Tag: Work Orders

Reactive Maintenance: Work Orders/Tickets

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The Reactive Maintenance module is perhaps the largest and most complex module. There are many different components involved to facilitate the customer request process, communication internally as well as with the requestor, financial processing, and reporting.

Customers will be able to enter a request via a website, mobile application or by calling the service desk.   As those are entered, defined rules will  generate the appropriate work orders and route them automatically to the appropriate teams.  The team leads will then review and assign the request to the appropriate technicians for dispatch.  The technicians will have their own mobile application to help manage their tickets.  This allows them to easily track time, communicate to the supervisor on ticket status, order parts from the warehouse, and locate critical documents such as procedures for health and safety or asset manuals if they are available. As the work completes, the managers will review and sign off on the completion of the request.  Any financial charges related to parts or labor will automatically be queued for processing in SMU Financials.  Customers can view the status of their request throughout the process as well as complete the feedback form at the conclusion of each request.

Also configured in this module are the service level agreements to ensure a more consistent and timely handling of requests.  These SLAs will alert technicians and managers if a work order has not been approved, assigned or completed in an appropriate timeframe.  Various dashboards and alerts will ensure your request is addressed and resolved as quickly and carefully as possible.

Due to the complexity of this module, it will certainly evolve over time as we continue to refine the configuration and implement new features.  However, we are excited to provide a more streamlined experience and more transparency into the progress of your requests this summer.

Preventative Maintenance

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Quick and thorough response to issues around campus is a critical component of facilities support. However, the foundation of the facility maintenance is built on proactive campus care with preventive maintenance.  Rather than waiting for issues to occur, Facilities focuses on maintaining and tracking equipment performance, minimizing foreseeable emergencies and strengthening campus building performance.

The preventive maintenance module begins with compiling all of the asset data into STABLE.  Then each equipment asset is assigned a schedule based on industry standards to check the equipment and evaluate its performance.  The frequency is often monthly, quarterly, or annual and this process is performed in a partnership between the SMU Maintenance and Grounds Department as well as our partner, Siemens.  Checking the equipment proactively allows Facilities to detect subtle changes in performance or appearance that could indicate future failure.  With early detection emergencies become repairs, money is saved, and building performance is maintained.

These preventive maintenance tasks are folded into the field technicians’ daily tasks in addition to the work they do on tickets submitted from the campus community.  STABLE will offer us the opportunity to begin reporting not only on the tickets submitted by the campus community but the preventive maintenance tickets as well. It will also help us plan and schedule these maintenance activities more programmatically so that critical maintenance is not overlooked.

Key Management

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Physical security is a critical component of any campus.  Ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to particular spaces is slightly easier when all access is controlled electronically.  However, our campus is a combination of electronic access and  physical keys  which presents an entirely different challenge.  Key Management includes many different aspects:

  1. Tracking the configuration of both the door lock and the key cut to ensure that a specific combination is tied only to the desired locations.
  2. Producing the right key for a location when requested
  3. Tracking the assignment of keys and ensuring that keys are returned when someone leaves the university
  4. Responding when keys are lost or stolen to ensure spaces are secured by new lock and key

With the implementation of STABLE, we will change from a combination of paper and electronic processes currently used to manage these tasks to a fully integrated electronic solution.  In STABLE we will go beyond just the key request and fulfillment process to providing more accurate reporting of who has access to physical spaces and to whom keys are assigned.  Of course, not all of the tracking relies on our Facilities key shop!  Often keys are returned to a supervisor and then redistributed to the next employee or stashed in a drawer for the future.  Now there will be mechanisms in place to work with the supervisors to ensure we have better tracking and assignment of these keys to protect our spaces.

As always, if you have a pile of unused SMU keys hidden away in a drawer, we encourage you to drop those off in Dawson!

The Key Management processes are scheduled to be implemented by June 1, 2021.