Dimensions on Maintenance Budgets

Designing Dimensions that Work

It is recommended to design dimensions carefully because it will have an impact when creating budgets, registering expenses as well as controlling costs in the future. Some of the basic considerations when working with dimensions are:

Aggregated level. If you have 5000 Assets, you probably don't want to budget Asset by Asset and ask "will it break more or less often than the others?". You want to budget on a higher aggregated level such as Asset Category or Work Order Category. Working with higher level dimensions such as Asset Categories and Locations is much easier compared to working with lower leveled and very detailed dimensions such as Assets.

Business dimensions. Using dimensions that makes sense to the business is always recommended To keep costs under control.

Maintenance dimensions. While maintenance dimensions such as assets and asset categories not always makes sense through the finance department, they certainly do add value to maintenance management.

How many budget dimensions

Business Central supports viewing up to two dimensions at a time. It is fully possible to work in a dimension-less maintenance budget, as well as one dimensional, two dimensional, and multidimensional budgets. It is recommended to have at least one dimension to give the Maintenance Budget module data it can aggregate entries by. Oftentimes, you have two or more dimensions, depending on your financial reporting and cost controlling needs.

The pros and cons of dimensions are discussed here:

Dimensionless maintenance budget (not recommended). The most basic maintenance budget doesn't have any dimensions. Such a budget will only allow you to add a budget total to each month. Such a budget offers an easy way to get started with budgeting. It is however not possible to use dimensions to analyze on such a budget.

One-dimensional maintenance budget. When working on a small budget area (“Production Line 1”) and only want to control one cost type such as resource hours or item consumption, having a one-dimensional maintenance budget may make sense. Note also that additional dimensions can always be added later.

Two-dimensional maintenance budget. Many businesses require that all costs have two dimensions to support efficient cost controlling. Two often-used dimensions are Resource Group (covering estimated resource hours for the maintenance team and contractors) versus Item Group (covering estimated spare part consumption for the coming year). Such a basic setup makes it easy to work with dimensions and budgets while also supporting efficient cost controlling. Additional dimensions can be added ad hoc.

Multi-dimensional maintenance budget (recommended). Maintenance budgets with three or more dimensions allow tight cost control of not only Resource Group (resource hours) and Item Group (sparepart consumption) but also location, maintenance type, and other cost drivers.

Maintenance Budgets

The EAM-BC Budget module gives the maintenance department the possibility to specify its own budget with the EAM-BC Budget module, by referring to Asset Category, Work Order Category, and other maintenance-specific Dimensions.

Later in the budgeting process, the maintenance manager will submit budgets to the CFO and finance department. Finance is usually not so interested in Asset Category and Work Order Category - their focus is more on company-wide Dimensions such as Cost Centers and Departments and KPIs.

Dimensions built into EAM-BC

Budget Dimension: Asset

What it is: Built-in Dimension that gets data from the Asset list in EAM-BC. Checking Assets on a budget will create a workspace in which you can add/modify dimensions on each Asset in Edit Budget.

When to use: When you have a unique budget and cost-controlling requirements for each asset and asset category will not do the job. Note: Budgeting at the asset level is rarely needed as it makes the budgeting process overly detailed in most scenarios.

Budget Dimension: Asset Category

What it is: Built-in Dimension that gets data from the Asset Category list in EAM-BC. Checking Asset Categories on a budget will create a workspace in which you can add/modify dimensions on each Asset Category in Edit Budget.

When to use: When there is a business need to benchmark and compare budget and actual maintenance costs for equipment of the same type. For instance, by vehicle, building, pump, and other Asset Categories.

Budget Dimension: Asset Location

What it is: Built-in Dimension that gets data from the Asset Location list in EAM-BC. Checking Asset Location on a budget will create a workspace in which you can add/modify dimensions on each Asset Location in Edit Budget.

When to use: When there is a business need to budget and track maintenance costs by the physical location of assets. See also Department.

Budget Dimension: Work Order Category

What it is: Built-in Dimension that gets data from the Work Order Category list in EAM-BC. Checking the Work Order Category on a budget will create a workspace in which you can add/modify dimensions on each Work Order in Edit Budget.

When to use: When there is a business need to budget and track maintenance costs by the type of work being done; at a higher category level.

Budget Dimension: Maintenance Type

What it is: Built-in Dimension that gets data from Maintenance Type in EAM-BC. The maintenance Type has two options, preventive and corrective. Checking Maintenance Type on a budget will create a workspace in which you can add/modify dimensions on each Maintenance Type in Edit Budget.

When to use: When the maintenance manager needs to split the budget and actual costs for preventive and corrective maintenance; Including resource hours, item consumption, and expenses on work order plans as well as executed work orders.

Financial Dimensions (Examples)

The EAM-BC Budget module integrates with company-specific Financial Dimensions in Business Central.

• Business Central installations come empty without Financial Dimensions, Financial Dimensions can be added on the fly which is usually done by the Finance department or your partner. Financial Dimensions are global and will be available throughout Business Central.
• Up to four Financial Dimensions can be applied to each Maintenance Budget.
• The budget module makes the selected Financial Dimensions available in Filters and allow you to add them to budget entries.

Below is a list of sample Financial Dimensions that may be useful in maintenance budgeting.

Budget Dimension: Asset Group

What it is: Allows working with Maintenance Budgets on Asset Group level (valves, pipelines, engines, pumps).

When to use: When there is a business need to benchmark and compare budget and actual maintenance costs for equipment of the same type. For instance, by vehicle, building, pump, and other Asset Groups.

Budget Dimension: Department

What it is: Allows working with Maintenance Budgets on Department level (Production, Maintenance, Finance, HR).

When to use: When the business needs to split budgets and expenses by department.

Budget Dimension: Item Group

What it is: Allows working with Maintenance Budgets on the Item Group level (consumables, filters, fittings). Maintenance Item forecasting is interesting to track from a maintenance perspective to learn how many spares will be needed in the coming year - on which Assets they will be consumed - and in which location.

When to use: When the business wants insights into the budget and actual costs related to actual and estimated spare part consumption.

Budget Dimension: Resource Group

What it is: Allows working with Maintenance Budgets on Resource Group level (technicians, electricians, mechanical). Resource forecasting tell how many hours technicians, mechanics, and other resources plan to spend on maintenance activities - we want to analyze this spenditure by applying dimensions.

When to use: when the business needs to budget and track costs spent on internal resources and external contractors.