The Hotel PM program provides a comprehensive system for scheduling and tracking the maintenance of equipment in your hotel. While every effort has been made to simplify the overall process; there are relationships between the various parts of the database that the advanced user needs to be aware of. If you are changing equipment categories or developing standard maintenance tasks then you should review the information in this section of the User Guide.
The management of equipment in the Hotel PM program brings together three (3) major components. These are Equipment Categories, Standard Maintenance Tasks, and the Equipment itself. Two (2) additional components Equipment Location and Service Areas should also be considered. Each of these components can be customized to meet the needs of your hotel. Understanding the relationships between these components (also called tables) will allow you to manage the information which describes the equipment in your hotel.
The organization of equipment begins with the Equipment Category information. The Hotel PM program classifies equipment by category and subcategory. This classification is used to assign standard maintenance tasks, and in reporting maintenance statistics. The Hotel PM program comes with a predefined set of categories and subcategories, see the sample shown below for a portion of the category list. For Corporate installations these categories and subcategories are developed with corporate management. For Stand Alone installations the defaults have been developed from information supplied by Hotel PM users and our development team.
Equipment Categories and Subcategories should be established before equipment is entered into the Hotel PM database. The System menu provides the ability the Edit and Print the Equipment Categories. When necessary new categories and subcategories can be easily added to the existing list. While unused categories or subcategories can be deleted it is not essential to do so. Before deleting equipment category information you should insure that any equipment using that category or subcategory has been assigned to a different category or subcategory that correctly describes that piece of equipment.
Using the Category and Subcategory information the Hotel PM program allows you to define a set of Standard Maintenance Tasks. Maintenance Tasks are defined by the category and subcategory of the equipment they apply to. Tasks can be defined by frequency for each category and subcategory as appropriate. Supported frequencies are monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual, and other (user defined.) It is best to define the standard maintenance tasks before the equipment that will use them is entered into the database.
The Hotel PM program maintains two lists that define equipment Location and Service Area. Using lists simplifies data entry and provides more consistent reporting. Equipment Locations define the physical location of each piece of equipment. This answers the question; Where do I find it?" The Service Area defines the portion of the hotel that is serviced by each piece of equipment. The question here is "What is effected?" Your staff or an outside contractor should know the answer to each of these questions before serving a piece of equipment. The location and service area can also be used to indicated when a piece of equipment is taken "out of service."
The Equipment list or table defines the actual equipment in your hotel. When a piece of equipment is entered into the database information from each of the above tables is used. A category and a subcategory must be selected from the established list of equipment categories and subcategories before a piece of equipment can be added to the database. The left hand figure below shows the Add Equipment screen. Once the category and subcategory have been selected the program will look up the standard maintenance tasks for that type of equipment and add those tasks to the Standard Service tab of the equipment record (see right hand figure.) The equipment location and service area should be selected from the drop down lists in the top portion of the equipment record screen.
The Hotel PM program provides for the customization of equipment service tasks for each piece of equipment. By placing a check in the Custom box on the Standard Services tab you can customize the selected service for a individual piece of equipment. See the figures below. Placing a check in the custom box grays out (disables) the standard task(left hand figure) and enables editing of the corresponding frequency service tab (right hand figure.) Contents of the individual service tabs cannot be edited unless the custom check box has been selected for that frequency. You can return to the standard maintenance task by removing the check from the custom service box.
You can use the Maintenance Tasks command under the Data menu to revise the standard maintenance tasks used at your hotel. See the next figure. In general changes that you make to a standard maintenance task will be reflected in the equipment for the specified category and subcategory. There are some significant exceptions to this rule; which you should be aware of.
Changes to the Instructions and Service Time are carried through to the individual pieces of equipment in the effected category and subcategory, so long as the maintenance task for that piece of equipment has not been customized. Changes to the Category, Subcategory, or Frequency present a more challenging set of questions. For instance should all the equipment using a standard task be moved to a new category? Rather that making sweeping changes to the equipment records automatically the program takes a more conservative approach.
The standard task is updated to reflect the new category, subcategory, or frequency. Equipment using the standard task prior to the change will be flagged as customized; effectively keeping the old standard for any existing equipment. To change existing equipment to a new category or subcategory you will need to edit the individual equipment records. The information on the Standard Service tab can be update to reflect the new standard maintenance tasks. When new equipment is added it will always use the existing standard maintenance tasks. Fundamental changes to equipment should only be made when specific instructions are issued for that piece of equipment.
Equipment categories and subcategories are designed with the long term tracking of maintenance information in mind. For this reason changes to the category and subcategory information should be made after careful consideration. Changes to the category or subcategory lists are not cascaded through the Hotel PM database. Individual pieces of equipment and the standard maintenance tasks will have to be manually updated to reflect changes in the category or subcategory lists. This is particularly important to consider before deleting a category or subcategory. You should also be aware that maintenance work orders will need to be revised if the equipment category and subcategory lists are changed.
Adding new categories or subcategories is not terribly disruptive but changing names or deleting a subcategory or a category can result in disconnected equipment, lost maintenance tasks, and incomplete reporting. The system is designed for the equipment category and subcategories to be defined and then left intact for the most part. It is also important to realize that in a corporate installation the category list has been designed to meet the needs of all the hotels in the system, rather than an individual hotel.
When creating or modifying the equipment records for your hotel the following sequence should be adhered to. Doing so will minimize unintended side effects or lost information.