Use Work Order Plans to create Work Orders for an Asset. Work Order Plans are based on a predefined time frame, or Counter or Measurement readings.
Examples of Work Order Plans are weekly inspections (calendar-based) and maintenance jobs required after 5,000 running hours (counter-based).
A Work Order Plan can only have one Asset. You can create a copy of a Work Order Plan to be used on other Assets.
A Work Order Plan can only have one open Work Order at a time.
You have set up Assets, Counters, and Measurement equipment.
1 | About work order plans. Use Work Order Plans for preventive and reactive maintenance planning on assets. |
2 | Change status on several work order plans. Multi-select a number of work order plans and update their status in one go. You can release, reopen, or close the selected work order plans. |
3 | Work order details. Open the latest work order created from the work order plan. |
4 | Ledger entries and posted work orders. Get an overview of closed work orders related to the work order plan, or open the list of ledger entries to see consumption on open and closed work orders created from the plan. |
To see a list of Work Order Plans, select Work Orders > Work Order Plans on your role center, or search for and select Work Order Plans. In the Work Order Plans list, you can see a filter in the upper-left corner of the screen. The default selection of the filter is 'All'. In the filter:
You can set up Power Automate workflows for when a work order is created and when a resource is assigned to a work order. Read more about how to set up workflows using Power Automate in Business Central.
Frequencies define how often Work Orders are created from the Work Order Plan. Frequencies may be automatically transferred from the selected Work Order Category, but you can also add frequencies manually. You can add multiple frequencies to the same Work Order Plan, if required.
There are five types of frequencies:
When you start calculating Work Orders from a Work Order Plan, the Work Order number from the latest open Work Order is shown in the Current Work Order No. field on a frequency line.
You can create a one-off frequency to quickly solve a problem on an Asset, which requires urgent attention. As the name indicates, a one-off frequency line is meant to be used as a one-time event with no recurrence schedule.
If you want to set up Power Automate workflows for when a work order is created, read more here.
You can only add a Counter frequency line if the Asset selected on the Work Order Plan has a Counter installed.
You can create workflows for when a counter reading triggers a work order frequency. Read more about how to set up workflows using Power Automate in Business Central.
You can only add a Measurement frequency line if the Asset selected on the Work Order Plan is related to a Measurement.
You can create workflows for when a measurement reading triggers a work order frequency. Read more about how to set up workflows using Power Automate in Business Central.
To create frequency based on the Work Order:
This solution might be useful if you have work orders which are going to be done in the future, but you just want to create another work order (for even a completely different asset) when the previous work is finished.
Example: someone is doing hydraulic work on Monday and you need to be sure that nothing is leaking, so one day after the hydraulic job is done, you generate a work order to check if everything is in order.
On the Work Order Plan card, you can also find information about the number of Follow Up Plans for which this plan is set up as the trigger.
Selecting the value in this field will open a Work Order Plan Frequencies list where you can inspect all frequencies where this plan is set up as a trigger for the Work Order.
The Work Order Frequency works the same as other frequencies:
When the source work order is finished (meaning that someone closed this work order) it will update the plans where this source work is set up as a frequency, and these plans are ready to be calculated. It's not creating work orders from follow-up plans automatically - it must still be planned and confirmed by managers.
Create Work Order automatically after Measurement Reading registration.
In case a Measurement shows that an Asset needs attention, you can automate the creation of a Work Order to allow a quicker reaction.
When an Asset has a Measurement on a Work Order and receives a Measurement Reading that exceeds a specified threshold value, then a Work Order can be created automatically to notify technicians. The Work Order is created without having to schedule it in the Planning Worksheet.
The creation of an automatic Work Order is triggered based on a Measurement Reading registration. Check the box in Asset Management Setup "Schedule Work Order on Measurement Registration" to activate the function.
Work Order Sequences are used in situations where you have dependency between Work Order Plans. They allow Work Order Plans to be triggered in a specified sequence ("first clean, then calibrate the machine"). You can use either Work Order Sequences or Work Order Frequencies on either a Work Order or Work Order Plan.
You can access Work Order Sequences from Tell Me, but also from the Work Orders group in the ribbon. The button is hidden by default but can be shown by going to Settings > Personalization.
You can open/release/close the Work Order Sequence, but you can only release the Work Order Sequence if the added Work Order Plans have been released.
Work Order Sequences keep track of what kind of sequence we want to trigger the next time ("Small service when the machine has 500 running hours, full service when the machine has 1000 running hours").
Work Order Sequences allow technicians to coordinate work ("first person A lifts the lid, once that has finished, person B can do the repair").
