
  • View all work orders (open, closed, voided, or all) for a specific vehicle or fleet
  • List all work orders created by a specific user
  • Look at work orders by class (e.g., maintenance, driver defect card, shop request, road call, accident, etc.)
  • Allow managers to review work orders that require
  • Allow mechanics to find work orders assigned to them
  • Find office supply work orders (non-vehicle WOs)
  • Find work orders created during a specific date range
  • Identify work orders by specific operations codes, which are created by CCCTA to identify the work to be done (e.g., preventive maintenance B service
  • or window latch repair)
  • Any combination of these tasks
 
To further simplify the process, all the information in the grid (the results of your query) may be exported for analysis in Excel by pressing the Export button. The data that is exported includes the rows in the grid plus additional columns that provide even more information, such as when the record was created and by whom.

The ability to find the information you need and export the information to Excel eliminates the need for many “canned” reports. Just as important, you no longer have to contact your software team when you have a unique question such as, “How many work orders did we create for PM B for vehicles in fleet 20 last year?” You can get the information yourself, export it to Excel for analysis or printing, and format it as you like.

At CCCTA mechanics use iPads to enter information as they’re working on a bus, providing real-time updates for each work order as it is completed.

For every bus currently on the road, California requires that CCCTA track every work order, including parts added or removed and who did the work, for the life of the vehicle. CIMS makes this easy by saving historical data until the bus is retired, when the information may be archived, if requested.

CIMS also stores historical data such as time an employee requires to complete standard types of work.

Each part used for a work order is tracked, and a mechanic also records the old and new serial numbers for parts that are uniquely identified in this manner.

CCCTA’s maintenance manager trained all mechanics to use CMIS in short, onsite sessions, and there was almost no learning curve because the screens match the process the mechanics were accustomed to completing on paper.

Worksheets

When DragonPoint found that mechanics also used other paper worksheets for different types of operations, we recommended that instead of creating a single-purpose, hardcoded PM Worksheet form, we would provide a way for CCCTA to build an unlimited number of electronic check lists that would be automatically attached to applicable work orders.

The first worksheet CCCTA created was for select preventive maintenance work orders. When the sheet is required, mechanics see a PM Worksheet button, and pressing the button opens a new screen on which the current PM worksheet dynamically displays. In addition to documenting all steps to be performed during the PM cycle, the worksheet provides visual work instructions (images).

Mechanics check off each task as the inspection in the PM cycle is complete and notes the tasks that require repairs. Work can be saved as many times as necessary to complete all tasks. Filters near the top of the page allow mechanics to filter the list of more than 100 tasks to show only those within a specific category, such as Exterior, or those that require repair or replacement.

When all tasks are complete, the mechanic presses the Complete button. If a work order requires a worksheet, the work order cannot be closed until the sheet is complete.

Facilities Work Orders

After using CIMS for about a year, CCCTA requested that DragonPoint develop a Facilities PM and Work Order process that would be very similar to the one used for vehicles. Facilities work orders were built to accommodate preventive maintenance plans for buildings, equipment, and bus stops, and the PM schedules are based on a time interval instead of mileage.

Parts

All parts used in vehicle and facility management are managed in CIMS, including inactive parts used on historical work orders.

CIMS tracks details about parts including general information, such as part description, unit of measure, min/max inventory levels, quantity on hand, and location of part.

The system provides quick views for each part’s recent activity and historical usage.

Each part may be purchased from one or more vendors, and vendor-specific data, such as vendor part number(s) and pricing, is stored for each part. Purchasing uses vendor part pricing to generate purchase orders, and purchase order numbers, dates, etc. are stored with each part history.

Purchase Orders and Receiving

CIMS is built around a tight integration of parts through the purchase orders, receiving, work orders (consumption), and inventory adjustment (physical inventory) processes.

  1. Parts are ordered on purchase orders.

  2. Parts are received against a purchase order line item, and the receiving record becomes an “inventory bucket” for first in – first out consumption of parts.

  3. Parts are consumed as they are used for work orders.

  4. Parts counts are increased or decreased by conducting a physical count (of one, many, or all parts). The adjustment consumes parts or creates a new inventory bucket that applies standard business rules to the transaction.

Purchase Orders in CIMS include a manual or automatic approval process, and they may be released electronically or as a paper document, where necessary.

Automatic Reorder

CIMS includes an Automatic Reorder function that identifies all parts for which the on-hand quantity plus the on-order quantity is less than the minimum quantity required. This Automatic Reorder process allows purchasing to quickly create a batch of POs to the last vendor from which each part was purchased at the last cost paid; if necessary, purchasing may choose to change the vendor, cost, and order quantity for one or more parts.

Purchasing may preview POs by vendor and choose the POs to release automatically, including emailing the PO to the vendor or printing a paper document when necessary. POs for which a new vendor or price is required may be excluded from the release process and handled manually.

Other Information in CIMS

Employees. CIMS also tracks information about employees, including department, grade, driver’s license, last DOT physical, emergency contact, pay rate, shift, and address and other contact information.

Security. Authorized administrative users may grant system access to all or some employees. Employees authorized to use the system are assigned appropriate security rights; for example, mechanics may be limited to only the work order screens, and purchasing employees
Administrative Information. Records that display in drop down list boxes may be created by authorized administrative users with access to a specific sub-set of the admin functions. For example, a maintenance admin user may be able to add new class and operations codes but not new part product class types.

Reports. in addition to the query/list pages that allow users to create their own Excel reports, CIMS includes more than 20 reports including the PM schedule, work order costs (labor, materials), purchase order lists (created, received, invoiced), and vehicle reports (last fueled, fuel history, cost per mile). Many reports are available by general ledger period, allowing easy access to information such as “which vehicle parts were used in fiscal year 20XX period 1?”

Conclusion

CIMS is a fully-functional asset management system that was designed specifically for a public transportation agency. Unlike a standard off the shelf software package, CIMS is built to include the EXACT functionality required and ONLY the functionality required.

The system was built using standard Microsoft tools (C# and SQL Server).

Because this is a custom application, it is generally simple to add new features and enhancements such as the addition of new fields, changing labels on screens, and creating new reports.

Public transportation agencies may call DragonPoint for more information about getting a license to use CIMS.

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