Benchmate

“We needed a better way to manage the data related to equipment PM’s, repairs and scheduled maintenance. Benchmate was chosen for its simplicity & intuitive interface. Maintenance and production rely on it to

Keep production equipment running as much as possible, Minimal downtime is key.”

– Bill Baxter
   American Gypsum - Eagle Plant

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Help Desk Tips

Critical Jobs “One Click” Monitoring

Critical Jobs - representing essential equipment down, special preventive maintenance, major repairs - can be displayed by selecting Job Lists _ Critical Jobs on the main menu bar.

Job Lists - Critical Jobs

'Current' open Jobs - those having SCHD status, one of the specified Priority Codes and within the specified date range will be displayed.

Current Open Jobs

Each Job can be displayed by 'double clicking' the JOBID.

Setting Up

The Benchmate Setup program establishes criteria for jobs to be included in the Critical Jobs window. Make sure no one is running Benchmate and then open the Benchmate Setup program (Start _ Programs _ Benchmate _ Set Up). Then select the Switches and Timer page. The Critical Jobs Selection area specifies the jobs for the Critical Jobs window.

Benchmate Setup Screen

You must specify at least one PRIORITY CODE -up to 15 are allowed. If you enter SPACES, COMMAs, etc., Benchmate will ignore them and display the PRIORITY codes without spaces as shown.

Remember - each PRIORITY code is represented by a single character (upper case) or a number. Be sure the Priority Validation file contains each of the codes you have entered on the Setup screen.

Check boxes specify if Preventive Maintenance, Work Orders and Trouble Calls will be selected. Jobs having one of the specified priority codes will be displayed provided their job type is checked and the Schedule Date satisfies the Look Ahead criteria.

Look Ahead specifies the number of days relative to the current date when a job will be displayed. In the example,

  • Preventive Maintenance jobs will be first displayed 2 days before the Schedule Date and remain until the job is closed (and rescheduled).
  • Work Orders, if checked, would be displayed 3 days before the SCHEDULE DATE and remain until the job is closed.
  • Trouble Calls, if checked, would be displayed 4 days before the SCHEDULE DATE and remain until the job is closed to identify critical jobs that are not promptly completed. If you wanted to be notified only if critical Trouble Calls were not completed on the scheduled date, you would enter '-1' in the Look Ahead field.

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Equipment and Spares Validation

Validation for spare part number (PART NBR) and the equipment id (EQID) now provide for look up by PART NAME (parts) or EQUIP NAME which may be more familiar than the part number or equipment id. (We will illustrate using parts though equipment and vendor validate work in the same manner.)

After highlighting the PART NBR field (e.g.: Service Log screen), click or press F8 VALDN, to display the Spare Parts List to view the parts list sorted by part number.

Spare Parts List

To view by name, select SORT BY at the top of the window, click PART NAME and enter the first few characters of the PART DESC (e.g.: BELT) to view a list of belts.

Spare Parts - Part Name

Then scroll to the desired part and click Select (or double click the selected part). Note the Next and Previous buttons to skip forward or backward through the file a page-at-a-time.

Spare Parts List - Select

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Storing Documents Linked to Benchmate

Benchmate CMMS has a powerful 'document link' feature that lets you view Adobe, AutoCAD, Word, pictures and other documents from within Benchmate itself. This feature only requires that a viewer for each type of document be installed on each PC using this feature. To view a document, simply double-click the document link (shown below) in Benchmate.

To be useful, these documents must be located where they will be: (1) saved when your Benchmate database is backed up and (2) moved when your database is moved so the links to the documents are not broken.

We suggest you create a directory named Docs immediately under the \BMATEDATA folder on your server as shown. The Docs directory can be further divided by the major Benchmate screens - Equipment, Preventive Maintenance, Purchase, …

Docs Directory

The Benchmate link would look something like the following. In this example, 'C:' should be replaced by the Server name (e.g.: \\Srvr01\c) that is the same for all users.

Support Example

On-going user support is provided through the easily accessible Benchmate help desk either through a telephone call, email or our online Support Form. Issues are addressed pertaining to system functionality, procedures or roadblocks users may experience. All support services are provided to those companies who maintain an annual support agreement with Benchmate.

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Unscheduled jobs, a source of valuable data, often are not reported.

Here is one way several Benchmate users capture this information with minimum effort.

  1. Machine operator reports problem to supervisor.
  2. Supervisor verifies problem and creates a Benchmate Trouble Call identifying the equipment and describing the problem.
  3. Supervisor prints Trouble Call and gives to maintenance technician doing emergency maintenance in supervisor's dept or area.
  4. Technician makes entry in Benchmate Service Log before leaving.

This approach has several significant benefits:

  • All emergency maintenance is tracked (avoids ‘slipping through the crack’).
  • Maintenance Dept does not have to schedule emergency jobs.
  • Maintenance History can be used to detect failure patterns and associate with particular machines.

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