When choosing to set up a Sequence with Frequencies, you can choose between two triggers:
In these cases, Work Order Sequences keep track of what shall happen "the next time" a trigger is reached.
You have the option to change a trigger in the Sequence, for example change a Counter to trigger at 200 km instead of 100 km, you can even do so after having released the Work Order Sequence. However, you cannot change the Asset No., or Frequency type after having released the Work Order Sequence.
It is possible to specify the starting point of a Sequence with multiple Work Order Plans. In the case you have 5 Work Order Plans in the same Sequence, you can specify the Sequence to start at e.g. the 3rd Plan in the Lines. When released, the specified Frequency will be added to the plan that you choose as a starting point.
When you close a Work Order that is part of a Sequence, the Sequence Card is updated with for example a Counter reading, and the next Frequency is then created and can be added to the Planning Worksheet.
In case you do not want a Sequence to depend on a Frequency, you can set up a Work Order Sequence without any Frequency. To do so, you must have a Work Order Plan without frequencies to use on the Work Order Sequence. When you release the Work Order Plan without Frequencies, you are asked to confirm to create the plan without Frequencies. Note that this functionality was not available before version 2204.
When being on the Work Order Plan card, you are notifed if the given plan is part of the Sequence to prevent changes that might interfere with the setup of the sequence. Furthermore, if you try to reopen the Work Order Plan which is part of a sequence, you will be notified.
Updating frequencies in bulk is time efficient as it allows you to update multiple frequencies for different Work Order Plans at the same time. Updating multiple frequencies is useful when you have similar Work Order Plans where you need to make changes.
Consider the following when bulk updating frequencies:
Below you can see what you can bulk update on each frequency type:
Calendar
Counter
Measurement
If the frequencies have mutual measurements, you can:
One-off
Work Order
First, you need to select the Work Order Plans which frequencies you want to make changes to. Go to:
Use Comments to provide detailed information, instructions, or notes related to Work Orders and Round Orders, maintaining a comprehensive record of communication and decisions throughout the document lifecycle.
Comments given on the Round Order or Work Order are transferred to the posted document when it is closed. Comments from plans are not transferred to the Order.
On the Rounds and Orders (Plans, Orders and Posted documents) you can add standard comments to:
By using the Comments action for the selected record.
Comments are also added to the dataset of Work and Round Orders, and Posted Round and Work Order Printouts.
You can add items and Asset Items to a Work Order Plan. The items are automatically transferred to the related Work Order.
You can only select items that are in stock.
1 | About work order plan details. Use Work Order Plan to create Work Orders for an asset. Plans are based on a predefined time frame (preventive maintenance), or Counter or Measurement readings (reactive maintenance). |
2 | Calculate work order plan. When you calculate a work order plan, you create a work order based on the plan. Frequencies, resources, and items are automatically transferred to the work order. |
3 | When do want to create a new work order. You set up frequencies to calculate how often you want to create a new work order from the plan. Frequencies may be automatically transferred from the work order category, but you can also manually add frequencies of type Calendar, Counter, Measurement, and One-off. |
4 | Work order simulation. After you have run a work order simulation, you can see a list of simulated work orders, based on the setup of the work order plan. This is useful information to predict the resources and items required for future work orders. |
You can add resources and related work hours to a Work Order Plan. Resource lines are automatically transferred to the related Work Order.
In the whole EAM App, you can only use resources that are marked as Maintenance Resource on the Resouce Card in the Maintenance tab. It applies to all areas where Resources are being used: Work Orders, Rounds, Resource Allocations, Scheduling Board, etc.
Note: You can create workflows for when a resource is assigned to a work order. Read more about how to set up workflows using Power Automate in Business Central.
You can use the 'Person/Group Responsible' field to define who is responsible for a specific work order. By default, this field is automatically populated from the asset card (from the same field) to the work order plan. However, you have the flexibility to modify this value as needed. You can also directly alter this value on the work order itself.
The field can be shown by going to Settings > Personalize and adding it to the work order plan card.
When an order is closed, the value from the order is transferred to the posted document.
You can easily and quickly edit lines on Work Order Plans that are similar to each other but dedicated to different assets.
After selecting at least two work order plans, you can use the action Update Work Order Lines on the Work Order Plans list.
Plans that you want to update must be in the status Open.
After selecting the button, you will be asked which lines (Item, Resource, Expense) you want to update. The option for Expenses is available only when you set up that you want to use expenses on the plans in Asset Management Setup.
After confirming, you should see a list with a specific record type. The list might be empty. This functionality searches for all common lines from the selected work order plans.
