Introducing new Asset management in D365

It was November 2018 when Microsoft acquired the rights to the solution rather than purchasing the company or the IP from ISV partner Dynaway.

Now once upon a time Enterprise asset management is part of the standard package of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations since October 2019

While the module is widely used for some time now in industries where asset management and maintenance is of key importance its fairly new module in D365 for consulting community.

It was in 2017 where my journey with the module started while I was working in the ISV solution of the module and now its part of standard offering.

So lets get ready to welcome a new module to D365 family of modules.

What is Asset management for?

Asset Management is an advanced module for managing assets and maintenance jobs in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Asset Management integrates seamlessly with several modules in Finance and Operations apps.

Asset Management enables you to efficiently manage and carry out tasks related to managing and servicing many types of equipment in your company, for example, machines, production equipment, and vehicles. Asset Management supports solutions across numerous industries.

Module overview

Below is the flow highlighting all key elements on a high level and their relationship. (I tried my best with the below flow to fit key module elements in it and its not easy :) )

Note : below flow covers key elements of module and does not represent full module elements.

Concepts

So lets have a look at key concepts and components in the module as explained by Microsoft before we start the demo.

Assets - An asset is any type of equipment, such as a machine or a machine part, that requires maintenance, service, or repair.

Functional locations - Functional locations are elements of a technical structure, such as the functional units in a system. Functional locations are created hierarchically, and you install assets on them. 

Work order - Work orders are used to manage maintenance jobs, provide required information for them, and register consumption on them. Each work order can contain one or more work order jobs, and one or more assets can be connected to each work order. 

Faults - Faults are the issues faced by business on day to day basis while using Assets. Fluctuating violate is a fault in a machine which can be grouped in fault area electrical.

Maintenance job type - Maintenance job types (and therefore, the maintenance jobs) that can be performed on assets. When you create a work order, you must select a maintenance job type. You can select only the maintenance job types that are related to the setup of the asset type that is used for the asset.

Maintenance plan - A maintenance plan defines when a pre-planned preventive maintenance job is to be carried out on an asset. Maintenance plans can be related to assets, asset types, functional locations, or functional location types, but first you create the maintenance plans to be used in your company.

Maintenance rounds - In Asset Management, you can create maintenance rounds for various assets, on which you need to carry out a similar task at regular intervals. For example, lubrication jobs or safety inspection jobs that need to be carried out on a number of machines within the same intervals.

Maintenance request - Maintenance requests are used to request that a work order be required for a specific job. A maintenance request can be created by any user who has access to Asset Management functionality. A planner or manager can then decide whether a maintenance request should be converted to a work order, or whether it should complete its own life cycle.

Demo

Lets assume we are in an industry which is into production and wants to manage all their plant machinery for maintenance using asset management module. In my demo I have taken real life assets used in textile industry to make my masters more meaningful,

So lets get started with all the masters which we need to configure before we can actually see the module delivering what it is designed for.

Asset type

So the first master we need to define is an Asset type. Asset type is a master which defines and logically groups assets which are of same type.

So in the above image I have created an asset type master of "Ring frame" which groups a type of textile machine. We can see that common settings such as job types, counters, attribute types, conditional assessment can be setup on the asset type master and get applied to all the asset which use the master.

You need to select a life cycle model in the asset master which is explained below.

Asset life cycle state

Asset life cycle state is a master which is used to define custom state of an asset. We can define states which are eligible for our business and applied to particular asset. For e.g. As asset can have a state of Active, Inactive, Maintenance and Inspection. You can define which states implies that an asset is active by checking the active check box to yes.

Asset life cycle model

Asset life cycle model is the master where all asset life cycle states are managed and logically grouped. For E.g. I would like to group all states created above in one life cycle model "Status". In the below screenshot you can see that I have added all the states created above in the model status.

Asset type defaults

Asset type default is the next master used to group assets of similar types fo the purpose of defining spare parts used for the asset and maintenance plan of the asset. In the below screenshot you can see that I have added two spare parts for my asset type default amster Ring frame.

So all set to make our first Asset. :) Hold on we need to define functional locations state, model and type before we finally make our Asset.

Functional location life cycle state

Just like asset life cycle state functional locations can have their own life cycle states.

Functional location life cycle model

Just like asset like cycle model functional location also have their life cycle model to manage their statuses effectively. Below you can see I have mapped above states in the model status.

Functional location types

As the name suggest map the types of functional location you want o use in the business.

Functional location

Microsoft defines functional location as the elements of a technical structure, such as the functional units in a system. Functional locations are created hierarchically, and you install assets on them.

