Management Of Pending Materials

Management Of Pending Materials

Sometimes, there are times when a technician may need materials while carrying out a job in order to complete it. If we do
not have these materials available, it is considered "pending materials". The technician must request the missing materials
from his mobile device and then wait for the materials.

Let us see how we can manage pending materials.

Let us start by recalling the process of jobs with pending materials and then move on to describe in more detail how the
pending materials are managed by our office.

Process of jobs with pending materials.
As we have just mentioned, there are times when a technician may need materials in order to complete the job. If you do
not have the materials, the job flags "pending materials” and the technician must request them from his mobile device (from
the icon squares ). The technician completes the job and waits for the materials.

At that point, the system automatically generates a dependent job from the one the technician has just completed. This
serves to complete the initiated job, opened by the technician, as soon as the materials arrive.

At the same time, our office is automatically and immediately informed on the missing materials. In fact, in the lower area
of the Job box appears the icon red drawing pin indicating that the job cannot be completed due to the lack of materials.
If we hover over this icon, a message pops up saying: “waiting for materials”; and by double clicking the icon, we get access
to the window management of pending materials indicating the materials our technician requires.

The missing materials is prepared:
· they can be prepared by the warehouse manager. In the Job record they indicate it is already prepared. This
is done by clicking the icon red drawing pin. At this point, the system sends out an automated email notifying
the technician that the materials are ready.
In any case, from the mobile device, the technician can query the "materials pending" jobs having already
"prepared materials" (in the field ORDER of the jobs preselection screen choosing the answer order prepared
as explained in the User Manual ‘G3w and Mobile Devices’).
· they can be prepared by the workshop manager. He/she indicates on the mobile app that the materials are
prepared. This is indicated by ticking the field the ordered materials are prepared via the move button from
the job shown on the screen preselected jobs, as explained in the User Manual ‘G3w and Mobile Devices’.
When the materials are available, the icon changes its colour to a green drawing pin icon. The technician can stop by to
pick it up and complete the pending job. The technician executes the job as described in the User Manual ‘G3w and Mobile
Devices’.

How the missing materials are handled from the office.
Missing materials are managed from the Main menu / button warehouse / button pending materials.
We access the Window list of jobs with pending materials to fill in the proper criteria in order to filter what we are looking
for:
• selector jobs with required materials pending. When it is selected, all the jobs that have missing materials are
displayed. It is the default selection because it is the most commonly used option (viewing what is not yet prepared).
• selector jobs with required available materials. By selecting it, the jobs that have already all their missing
materials prepared are displayed.
• field end date from. By selecting it, we establish a query range and set the start date when the technicians ordered
materials.
• field final date until. In this case, we set the end date when the technicians ordered materials.
We click


We click the option display to view all those jobs that match the entered filters. A grey table appears displaying the
information for those jobs.



For each job, this table offers us the following information and options:
• the job for which the missing materials have been requested with information about the job type (P:
recurrence/Periodic, A: cAll-out) and the job number (clickable to access the Task record)
• site client with its code (clickable to access the Client record) and its name
• job completion date: it reveals the urgency for preparing the missing materials
• technician who has requested the missing materials
• icon red drawing pin (appears always): it allows to indicate when the missing materials are available.
If we click that icon, we access the window management of pending materials displaying a list of missing
materials for that job. For each item, its materials code, its description and the requested units are indicated. When
they are available, the selector available is activated. Furthermore, a remark may be added for each of the
materials.
The office user can also delete some materials if they are not considered necessary to carry out the job; this is
done by clicking icon paper bin to the right of each materials item.
While indicating the materials that are being made available, we click the option update to keep the information.


As soon as all of the materials of a job are available, we click the option update. The system retrieves the
technician's email address and displays a message asking us “would you like to send an email to the technician
informing that all the materials are available?”. We click the option send to notify the technician, the option skip to
update the change without sending the mail, and the option cancel to abort the process.

After its validation, the icon red drawing pin is substituted by the icon green drawing pin (it indicates the materials
are prepared for that job).

• icon yellow rhombus with adjustable wrench and screwdriver (optional) . It appears when the technician
has withdrawn materials from the client, which requires to continue working at the workshop (for example,
hydrostatic testing, refilling etc.)

Let us suppose that the technician, while carrying out the job, has not only requested materials to complete the
job, but has also taken equipment devices to the workshop. This information is important if we want to optimise the
travel time to the client's facilities: we only want the technician to travel to the client once with the missing materials
(in order to complete the job), and with the equipment devices already being revised at the workshop (in order to
return them). Due to this icon, we are aware that the missing materials must be ready on the same date the
technician fetches the equipment devices from the warehouse in order to return them to the client.

As we already know, when the technician requests missing materials, the system generates a
dependent job so that, when the materials are available, the technician visits the client to complete
the initiated job.

On the other hand, when the technician withdraws equipment devices for workshop maintenance
(refilling, hydrostatic testing etc.), the system generates automatically a workshop type dependent
corrective job for the workshop technician. And once the workshop technician has finished revising
these equipment devices, the system generates a consequential delivery job.

When these 2 conditions come together (request for missing materials and equipment taken to the
workshop), and in order to optimise the final trip to the client, the system does not generate the
dependent job to complete the job when the missing materials are ready; the system only generates
the workshop type dependent corrective job resulting in a consequential delivery type job when
the equipment is being revised. And then, by means of this consequential delivery job, the technician
returns the equipment to the client and completes the job with the missing materials.

That is, when equipment is not taken to the workshop, the system launches a dependent job to
complete the it as soon as the missing materials are available; but when equipment is taken to the
workshop, the system does not generate this dependent job. This prevents the technician from being
able to visit the client twice.

• icon tree with no background (optional, though it appears 99% of the times) . Remember: when a technician
is missing materials to complete a job, he/she requests the materials and completes the job. The system
automatically generates a dependent job so that, as soon as the ordered materials are available, the technician
may complete the initial job. Double clicking on the icon we get access to the window hierarchical structure of
jobs.



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