Definition of common line:
If selected plans have common line(s), they will be shown on the open list. If not, the list will be empty but it doesn't mean that selected plans have no lines on them.
By using the Edit List action you can edit existing lines, or create new ones.
After selecting OK, you will be notified about incoming changes.
If you select to continue the process, lines will be added to the work order plans.
Note: the process fully replaces any existing lines. This means that it will remove all lines from the selected plans and insert new ones which you saw on the list for update. It's important to keep in mind if you have specified additional dimensions on your plan lines. It will not recreate them. So, the whole process is dedicated to the situation where you know what you want to achieve.
You can specify what skills are needed to do maintenance work. These skills can be specified on the Work Order Plan, or on the Work Order.
Based on the setup from the Asset Management Setup, you can be notified about missing skills, or be blocked from choosing a specific resource which doesn't have the needed skills.
On the header, there is a piece of information if any skill is required, and the list of skills is visible.
Replace assets in your company easily using the Asset Replacement functionality. If an asset requires a replacement, you can create a Replacement Work Order from a Work Order Plan. The Asset replacement in EAM-BC is done after closing the Replacement Work Order after the physical replacement has been handled.
On the Work Order and Plan card, the Replacing Asset section is visible only when the used Work Order Category is specified as Asset Replacement (value in the Category Type field on the Work Order Category card).
On the Work Order Plan (and Work Order) you can define Replacing Asset in the Asset Parameters tab.
You can define:
On the Asset Card there are hidden fields showing if the asset is during replacement, the asset number which the current asset will be replaced to, and the Work Order Number related to the asset replacement. These fields are only filled with values when the Work Order has a value in the Replacing Asset > Asset No. field.
When the whole replacement is done, and the Work Order is posted and closed, you will be able to see that consumption was done because of the asset replacement.
On Work Order Ledger Entries you can see two fields:
On Posted Work Orders, there are fields related to Asset Replacement Parameters. The values are copied from the Work Order during closing. Fields are only shown if the Work Order Category is marked as Asset Replacement.
When you create a new Work Order Plan, it has state "Open".
There are three states for a Work Order Plan:
When the Work Order Plan is ready to be used for creating Work Orders, select Release > Release. In the "Released" state, you can create Work Orders from the Work Order Plan.
If you need to update a Work Order Plan that has been released, select Release > Reopen on the plan. Status changes to "Open", and you can edit the plan. When you're done editing, remember to release the Work Order Plan again by selecting Release > Release.
If a Work Order Plan is no longer required, select Release > Close on the plan.
You can delete a Work Order Plan if the plan is in state "Open" and no ledger entries are related to it, meaning you have not posted item/resource/expense registrations on related Work Orders. If you want to delete a Work Order Plan, select Work Orders > Work Order Plans, or select the Open Plans tile on your role center. Select the Work Order Plan in the list > Manage > Delete to delete the plan.
If required, you can batch Release Multiple Work Order Plans. In the lists:
you can change the state of multiple Work Order Plans at a time.
In a list, select the Work Order Plans that you want to change to the same state. Select Batch Release, and select the state you want to use on the plans.
You can copy a Work Order Plan to quickly create plans for other Assets.
When you copy a Work Order Plan, only Calendar and One-off frequencies are copied.
You can organize Work Orders in a Work Order Package, which is a list of Work Orders. Use Work Order Packages to manually create lists of Work Orders, for example, with dependencies or similar characteristics. Examples are Work Orders:
To open the Work Order Packages list:
You can add a Work Order to a Work Order Package in two ways:
Note: Work Order Packages can also be created automatically when creating a Work Order. View more in the article below.
Notes when working with Work Order Packages:
You can specify the execution order of Work Orders in a Work Order Package.
When you open the list of Work Orders that belong to a specific Package, you can see the 'Execution Order' column where you can manually specify the order of Work Orders execution. Work Orders can have the same number, meaning they may be executed at the same time. When you add a Work Order to a package, it will automatically get the last number in the order.
The 'Execution Order' column is hidden by default. To view it, go to Settings > Personalize and add the column to the table.
In Asset Management Setup in the 'Closing' tab, there's an option to automatically remove empty work order packages.
When you enable this parameter 'Remove automatically empty work order packages', closing a work order that belongs to a work order package will result in the package being removed if no other work orders remain within it.
On your role center, search for 'Work Order Packages'.
Search and go to Work Order Packages.
In the Work Order Packages list, select New.
Enter data in the Code field.
Enter data in the Description field.
The user can create a Work Order Package.
From your role center, search for and select the Work Order Packages list.
Select the Package you want to add a Work Order to.
Select Add Work Orders. The Work Orders list opens.
