Calculating Service Days for Rental Statistics and Utilization

Background

The calculation of rental utilization for a piece of equipment requires a configurable way to keep track of service time. In previous versions, any work order with duration of more than two hours was counted as a service day, so that the equipment could not be rented out that day.

This method did not accurately reflect reality. For instance, some work orders may stay open for longer than two hours, but the service performed does not render the equipment inoperable, so it may still be possible to rent out if requested. It must therefore be possible to define different rules for calculating service days based on the type of equipment being serviced and the type of service performed.

Limitations

This functionality is only available for divisions with maintenance integration.

Workflow

When Rental Statistics and Utilization calculates the number of service days, the service history table is read. For each history record, the program finds and applies the appropriate service day calculation rule. The service history can be viewed in 'Equipment Service History. Open' (MOS180).

The following hierarchy is used to find the rule. More specific records have higher priority:

1. Full key match: Matching service, product and structure type

2. Matching service and product, but blank structure type

3. Matching service, but blank product and structure type

4. Blank service, product and structure type

If no rule can be found for the facility, the program will try to find a rule with a blank facility.

If a valid rule is found, it will be used to determine if the service time will be added to the number of service days. If the 'Available for rent' setting is disabled, the service days will also be added to the number of days out of service and subtracted from the number of possible rental days.

If a valid rule cannot be found, the backwards-compatible fallback rule will be applied; if the service is longer than 2 hours, it will count as a day out of service.

Follow These Steps

1. Set up rules for service day calculations in 'Settings – Service Day Calculation' (STS660). See section 'Configuration'.

2. Process work orders for an active rental equipment.

3. Run 'Rental Statistics. Update' (STS655) to update the rental statistics and utilization table.

4. Use 'Rental Statistics. Display' (STS650) to view the rental statistics.

Outcome

• Records are written to the service day calculation rules table (STUTIS).
• Records are written to the rental statistics and utilization table (STUTIL).
• The fields 'Number of service days', 'Days out of service' and 'Possible rental days' are calculated accordingly.

Configuration

Setup

Rules for how service days are counted and how they affect the number of possible rental days are defined in (STS660). For each open or historic work order that is found during the statistics utilization calculation, these rules are looked up.

For the 'Service day' setting, the following options can be used:

• 1=Yes: The day of the service is a service day.
• 2=No: The day of the service is not a service day.
• 3=Time dependent: If the service is longer than (or equal to) the time limit, it is a service day.

Additionally, 'Available for rent' indicates if the work performed affects the equipment's rental availability on the service day. Note that this has no bearing on the actual reservation or allocation of the equipment. It is only used by the rental statistics and utilization calculation, (STS655). If 'Available for rent' is set to false, the service day will be added to 'Days out of service' and the number of possible rental days will be reduced.

Rules can be defined with a blank service, product or structure type, which will be interpreted as "applies to all." This allows setting up base rules applying to all services, while enabling exceptions for certain services or for combinations of service, product, and structure type.

Rules can also be defined with a blank facility. A rule specified for the current facility will always have precedence over a rule with blank facility.

Settings Descriptions

Program ID	Field Heading	Description
(STS655/E)	Incl serv days	This must be checked to enable service days to affect the number of possible rental days.
(STS660/E)	Service day	1=Yes: The day of the service is a service day. 2=No: The day of the service is not a service day. 3=Time dependent: If the service is longer than (or equal to) the time limit, it is a service day.
(STS660/E)	Hours	Time limit used with 'Service day' = 3.
(STS660/E)	Avail for rent	If checked, the service day will not affect the number of possible rental days.