> Defining Departments

A department is the center or area that is responsible for the maintenance of equipment, such as an asset, a position, a system, or a location. The department coordinates the work, assigns the appropriate crew, plans the work, and approves respective work orders.

When defining equipment, assign it to a department—this is a default value and can be modified if needed on work orders. When creating work orders (for maintenance or repairs to equipment), Datastream 7i rolls up the associated costs to the department of the work order. Set up a default store for each department as well as a screener (someone who reviews work requests and either approves the work or denies the request). When reserving parts for a work order, Datastream 7i stores them in the specified store.

Follow these steps to define departments.

1. Open the Departments form (BNMRCS).

2. Click the Record view tab. Datastream 7i displays the Record view page.

3. Department—Enter a unique code identifying the department, and then enter a description of the department in the adjacent field.

4. Organization—Click to select the organization to which the department belongs if you use multi-organization security.

5. Class—Click to select the class of the department. The classes shown belong to the MRC entity.

6. Store—Click to select the store of the department.

7. Screener—Click to select the screener for the department.

8. Schedule group—Click to select the schedule group of the department.

9. Capacity—Enter a capacity attribute for the department. Capacity indicates the global capacity in the department. A value of 10 would indicate that on average, 10 people would be available for executing activities. The capacity is usually less than the sum of all people in the department. Datastream 7i uses this value in the Microsoft Project Interface for global scheduling purposes.

10. Choose File | Save from the menu bar. Datastream 7i saves the information to the database.