So all physical and geographical locations used in business on which assets are installed and which need tracking are maintained in functional location master. So in our case we are managing asset for a manufacturing company so we will make a location where the asset is installed.

Asset

An asset is any type of equipment, such as a machine or a machine part, that requires maintenance, service, or repair. So I have created three asset in asset master which are three stand alone machines used in manufacturing.

Before we move any further lets have a look at other important masters which are critical for asset management module working.

Service levels

Service levels can be used to map the level of the asset maintenance work. As we know not all maintenance work can have the same priority so we can define priority for our work orders the way we want.

Below you can see that I have made three service levels which are codes used to define priority of service work.

Asset service level

Once the service level master is defined the next step is to define service level for the assets. This is useful in cases some asset type are of more importance that other asset type and we want their service work should get more priority.

In below screenshot you can see that I have defined service level of 4 for my asset ring frame.

Asset attribute type

Asset attribute are defined as characters of assets which can be different from one another. In the below screenshot you can see that I have created three asset type for my asset.

Counters

In almost all types of machines and tools there are some key parameters which needs to be monitored regularly to determine maintenance work. For e.g. in our cars we keep a close eye on the KMs car has run till date to decide on service dates.

Similarly it assets also have counters which need to be closely tracked for maintenance decisions. In the below screenshot you can see that I have created a counter to monitor when spindle oil should be changed.

Asset counters

Once counters are made you need to either update counter value manually in asset counter or counters can be updated from production hours.

Below you can see that I have updated the counter reading for the asset created by me.

Job type

Job type are the actual service work which are to be done on various assets. Job types in a maintenance world are cleaning, belt change, oil top up, oil change, gear box overhaul parts replacement and so on.

Maintenance job type default

Job type default is the master where you do all common setups for similar job types. In the below screenshot you can see that I have created a new setup for my asset type ring frame for the job type default.

With in job type default you can do setups for Forecast, checklist and tools required to do the job.

Checklist

Checklist are used as key reminder points about any job type. One job type could be cleaning but when it comes to performing the cleaning activity there are several places where in the asset where cleaning is to be carried out. Checklist can be used to define such key points which are points to workers performing service work on asset.

In the below screenshot you can see that I have made a checklist with two line items.

Forecast

Forecast is the master where past learned or planned learning can be stored in the job type default master so that accurate estimates can be estimated for a service work order in terms of time, money and parts,

In the below screenshot you can see that I have defined the hours forecast as 5. It implies that to do the job type associated with this job type default it would take 5 hours to complete the job type.

We can also setup forecast for items and expenses which I have skipped for now.

Tools

Job types are engineering work and not all job types can be performed with bare hands. So in all industries maintenance work is carried out with sophisticated servicing tools which need planning and care.

So in the job type default master we have the ability to map the tools required to perform a particular job type.

In the below screenshot you can see that I have mapped a vacuum cleaner as a tool for the job type cleaning.

Job type variants

Job types performed on the assets are not same in nature always. The same job type can vary in terms of frequency in which its carried out. For e.g. cleaning which is a job type can be a monthly activity, quarterly activity or yearly.

In the below screenshot you can see that I have made relevant variants for my cleaning job type.

Job type categories

As name suggest map here categories in which you want to group relevant job types.

Maintenance plan

Here comes the heart of the module where all planning is done. Maintenance plan as the name suggest is the master where all plans can be mapped. Created plans can be scheduled and once the scheduling time is reached system automatically creates a work order giving maintenance workers instruction to service an asset.

In a maintenance plan you can add all the relevant job types which are part of the plan and asset type and location on which the plan applies.

In the below screenshot you can see that I have made simple plan for monthly cleaning.

Work order type

So the next thing is that system should generate a work order from our plan. All the setups shown above are bare minimum which are needed to be done before you an create work orders from plan.

Work orders can also be created manually from Maintenance request or automatically just like maintenance plan from maintenance rounds.

Before we schedule order plan lets update the default work order type. We can make as many work order types for better grouping and segregation of work in hand.

Schedule maintenance plan

Next step is to schedule the created maintenance plan on the frequency on which we want it to run.

Work order is created

We can see from the below screenshot that a work order is created using all above setups to perform job type cleaning on asset ring frame created above.

Processing of a work order and subsequent details will be shared in next article.

Lets open our work order and see the details :)

In the above screenshot we can see that we have been assigned a work order which has a line item containing cleaning job type which will take 5 hours and has two checklist lines.

So what I have shown above is one simple way to use the module. However this is mere an introduction and does not cover all features available in the module.

Cheers! :)