Program Description
There is a new program in Rev 14 that can be found on the System Manager Service/Contract System Manager menu (LMSY-5-7). This program will have an option to print and/or correct “bad” meter readings in service calls. To determine if a meter reading is bad, the program takes the number of copies between the service call and the call after it to determine the Copies Per Day (CPD). The program then multiplies CPD by 30 to determine the Average Monthly Volume (AMV) of those two service calls. If the AMV of those two service calls is greater than an AMV Limit provided by the operator, the meter reading of the service call is “bad”.
This program assumes that the first and last call in the date range entered have valid meter readings. Therefore, the report will calculate a “Valid Copies Per Day” by taking the number of copies between those two calls divided by the number of days between the two calls. The program will then search through the Service History for a machine from the most recent call to the oldest call in the date range. The program will skip checking the most recent and oldest call in date range to determine if they have bad meter readings. This is because the program assumes that those two meter readings are correct.
To calculate a new meter reading for the service call with a “bad” meter reading, the program takes the number of days between the service call and the call after it and multiplies that by the “Valid Copies Per Day”. This will determine the number of copies that should have been created since from the service call to the subsequent call. The program will then subtract that number to the meter reading on the next service call to determine the meter reading of the service call. If the next service call had a bad meter reading, the program will use the meter reading that was calculated on the report in the calculation.
When the program updates the meter reading in the service call, it will also update the meter reading in the Parts Usage records (PART.DT) and Sales History records (SHHIST.DT) associated with the service call. The program will also update the “Prior Call Meter Reading” and “Prior Call Date” on the call following the one with the bad meter reading. Once the report has finished checking all of the service calls for a machine, it will find the most recent service call and most recent preventive maintenance (PM) call on the machine. The program will use the meter readings and dates of these service calls to update the Last Service Meter Reading / Date and Last PM Meter Reading / Date in the Serial File (SERIALD). The program will than recalculate the Average Monthly Volume (AMV), Mean Copies Between Failure (MCBF) and Mean Copies Between Failure (MTBF) and update those fields in the Serial File (SERIALD). For information on how those fields are calculated, see documentation under “Update Date Placed And Initial Meter Reading” program on the System Manager, Serial File Menu, option 18.
If the number of copies between the first call and last call in the date range is negative, the program will print a message stating “COPIES BETWEEN FIRST AND LAST CALL IS NEGATIVE. MACHINE’S CALLS ARE SKIPPED.”. The report will also print the Item Number, Serial Number, Customer Number, Branch Number, Beginning Meter (meter reading of first call in date range), Ending Meter Reading (meter reading of last call in date range), and number of copies. These machines should have the meter readings on the service calls manually corrected before the program can check for accuracy on the service calls between those two service calls.
If the number of Copies Per Day (CPD) between the first call and last call in the date range multiplied by 30 is greater than the AMV Limit, the program will print a message stating “COPIES PER DAY BETWEEN FIRST AND LAST CALL IS OVER AMV LIMIT. MACHINE’S CALLS ARE SKIPPED.”. The report will also print the Item Number, Serial Number, Customer Number, Branch Number, number of copies between the two service calls, number of days between the two service calls, and the AMV Limit. These machines should have the meter readings on the service calls manually corrected before the program can check for accuracy on the service calls between those two service calls.
The program will skip any machine that has Metered (Y/N) field in the Item File set to N for no or any machine that is not currently placed at a customer site. Also, the report requires at least two service calls within date range in order for the machine to print. This is because it needs a beginning and ending call in the date range to calculate the Copies Per Day figure. It is recommended then to run the report for at least a year date range. When the program is looking in Service History, the program will skip any service call that has a CU Call Type. These are used for the Machine Tracking feature. The program will also skip any service call that has not been completed or had the Service Ticket entered.
It is recommended that the program be run as report only first so that an operator can spot-check some of the machines that print on the report. If the operator agrees with the changes, then the program can be ran to update the files. It would be very difficult and time consuming to manually undo the changes that this program makes to the files.
It also may be possible that a service call will not appear the first time the program is run, but perhaps after updating files and rerunning the report, the service call will appear. This may be due to the fact that the service call prior to it had it’s meter reading corrected and now the service call has a “bad” meter reading. It would be a good practice to rerun the program as report only after the program updates files to make sure that new service calls do not appear.
Screen Sample:
Fields:
Sort By B'ranch, I'tem/Serial, Or E'nd
The report can be sorted by Branch Number / Item Number / Serial Number or Item Number / Serial Number. The Branch that the program uses is from the Serial File (SERIALD). Enter B to sort the report by Branch, or enter I to sort by Item Number / Serial Number. Enter E to end the report and return to the menu.
R'eport Only Or U'pdate Files
The operator can choose to print the report only or to print the report and update the files. Enter R to print the report only, or enter U to update the files.
