On Key 5 offers offline functionality
Many companies have implemented an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) or Computerised Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) system, justifying the costs by promising substantial improvements in asset performance, reduced equipment downtime, lowered MRO inventory levels and decreased purchasing costs. However, many of these companies are still waiting to see the actual savings and delivery on promise.
Says Dirk Janse van Rensburg, ACC Tools Manager at Pragma: “Significant reductions in maintenance and material costs, improvements in labour productivity and increased operational equipment effectiveness (OEE) are all realistically obtainable, but the problem lies in data. Many companies are unable to generate the necessary data they need in order to make informed and educated decisions about their business. Often they don’t know the lifecycle cost of their equipment, which failures are costing them the most, and they can’t generate accurate inventory usage data in order to optimise inventory levels and more. Data is the most important factor in any EAM and forms the foundation of the process.”
Pragma has recently announced the official launch of its On Key 5, which guarantees quality data for its successful EAM implementation as well as a substantial return on investment. Says Janse van Rensburg: “Our new user-friendly application is now browser based, allowing clients to access their data from anywhere, provided they have Internet access supporting Silverlight. Some of the significant features include rapid web based deployment, multiple menu items can be opened simultaneously allowing for several processes to run concurrently, our multi-language capability allows users across the globe to perform actions in the language of their choice and all database fields are Unicode compliant fields. Users with different language preferences can now share one central database without concern around language barriers. Intellisense has further been applied in the system to speed up the process of locating specific menu options through the software being able to predict menu item matches as the user is typing.”
With regards to clients using the On Key 4 platform, Janse van Rensburg comments that, with the fast changing technological landscape, the platform on which On Key 4 was developed has reached the end of its life and the transition to new technology was inevitable. Says Janse van Rensburg: “Fortunately On Key 4 is a very stable system and will still be fully supported by Pragma, but no further modifications and development will be done to the software. Clients can be assured that they will have adequate time to prepare for a transition to On Key 5. To ensure a seamless transition, we’d like to encourage all users to start planning for the upgrade and schedule time with a Solutions Engineer to discuss the transition.”
A small number of clients have been involved with pilots and testing of the software and the software has successfully proved itself at multi-site clients across the globe. “We’re very proud of the fact that the stage is now set for users to work in a paperless environment, with plans to use handheld devices such as tablets to create work orders. Tablets will enable users to be offline and synchronise data when access to the system is available after returning from a remote area, for example an underground mine.”
How does it work? “On Key Express is a simplified version of On Key for Work Order Creation and Feedback. It runs off the same database and server as On Key. To set up On Key Express to be able to work in offline mode, the user needs to set up sync filters consisting of the data needed when working offline. The sync filters must first run through in online mode, then all relevant data will be available when working offline. The user can then in offline mode create new work orders and complete their feedback, do feedback on existing work orders, add and complete tasks, enter spares used, labour used, meter readings, failure analysis and downtime losses. When an inspection task is failed, the follow-up work order will be generated in offline mode upon setting the status of the parent work order to complete. Feedback can then be entered on the follow-up work order as well and all data will display in On Key after the successful uploading in online mode.”
Further modifications were implemented. “A new feature in work orders was added whereby they can now be merged or split. Also work was done on the asset care section and modifications made to the new criticality analysis section. We had many changes to the Import Tool with many new functionality in this area,” he says.
With regards to substantial functional differences between On Key 4 and On Key 5, 90% of the On Key 4 functionality was carried over to On Key 5. Janse van Rensburg continues: “On the new platform most of the functionality has been further enhanced to better suit our client’s needs. Apart from a simpler look and feel and enhancements to the usability of the software, the general functionality has been kept in line with On Key 4 to ensure a seamless transition for users.”
For further information, please contact Dirk Janse van Rensburg on 021 943 3900
or at Dirk.JansevanRensburg@pragmaworld.net
