Plan, schedule, and assign activities

On the Overview tab, you'll see all planned activities divided into Work orders (maintenance work) and Checklists (operator rounds). You can assign these activities to a group of users, such as all electricians, or directly to specific users. Also, you can suggest a start and end date for each activity, but these are only used for sorting.

The Work orders tab shows the work orders imported from a work management application, such as SAP. Here, you can:

• View work order details with a list of tasks (operations) to perform. Expand the task to see if it applies to several assets.
• Select Create & Assign to create a checklist from work order tasks. Once you create the checklist, you can expand the number of checklist tasks to view progress.

The Checklists tab shows recurring activities generated from templates created on the Templates tab.

tip

To switch from one location to another, navigate to Account > Manage account > Select location.

Create templates

Use the Templates tab to plan activities that the field workers perform at regular intervals, such as weekly installation operator rounds. On the Templates tab, you can:

• Populate a template with fields for adding readings, items to check, and schedules.
• Instruct InField to open daily checklists for selected disciplines and users.
• Group items that belong together based on asset location, work shifts, etc. For example, assets 1 and 4 belong to the Area A group, assets 2 and 3 belong to the Area B group.
• For recurring activities, such as operator rounds, generate identical checklists from templates for every interval you want the field workers to perform the tasks.

note

When creating a template, keep in mind that one template has a limit of 500 tasks. However, to make it easy for the field worker to navigate them in the field, keep them as short as possible.

To create a template:

1. Navigate to the Templates tab and create a template.

2. Add tasks and, optionally, link these to assets.

3. Optional. Provide a detailed description or a step-by-step instruction for the task. Add links where necessary.

4. Optional. Select Add to task and then select:

   • Numerical reading if you want the field workers to add measurement readings from equipment. You can set the measurement unit, for example, bar for pressure readings and minimum and maximum values.
   tip

   InField stores the measurements as time series in CDF, and you can trend and analyze the values using Charts.

   If you've removed a numerical reading from a checklist, it's still available as a time series.

   • Item to check if you want to add extra items to be checked to the task. You can describe what needs to be done, add alternative responses (action buttons), and link statuses to the buttons. For example:
     • When operators work on the checklist and select the button with the linked status OK, their task status changes to OK.
     • If there is a numerical reading that's out of range (Not OK) and items to check with the linked status OK, the status will change to Not OK as the critical one. You should fill out all numerical readings and items to check for the status to change automatically.
       
   • Schedule if you want the checklist to be performed at regular intervals. You can set checklists to open automatically on specific days, every two weeks, twice a month on Mondays, once a year, etc. The initial start time is 6 AM in the computer's local time zone. You can change the start time to half-hour intervals.
   • Message if you want the field workers to give a written response to a request, question, message, etc.
   • Condition if you want to add actions for the field workers to perform depending on a task state.

5. Set the checklist to Ready.

Open checklists

A checklist is a task or a list of tasks generated from a template. When creating a template, you can plan when a template or its tasks open as a checklist for field workers to work on. You can do it in two ways:

• Manually. On the Overview > Maintenance or Templates tab, select Create & assign or Create checklist, suggest start and end date, and confirm the creation. The dates are used for sorting only.
• Automatically. On the Templates tab, create a task and schedule it: Add to task > Schedule. The task appears in the generated checklist automatically according to the schedule. The initial start time is 6 AM in the computer's local time zone. You can change the start time to half-hour intervals.

note

You need extended access to plan and schedule activities, and you need to assign activities using InField on a computer (not a mobile device).

Track and complete activities

As the field workers complete the tasks on a checklist, they update the status and add relevant images, measurements, and observations. You'll find the status of all activities along with their progress on the Overview tab, where you can sort the columns and select relevant dates. To set the status for a checklist or work order, select the item > More options (…) > Set checklist to > Done.

You can't update checklists or work orders with the status Done. However, extended access lets you change the status to "In progress" and update the checklist.

Delete and restore templates and tasks

To delete a template, select More options (…) to the right of + Add task > Delete template.

To delete a template, select More options (…) to the right of + Add task > Delete template. You can restore it from the Deleted list in the sidebar.

You can't restore a task that has been deleted from a template.

View asset observations

During maintenance work and operator rounds, users can record an asset malfunction by creating an observation. On the Observations tab, you can view the details of all asset observations. Available using InField on a computer (not a mobile device.)