Service Requests

Ensuring your organization's assets are functioning as expected is important to maintain the continuity and reliability of your business. Beside the impact to your business operations, a malfunctioning asset can also be a liability and a security risk.

AssetChief provides many features for managing service requests and work orders. Basically a service request is any kind of request for service on an asset, usually initiated by a user of the asset - any general employee or a worker who notices a problem with the asset.

Say, for example, that a door won't stay closed properly - something that could be a security concern. The user can easily enter in a service request to have this fixed. We make it even easier if the door has a QR code on it, which can easily be setup to display the service request with the given asset selected.

The service request form can be entered by clicking the "Service" tab and clicking "New Service Request". This brings up a form like this:

Here the user can enter in a short title and a full description of the problem. They can also attach a photo, for example.

Most of the time the user will select the asset, but sometimes they may not know what asset to select. Because of this we allow the asset to be left empty; once submitted the supervisor will then select the actual asset they are referring to.

Once the user clicks OK the service request will be submitted and the workflow will start. The first stage of the workflow is to send the request to the asset supervisor.

If the asset supervisor for the asset or its parent location is defined, it will be sent to that user. If no asset is selected, or no supervisor is defined for that asset, then it will be sent to the Main Asset Supervisor, which is defined on the Configuration tab.

If the main asset supervisor receives the request, they can review it to see which asset it actually relates to and then re-assign it to a specific supervisor by using the "What's Next" -> "Assign To" action.

When the asset supervisor receives the request, they will see a screen like this:

You'll see four options, which we'll run through now:

Accept: Choose this if you accept the request and agree to create a work order to fix the issue.

Reject: Choose this if you don't think the service request is valid. You'll be asked for a reason for your rejection and this will be sent back to the person who entered in the service request.

Known Issue: If this refers to a problem that has either already been requested by another user, or is explained in a knowledge base entry, you can click this. When a service request is entered, it will automatically search the knowledge base of all assets looking for anything that seems related, and it will enter these into a Similar Issues list under the service request - highlighting them with a badge. The asset supervisor should notice this and help them determine if it's a known issue.

Query: Sometimes the service request may not be clear enough and more details will be needed. The supervisor can click this to send a query to the requester. The request will then be assigned to the requester until they respond, where you'll see the response and be presented the same options.

For the rest of this section we'll go through what happens if the supervisor clicks "Accept". They'll see this form:

The Reviewer Notes aren't sent to anyone but will be seen by the requester.

The originally selected asset will be displayed, but the supervisor has the option of selecting a different asset if they feel the wrong asset was selected originally.

They will also have to create one or more work orders or incident reports for the request. Usually it will probably be just one work order, but any number can be created.

To add an incident report, expand the Incident Investigation area and modify any of the pre-filled details. This will cause the service request to create an incident report upon clicking OK.

Alternatively to add a work order, click "+ Work order". They'll see a screen like this:

It's important to pay attention to the Asset Availability. If you believe the service request suggests the asset is not functional, then you should see the Asset Availability to be Unavailable or Partially Unavailable. This is used to send notifications, and also in the risk reporting which we'll get to in another secti­on.

Here you can also select whether the work will be chargeable to a client, and whether it will be performed on-site or remotely.

Most importantly, the supervisor at this point can select who the work order will be assigned to. They can also leave it blank and will then be given the chance to assign it at the next stage or a later date.

When entering the work order, you may see this warning appear:

You'll see this if the asset is marked as unavailable and is considered a business critical asset, or there is an asset marked as business critical that depnds on it. Under these conditions the system will consider the risk impact to be significant enough to warn you about the work before you perform it. We'll discuss the risk management features of AssetChief in a later section.

Once submitted, it will tell you the work order is created. If it were assigned to a worker, at this point it will create the work order and assign it to that worker, and they will receive an email telling them of the new assignment.

When that user logs in, they'll see the badge at the top of the Assets tab that will tell them some work is outstanding for them:

Further more, the records that have assignments somewhere below them will be highlighted in red. If you click this then you can follow the badges and red highlighted records until you get to the assignment. In this case we'll follow it down to "Entrace Doors" and see the Work Orders tab below that, with the word order highlighted:

If they click that work order, they'll see a screen similar to this:

Here they can click either "Query" to send a query back to the asset supervisor, and during that period the work order will no longer be assigned to the worker.

Or they'll click "Start Work", where they will see a form like this:

On this screen, normally the worker would click OK. But they also have the ability to indicate that the work is being outsourced. In the case of a work order being outsourced, typically the work would be assigned to someone responsible for overseeing the outsourced workers. They will be responsible for updating the work order as it progresses.

Once work is started, they can then go back to the work order record at any time where they'll see a button to "Progress / Complete" the work.

This is a button they can click periodically to update the status of the work order.

If you click that button you'll see something like this:

Here they can optionally break down the work log (by clicking + Work Log) to enter in the hours and details of what they have done. These are then totalled up and recorded in the time logged for that work order, which can be very useful for billing purposes.

They can also set the work order as complete, if the work is finished. In that case they'll also have the option of specifying "Requires Follow-Up?" - which creates an step for the work order follow-up which can occur at a later date by using the "Remind Me" option in What's Next.

Finally they can change the "Change to Availability" which they can use to set the asset as being available or unavailable during the process of the work.

Presuming the work order is finished, the assignment will be removed and the system will then evaluate whether the service request needs to be marked as complete or not - depending on whether there are other work orders pending for the service request. If the service request is complete, then the requester will be notified.

If there is a delay to the work order, for example some parts have to be ordered, the worker can defer the work to a later date by using the "Remind Me" action on the What's Next menu. This will allow them to take the assignment away from them temporarily until a later date. The assignment will still show on the calendar view on the dashboard tab though.

They can also assign the work to a different worker (so long as they have permission to see the asset and have the Asset Worker role). To do this they would go to the work order, then go to What's Next / Assign To action. There they can assign to a specific user, or to a role. Once assigned the assignment will be removed from them, and an email sent to the new assignee.