Meter Updates |
Meter usage is one of the most important pieces of data for effective fleet management. Recording timely and accurate meter readings is critical to keeping up with PM schedules and tracking other maintenance key performance indicators (KPIs).
To help ensure that entered meter readings are accurate (e.g., not accidentally entered with an extra digit), the equipment class for meter types has a meter edit range specified for it. You generally set this to a value that is greater than the number of meter units you would normally expect between readings, but not so much more that you would not catch an obviously high typographical error.
When you enter a meter reading, whether through a work order, a fuel ticket, the Meter Update screen, or another type of transaction, that entry is compared to the current meter reading.
If the new entry is less than the current reading, in most cases the new entry is considered "out of edit range" from the current reading (meters rarely decrease).
If the new entry is greater than the current reading plus the edit range from the class, the new entry is considered "out of edit range" from the current reading.
In either case, you must specify the action to take to correct the out-of-range entry: accept the entry as is and declare it an accurate current reading on the equipment unit (EQ UPD), or accept the entry but only record it with the transaction (NO EQ UPD).
If the meter reading you enter is greater than the current reading but still within the edit range, you do not need to enter either EQ UPD or NO EQ UPD. The action taken if you specify NO EQ UPD on a meter reading that the application considers in range depends on whether there is a check (ΓΌ) in the Meter validation NO EQ UPD also applies to meter readings within edit range field on the General Info tab of the Data -> Equipment Units -> Setup -> Options screen. If the meter reading should never be updated when you specify NO EQ UPD, select this option. The default is to always update the equipment meter when an entry is within edit range.
If you want to set up a batch process or other automated data input that relies on meter readings on the transaction but do not want the transaction to be rejected because of a bad meter reading, you can hard code the file or process to specify NO EQ UPD on all the rows. The meter will be updated on items for which the reading was within range.
A meter reading decreases in the case of a rollover. If the last reading was within the upper 10% of the maximum meter value and the new reading is within the lower 10% of the maximum meter value, it is considered a rollover condition and an automatic rollover is recorded.
If you have a rollover or a replacement, your actual meter reading no longer matches the life meter. The application database tracks the difference between the current meter reading and the life meter reading so that critical data such as PM schedules are always tracked in relation to the life meter, but you can normalize it back to terms of the current meter for comparison purposes.
From the standpoint of the database in EQ_MAIN, the following is always true:
last_meter_1_reading + meter_1_prev_total = life_total_meter_1
The same rules apply to meter 2.