Beginning Completion Date
Ending Completion Date
Enter the range of Service Call Completion Dates.
Beginning Branch Or A'll
Ending Branch
Enter the range of Branch Numbers to be included on the report, or enter A to print all Branches. The Branch from the Serial File (SERIALD) is used by the report to determine if the Branch is within the range entered by the operator.
Beginning Product Class Or A'll
Ending Product Class
Enter the range of Product Classes to be included on the report, or enter A to print all Product Classes. The Product Class from the Item File (ITEM) is used by the report to determine if the Product Class is within the range entered by the operator.
Beginning Item Number Or A'll
Ending Item Number
Enter the range of Item Numbers to be included on the report, or enter A to print all Item Numbers. The Item Number from the Serial File (SERIALD) is used by the report to determine if the Item Number is within the range entered by the operator.
Beginning Serial Number Or A'll
Ending Serial Number
Enter the range of Serial Numbers to be included on the report, or enter A to print all Serial Numbers. The Serial Number from the Serial File (SERIALD) is used by the report to determine if the Serial Number is within the range entered by the operator.
Beginning Company Number Or A'll
Ending Company Number
Enter the range of Company Numbers to be included on the report, or enter A to print all Company Numbers. The Company Number from the Serial File (SERIALD) is used by the report to determine if the Company Number is within the range entered by the operator.
Enter AMV Limit Or 'I' To Use Item File AMV Limit
When the report checks a service call to see if the meter reading is correct, it looks at the call prior to that service call to determine the number of copies and number of days between the two calls. The report will then take the number of copies divided by the number of days between the calls and multiply that by 30 to get an “Average Monthly Volume” (AMV) for those two service calls. If the calculated AMV is greater than the “AMV Limit”, then the report will determine that the service calls meter reading is incorrect and will recalculate the meter reading for that service call. The operator can use one of two methods to set the AMV Limit. The first method is to have the operator enter the AMV Limit at this prompt. This is only recommended if the operator is running the report for one Item Number or one type or size of machine. If more than one Item Number or size of machine is entered, the operator really should not enter the AMV Limit, since different sizes of copies have different AMV Limits. The second method to set the AMV Limit in each machine’s Item record through Item File Maintenance. AMV Limit is field number 68. If the operator enters a I at this prompt in the report, the program will look at the Item File for each individual item being processed to retrieve the AMV Limit. This is the recommended method because it will allow the operator to run this report for all Item Numbers. If the AMV Limit field in the Item File is zero for an item, the item will be skipped on this report.
If the operator enters the same Item Number at the Beginning and Ending Item Number prompt, the program will check the Item File for the item entered and will display the AMV Limit for that item as the default for this prompt. If a number is entered at this prompt, it has to be greater than 100.
Results:
Item Number, Serial Number, Customer Number and Branch Number will all be printed from the Serial File (SERIALD).
Copies/Day is the number of copies between the first service call and last service call in the date range for the machine divided by the number of days between the two service calls.
Call No. is the service call with the “bad” meter reading.
Tech is the Technician Number of the service call.
Comp Date is the Completion Date of the service call.
Orig Meter is the original “bad” meter reading of the service call.
Calc Meter is the new meter reading that was calculated by the program. If the operator ran the report to update files, this is the meter reading that will be used to update the service call.
If the report is sorted by Branch, the Branch Number will print to the left of the Item Number field. This is the Branch from the Serial File (SERIALD).
Example:
The following is a list of the service history for the first three machines listed in the above sample report and an explanation of the calculations.
Number of days between first and last call in date range (4/1/99 – 5/30/01) = 790 days
Number of copies between first and last call in date range (260,000 - 400,000) = -140,000
Since the number of copies made is negative, the machine is printed on a report with a message stating “COPIES BETWEEN FIRST AND LAST CALL IS NEGATIVE. MACHINE’S CALLS ARE SKIPPED”. This machine’s service calls will need to manually be corrected.
Number of days between first and last call in date range (3/1/99 – 6/1/01) = 823 days
Number of copies between first and last call in date range (500,000 - 8,000) = 492,000
Copies per day is 492,000 / 823 = 598. Multiply by 30 to get an AMV of 17,940
Since the AMV of the two calls is over the AMV Limit for the machine, the machine is printed on a report with a message stating “COPIES PER DAY BETWEEN FIRST AND LAST CALL IS OVER AMV LIMIT. MACHINE’S CALLS ARE SKIPPED”. This machine’s service calls will need to manually be corrected.
Number of days between first and last call in date range (2/15/99 – 2/1/01) = 717 days
Number of copies between first and last call in date range (246,000 – 8,000) = 238,000
Copies per day is 238,000 / 717 = 332. Multiply by 30 to get an AMV of 9,960.
The AMV is under the AMV Limit of 10,000 so the service calls will be checked.
Since next call (56951) is the first call for the machine in the time frame, it will not be checked.