Chains

An inspection chain is a collection of inspection contexts describing the order in which a chain of checks should be carried out between machines.

The inspection chain might describe the same inspection version carried out on many individual machines of the same type, one after the other, or it could describe a series of different checks that need to be carried out on a single machine, or collection of machines.

Typically, you would use an inspection chain to organize an operator's inspection process, because they are carried from the completion of one step in the chain automatically to the next step.

Inspections that are configured in a chain must be performed at the same time, and so must have the same dates/times for these attributes:
  • Due after
  • Overdue after
  • Expire after
The first triggered inspection in the chain generates an inspection to be completed for each subsequent inspection in the chain. For example, If the same inspection must be performed on three machines, then the chain has the same inspection three times, one for each machine.

The last time the inspections in the chain are performed dictates the next time each check is due.