Select a Work Order in the Work Orders list.
Select OK to add the Work Order to the selected Work Order Package. You return to the Work Order Packages list.
The user can add a Work Order to a Package.
On your role center, search for 'Work Order Packages'.
Select Work Order Packages from the Go to Pages and Tasks list.
Select the list you want to delete.
If the list contains Work Orders, select the Code field and rename the list, then confirm renaming.
When you save the list with a new code, the Work Orders are removed from the list.
Select Delete and confirm deletion.
You can delete a Work Order Package that does not contain Work Orders.
It's possible to automatically create Work Order Packages upon Work Order creation. With this setting, you can streamline and automate the organization of Work Orders, ensuring they're consistently grouped by Asset.
This can be done by going to Asset Management Setup and enable the parameter 'Assign Work Order Package on Work Order Creation'.
When you calculate a Work Order Plan, you create a Work Order based on the plan.
You can only have one active Work Order per Work Order Plan. An Asset Technician or Asset Manager must post and close a Work Order before you can create a new Work Order from the same Work Order Plan.
If you want to create Work Orders for more Assets than just the one selected on your Work Order Plan, use the filters in the Calculate Work Orders window (refer to step 3 in the procedure above). You can enter different filter criteria in a Work Order calculation to include several Assets. Select the Filter link to select other filters.
Example: If you enter "25..50" in the Asset field, the Work Order calculation includes Assets nos. 25 through 50.
Refer to Microsoft documentation to learn more about filter criteria in D365BC: Sorting, Searching, and Filtering.
Work Orders are only created for Assets that match the frequency setup in the selected Work Order Plan.
1 | Control your workload. Be in control of your workload by reviewing your maintenance plans before they are accepted. |
2 | Start work order planning. Start work order planning by pressing 'Calculate Plan'. All upcoming work order plans are now listed - and each of them can be modified / postponed / deleted before the coming plan is carried out. |
3 | Planned Date. 'Planned Date' shows when the work order shall be executed. If a work order plan line was postponed, then ''Original Planned Date'' tells the original planned date. |
4 | Commit the work order plan. Mark 'Accept Action Message' for each work order plan line that you want to carry out and press 'Carry Out Action Message...'. Work order(s) is/are now created |
5 | Why do I see this Work Order Plan Line?. What triggered this work order plan line? 'Frequency Type' answers that question. Work order plans can trigger because they have a Calendar, One-off, Counter, or other frequency. |
Use the Planning Worksheet to calculate multiple Work Order Plans (and Round Plans if you use the Rounds module in EAM-BC) at once and create Work Orders (or Round Orders) from the plans.
Use standard D365BC functionality to set up a job queue (batch job functionality), which will automatically create Work Orders from your Work Order Plans.
For more information on how to set up the job queue for automatic creation of Work Orders, refer to Microsoft D365BC documentation: Use Job Queues to Schedule Tasks.
Use Work Order Consumption Control to compare estimates on Work Order Plans and Round Plans to actual consumption registrations on posted Work Orders and posted Round Orders. This functionality provides valuable feedback for maintenance planning, giving you insight into possible estimate updates required on your Work Order Plans and Round Plans.
To open the Work Order Consumption Control card, search for and select "Work Order Consumption Control".
At the top of the Work Order Consumption Control card, you can set up Date Filters if you want to see data for a specific period. Leave those fields blank to view data for the entire period.
You can specify filters to perform consumption control on
Also, regarding consumption registration lines, you can specify filters for:
The screenshots below show examples of Consumption Control filters based on a Work Order Plan (Screens 01+02) and an item (Screens 03+04). In Screens 02 and 04 the Group by Work Order toggle button is activated, meaning you get a detailed view to examine each consumption registration line included in your filter.
The detailed view you get by activating the Group by Work Order toggle button may provide an entirely different perspective for your consumption control analysis. Refer to Screens 03+04 below where Screen 03 may give you an idea that everything works according to plan, but in the detailed view you see differences in estimate vs. actual on different Work Orders.
The result of comparing estimates to actuals is shown in the % Difference field, and there are four possible outcomes when you analyze your data:
Activate the Show Only Difference toggle button to remove lines showing "0.00%". This way you can concentrate on analyzing the differences.
If you want to see more details for a posted Work Order or Round Order, select the registration line in the grid, then select one of the Open... buttons above the grid. The buttons available depend on your filter selections.
Note that you can also open Work Order Consumption Control from
by selecting History > Consumption Control on the card. This will show filtered Consumption Control data, based on the card you come from.
Refer to Work Order Ledger Entries if you want to examine consumption registration lines in further detail.
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