University Equipment and Maintenance Case Study | FMIS

Equipment and Maintenance case study

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University Equipment and Maintenance Case Study | FMIS

Education – research loan equipment case study

Our customer is a world class university providing research facilities. They required a system allowing them to control the short term loan of specialist research equipment. FMIS provided a full asset tracking and loan service using the Equipment and Maintenance module within FMIS. The key requirements of the system included rapid access to any equipment item available within a particular date range and that loans could be pre-booked within a key calendar view, which has been configured around the equipment specifications.

Researcher request equipment

All students have access to the system through fixed assets integration with Active Directory. Every student who is part of the research group can make a request for equipment. Using the extensive search capabilities the equipment is booked to the loan diary/calendar.

Equipment issue

A full history and extensive set of attributes are held for each piece of equipment. The equipment items can be allocated in advance for as many potential researchers as possible. Equipment is formally issued to a researcher and a full audit trail is maintained.

Active alerting

Students are reminded by email of the exact return dates. The system equipment managers are regularly alerted to those pieces of equipment not returning within agreed time spans, this can be via email or by workflow alerts.

Damages

Any malfunction or failure in the use of the equipment can be recorded and the correct remedial action routed through work orders. The issues can be raised as part of the Research Portal.

Equipment and inventory

A full history is maintained for the complete life-cycle of each piece of equipment. Replacement planning and total cost of ownership can now be managed with ease.

Transfers and physical Audits

Equipment can be transferred between different departments and owning groups. A full audit can be conducted using barcode scanning facilities.

Utilisation and reporting

A number of additional reports were added to the standard product incorporating the feedback from the customer.

Sales Order Processing case study

Sales Order Processing case study

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Sales Order Processing Case Study

Engineering Sales Order Processing case study

The customer, a comprehensive professional services firm providing design solutions to private and public sector clients, required an efficient sales order processing system integrating with Deltek Vision. Key requirements included: billing interface with Vision, accounts payable interface via invoice matching, strong control over product item master records, including complex bill of material assembly.

Sales Order Processing

Sales Order Processing case study flow chart

Sales Order Processing flow chart

The sales order can be made up of many combinations of assemblies, items and services. As a user constructs the sales order the system provides real time control over margins and build specifications. The system allowed an easy set up of all required parts and a straight forward authorisation trail.

Fulfilment: purchase or stock

The purchase order will be automatically routed to the preferred vendor for the associated items within the bill of assembly. Vendor selection can be overridden on the sales order if required. The user can also select the item to come from stock, selecting a specific batch quantity or serial number to be added to the packing list. Any final purchase orders will be emailed to the vendor once any authorisation has been completed.

Purchasing

Vendors receive the purchase order by mail or by email. A system alert manager monitors the progress of the purchase against the required delivery dates. Purchase order amendments can be raised at any time. Utility bills and other contracted costs can also be entered as purchase contracts.

Goods receipt

Each category of product has its own set of attributes to be used when recording the eventual receipt of the goods or service. Any serialised item can have make, model, year of manufacture, serial number or any other items captured by electronic entry, manual entry or through the punch-out service.

Equipment and inventory

Any IT equipment is logged into the physical asset register passing on all of the prior information collated to date. The Equipment system allows for asset tracking and automatic reconciliation with the Fixed Asset register.

Invoice matching

Vendor invoices can now be easily matched (two, three or four-way) against the system. The batch of vendor invoices are automatically generated into the Vision Accounts Payable system. Any variances, subject to route and category limits, will automate the production of a new purchase order change request.

Shipping/billing

All part/full shipments will generate a billing entry in Vision with the correct sales order references, quantity and values. Shipping documents can be formatted and templated by the system.

Barcoding in Hospitals : NHS Bristol case study

Barcoding in hospitals: Bristol NHS trust uses FMIS software

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Barcoding in Hospitals : NHS Bristol case study

Barcoding in hospitals

NHS Trust required a flexible solution

The technician team in the Trust Services division within University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust uses FMIS Barcoding and Equipment modules to keep track of everything from high-end human patient simulators through to laptops and even syringes. The department not only need to be able to track and identify a wide range of fixed assets and inventory across different departments, but also require the flexibility to loan many of them out for periods to other areas of the Trust and beyond.

“We are very unique when it comes to asset management. Three medical departments, very expensive high fidelity human patient simulators, resus manikins, training limbs, flat screen televisions, laptops and MacBooks, other IT and A/V equipment, plus a whole host of other kit right down to boxes of syringes!”

Rob Kozlowski
Technical Support Manager
Equipment and Maintenance

FMIS Equipment and Maintenance module allows a full log of any maintenance work carried out to be logged and future work planned for and scheduled ensuring that maintenance plans are adhered to. The module’s full life cycle tracking functionality combined with the simple creation and disposal of fixed assets means that the purchase, warranty, repair, maintenance, assignment or transfer of equipment is centrally logged and easily accessible to staff members within the team at any time.

Integrated barcoding

Integration of FMIS Barcoding with the Equipment and Maintenance module simplified the process of data collection and attribution significantly. FMIS arranged for the scanners and durable branded labels to be sent directly to the Trust in Bristol and worked with their IT departments to ensure that all hardware, IT security and sourcing requirements were met within budget. Even after implementation of the project, FMIS developers worked with the team to provide additional functionality to enable the handling of more complex equipment loans. The ongoing support package means that an experienced developer or consultant is available to answer queries and handle any issues.

For more information on FMIS Equipment, Maintenance and Barcoding products, please see our solutions page or contact one of the team directly at sales@fmis.co.uk or on +44 (0) 1227 773003.

Fixed assets audit at the Express

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Fixed assets audit at the Express

The Daily Express Newspaper Group needed to reconcile their fixed asset register entries in PeopleSoft through regular barcode audits. FMIS provided a mechanism where data was extracted using core PeopleSoft routines to identify asset groupings, scope and boundaries. These extracts were loaded into the FMIS Barcoding module and then used to produce a set of automated matching criteria. A set of keywords, codes and classifications were downloaded onto barcode readers which were then used for the final audit at different sites. The key requirement was to audit high-value asset categories.

Express flow diagram

Express flow diagram

Planning and preparation

A number of key boundaries, scopes and objectives are set for sections of the fixed asset register. The key words are analysed from the field asset categories and description fields and used to build up a set of key markers on the barcode scanners.

Extract from PeopleSoft

PeopleSoft has in-built facilities to provide downloads for the fixed assets barcode audit exercise. Some particular audit runs are taken from the test system to prove the concept. Some developer time is required to ensure the pre-built routines are optimised.

Load FMIS matching routines

Using customer and location knowledge, a set of algorithms are loaded into their fixed assets register, allowing the system to automate the matching of items loaded into the barcode scanner with the details uploaded from the fixed asset register.

Conduct audit

Barcode scanners are used to load approximately 250 assets per day. Each asset is barcoded, and certain information entered from operator prompts on the barcode scanner. All data is uploaded through synchronisation.

Find matches and produce mismatch reports

Once the audit is complete matches are run and fine tuned until at least 90% of all equipment items are matched back to the fixed asset register using the intelligence built into the matching algorithm.

Produce bulk adjustments for PeopleSoft

Fixed Assets produces the results file in the correct format for PeopleSoft. This file is uploaded into PeopleSoft and a mass changes batch is run.

Produce final financial account in Fixed Assets

The fixed asset register within PeopleSoft has updated barcode, serial numbers and location information. Any disposals required are also processed. A match has been achieved between the physical barcode register and the fixed asset register.