Pieces of equipment are entities for which you store data and create work orders in Datastream 7i. Datastream 7i equipment can be of many different types, but the four main types are locations, systems, positions, and assets.
Locations—Physical locations of systems, positions, and assets. For example, a pumping system is located in Room 104.
Systems—Collections of positions and/or assets that work together so that when one part goes down, all parts are affected. For example, if a pump stops working, you must turn off the entire water line to repair it.
Positions—Functions performed by a general kind of asset. For example, the pump that moves water from one tank to another is a functional position, which can be filled by any number of actual, physical pumps (assets). Positions are also called "functional positions."
Assets—Generally, physical objects. In Datastream 7i, assets are the base unit of equipment information and the smallest tracking unit for capital investments.
Locations, systems, positions, and assets form a hierarchy of equipment information in Datastream 7i, with locations at the top of the hierarchy and assets at the bottom. Data is shared among the levels of the equipment hierarchy. For example, data for a work order performed on an asset is also stored in the position, system, and location equipment to which the asset belongs. This data sharing allows you to track assets and their performance in detail and under differing conditions, to evaluate the performance of entire systems, and to assess the effect that locations and positions have on systems and assets.
For example, you might have a pump (PU-9476-96) working in a functional position (PUMP-03) in a system on the first floor (FLOOR-01). The pump fails, and you remove it from the system to repair it and place another pump (PU-4854-93) in that position. The work order data for the failed pump is stored not only with the pump equipment (PU-9476-96) but also with the position equipment (PUMP-03) and the location equipment (FLOOR-01). When the pump is repaired, you place it in a different functional position (PUMP-02) on the second floor (FLOOR-02). After the pump is in that position for a while, you can compare
the performance of PU-9476-96 to the performance of PU-4854-93 in position PUMP-03 in location FLOOR-01 and
the performance of PU-9476-96 in position PUMP-03 at location FLOOR-01 to its performance in position PUMP-02 at location FLOOR-02.