Devices, serials and issues

Recording what came in, how you will recognise it again, and what is wrong with it.

Every service row on a ticket describes one piece of equipment and one thing wrong with it. Those three columns, the device, its serial number and its fault, are what make a repair findable a year later when the customer rings up about it.

Highlights

One row per fault, not per visit. Two faults on one machine are two rows.
The manufacturer is recorded beside the model, so similar models stay apart.
Serial and IMEI are the same column with a switch between them.
A fault can be picked from a list you build up rather than retyped each time.
What you enter here prefills the work report, so it is worth entering properly.

The three identifying columns

The equipment columns on a service row
Field	What it does
Device	What the thing is. Search what you already have or type something new. The manufacturer shows in grey beside the model, so a Hattersley valve and a Pegler valve of the same size never get confused.
Device Issue	What is wrong with it, chosen from your fault list. Each entry carries a description and, where you have set them up, the parts that fault usually needs.
IMEI / Serial	How you will recognise this exact unit. The switch beside the box chooses which of the two you are recording, so the number means something rather than sitting in a general purpose field.

The Services panel of a ticket, headed SERVICES with 3 items at the right. Columns read Device, Device Issue, Repair Status, Assigned To, Lead Time, Qty, Rate and Tax, with an Amount column cut off at the right edge. Row one is a Pegler Gate Valve, model Pegler Type F4 DN80, Serial SN-093756, weeping from the gland seal with oil loss reported at roughly 2 litres a shift, Repaired, Graham Whitfield, 3 to 5 working days, 1623.00 at Standard Rate. Row two is a Hattersley Gate Valve, Fig 500 DN80, Serial SN-825740, an intermittent earth fault with insulation resistance measured at 0.6 MOhm, Same day, 647.00. Row three is an Econosto Gate Valve, Type F4 DN80, Serial SN-351954, excessive vibration above 7.1 mm/s RMS on the drive end bearing, 1 week, 639.00. — Three repairs on one ticket. Model, manufacturer and serial sit under the device name on every row.

Writing a fault the next person can use

The fault text is read twice: once by the technician picking the job up, and once by the customer on the work report. Both are better served by a measurement than by an adjective.

Fault descriptions, weak and strong
Instead of	Write
Leaking	Weeping from the gland seal, oil loss reported at roughly 2 litres a shift
Electrical fault	Intermittent earth fault, insulation resistance measured at 0.6 MOhm
Noisy	Excessive vibration above 7.1 mm/s RMS on the drive end bearing
Will not start	Tripping on overcurrent within ninety seconds of start-up

Serial numbers earn their keep later

Nothing forces you to record a serial number, and it is the field most often skipped when the counter is busy. It is also the field that answers the three questions that cost the most time.

Have we had this one before?: Searching the serial number brings back every ticket that unit has ever appeared on, whoever owned it at the time.
Is this still under warranty?: A repeat repair is only visible as a repeat if both visits identify the same physical unit.
Which of these four is the customer asking about?: When one customer sends in four identical valves, the serial number is the only thing telling them apart.