Counters are mounted on Assets to track their information such as running hours, or distance usage to optimize the planning of Asset maintenance. You can set up your own Counter Categories to fit the exact information you need to collect on your Assets and start registering counter readings.
1 | Counter-based maintenance. Use Asset running hours to determine when a Work Order triggers the next Work Order. When an Asset is used less, the need for maintenance decreases and vice versa. |
2 | Register Counter Reading. Manually enter a counter reading, or import counter readings through our API and Counter Registration Journal. |
3 | Show Counter Readings. Inspect all readings for the counter readings in a list. The list allows you to cancel a counter reading. Counter readings are also shown in the FactBox on the Counters List for easy access. |
4 | Create and Mount Counter. Creating Counters on the Asset Card means that they will be mounted to the Asset automatically so you can start registering readings. |
5 | Expected End of Life Cycle. Define and track the life cycle of assets based on their Counters' Counter Categories. |
6 | Counter Chart. Use the graph to get a visual overview of counter readings for a time period. |
7 | Last Counter Reading. Check last counter readings to inspect why Work Order Plans haven't triggered or when the latest counter reading was added. |
On an Asset Card, you can see and manage all actions related to Counters.
From the Counters tab > Counter Registration on the Asset Card, you can see the options for working with Counters. The following articles describe the actions you can make from the Counters tab. Refer to the screenshot below to view the actions you can make.
Counters can be created directly from the Asset Card. When creating counters from the Asset Card, counters are automatically mounted to the Asset as well.
An overview of created counters can be viewed from the Counters list which can be opened from the search bar.
Note: If the Asset has already been in use, and you want to register a counter value from a previous IT system, refer to the Off-Counter Usage article. An off-counter registration must be made before you mount a Counter.
If you have created counters from the Counters list instead of the Asset Card, these counters are not mounted automatically. Mounting counters created from the Counters list can be done both from the Asset Card and Counters list. If you have not yet created counters, they can be created and mounted automatically by following the article above.
In case where you need to mount counters that are already created, you first need to specify a counter category code.
Counters can also be mounted from the Counters list. When mounting a counter to an Asset from the Counters list that doesn't already have a category code specified, a category code will be applied automatically to the Asset.
Note that when you're mounting a counter with a category that is already applied to the Asset (but the counter is not yet mounted), the list Asset list is reduced to showing only the Assets that don't have a counter mounted yet.
If there are Assets without a category and without a counter, the list of Assets will show all Assets from the database.
You can define the Expected End Of Life Cycle for the asset in the Counters section on the Asset Card. The expected end of life cycle is determined on a Counter's Counter Category. This determines how long you're expecting the asset to operate.
You can modify how Percentage Usage is presented on the card by specifying thresholds for specific counter categories. To do this, you need to:
You can register a reading on a counter from an Asset Card or from the Counters list. A Counter reading is always added to all Assets that use the Counter.
Note: You can also create registrations on multiple Counters at the same time in the Counter Journal.
Counters can accept Continous/Absolute Counter Readings or Relative Counter Readings depending on which Counter Type has been set on each Counter.
Counter Type has two limitations:
You can remove a Counter from an Asset if the Counter is no longer required.
Before you mount a Counter on an Asset, it's possible to set a Counter value on the Asset, which is not related to a Counter in EAM-BC. This is useful if you want to add a Counter value to an Asset that is registered in a previous IT system without affecting the readings on a Counter in EAM-BC.
An off-counter value must be registered before you mount a Counter on the Asset.
Example: You created a new Asset (machine) in EAM-BC, which has already run 4,000 hours. You want to register those production hours on the Asset before you mount a Counter.
You can edit and delete Counters and Counter registrations. On the Counters list, select the Counter.
Resetting Counter Readings may be needed in case of typos and asset-related issues. It's possible to cancel or reset the latest Counter Reading. This is done by opening Asset Counter Entries, marking the latest and newest value, then pressing Cancel Entry. Only the last Counter Value can be cancelled.
Upon cancelling an entry, the user is asked what to cancel. It can either be:
From the Counters list, you can also cancel counter entries. Note that if you remove all entries for a counter mounted on an Asset, the counter will be dismounted from the Asset.
You can create Assets with Counter Reports to get an overview of Assets and related Counter registrations.
Refer to the article Consumption Report on Work Orders for descriptions of how to work with standard report setup, such as
The created report is a mostly dataset of values from the system. You can always use it to create your own personalized reports that will be used in your company.
Use the Counter Journal to make registrations on multiple Counters at the same time.
You can create templates and batches for managing Counter Journals.
Counter Journal Templates are used for managing Counter Journal Batches. One template may include several batches.
To create and view Counter Journal Templates:
Learn more about the general use of journals and templates in D365-BC in this Microsoft video: Working with journals.
In D365BC, you can set up reason codes as supplementary information to source codes. Refer to Microsoft documentation to learn more: Set Up Source Codes and Reason Codes for Audit Trails.
Counter Journal Batches are used for managing Counter Journals. One journal batch may include several Counter Journals.
We can specify many batches, each of them work as a "notepad". For instance, every Technician can have his own "Counter Journal Batch" when entering Counter Readings (he can only work on "his" batch).
To create and view Counter Journal Batches:
In D365BC, you can set up reason codes as supplementary information to source codes. Refer to Microsoft documentation to learn more: Set Up Source Codes and Reason Codes for Audit Trails.
In the Counter Journal, you can make registrations on multiple Counters at the same time.
To make registrations on multiple Counters, you have the option to fill out the lines on the Counter Journal page or open the page in Excel to edit it.
To open and edit the page in Excel, go to Counter Journal > share > Edit in Excel. The file will download and once you are finished working in Excel, you can publish the file into the Counter Journal.
To make registrations for Counters on the Counters page, follow the steps below.
Before you select the Register button, you can:
You can get an overview of all Counter registrations or the Counter registrations for a specific Counter.
If you want to cancel a Counter registration, select the line in a list and select the Cancel Entry button.
If you want to see the Counter Name in the Entry list, you can add the 'Counter Name' field by personalization.
If you created a work order based on a counter entry, you cannot cancel that entry.
You can view a graphical presentation of counter registrations from the Counters list or from an Asset Card. Use the graph to visually inspect counter readings, ensure that daily counter changes for the machine (e.g., changes in running hours) are as expected, and to spot unexpected patterns
On the Counters list, select the Counter. Then, select Show Entries > Show Daily Registrations Chart.
On the Asset Card, select History > Counter > Show Counter Chart.
This functionality helps you to easier manage changing the usage of your assets and their needs for maintenance.
You can define manual trends on counters. The trend is calculated based on registered entries for the counter and you can enter your own trend for a specific time period. It allows you to adjust the simulation of work orders based on the planned production/usage of the assets.
For example, if there are 7 days of downtime planned for an asset, you can take them into account by setting the manual trend for those 7 days to '0'. If there are any Work Orders for this asset, you can simulate them, and simulations for those Work Orders will be calculated according to the manual trend.
In the screenshots below, you can see that the trend was modified according to entries in the manual trend, for 7 days the trend is '0', for the next 14 days the trend is '20' and then it comes back to the value calculated from actual counter entries. Based on this trend in the period when trend is equal to '0', there will be no Work Orders triggered and in the period, when the trend is '20', Work Orders will occur 2 times more often. You can see this by going to the Simulated instances page for this specific asset, or by finding this asset on Asset Activity Board and showing its Work Orders.
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