Giving you the Edge in Business
Canada: 780-448-2780 ext 1 US: 850-532-6206 ext 1
Canada: 780-448-2780 ext 1 US: 850-532-6206 ext 1
One of the first things you'll do when you get The Mechanic's Edge is set up your list of equipment. You can categorize your equipment into different Equipment Types that you specify yourself (e.g., Dozers, Excavators, Graders, etc.). You can also keep track of such things as make and model, serial number, and a variety of other descriptive information. Some people keep their Model information very basic (e.g., CAT, VOLVO), as shown in the picture here; others like to record a more exact model number/description of the equipment.
Double-click a particular unit in the equipment grid, and you can see a handy “at-a-glance” summary of its maintenance schedule, its work order history, its parts use, and all costs associated with the work orders for this equipment unit.
Specification or "Spec" sheets are an optional, but very handy feature within the Mechanic's Edge because they allow you to create a list of all the specific part numbers (e.g., filters, fluids, etc.) to be used when servicing this particular equipment unit. It also lets you reference specific components (that is, major parts such as an engine, which has its own serial number that you want to track).
Once you set up a spec sheet, and begin using these parts on work orders for that machine, the right portion of this window will show you the last time you replaced that particular part, along with the work order number and the service meter at the time of replacement.
The work order itself has basic information at the top (such as equipment, date, primary mechanic's name), followed by a series of tabs along the center of the work order (Scheduled Maintenance, Repairs, Parts, etc). You can keep your data entry as simple as you want, or you can be quite detailed. Some people simply use the description tab to record notes about their work. Others record labor hours, specific parts used, and specific Pre-Defined maintenance events that they set up beforehand. It all depends on what you want by way of reporting from the system, and how detailed you like to make your record-keeping.
You can maintain a Parts List or catalog in The Mechanic's Edge and classify the parts into logical categories or part types (e.g. batteries, air filters, fuel lines, etc.). If you'd like you can also indicate the manufacturer for each part, and/or the Preferred Vendor for each part. Think of the Parts List as a catalog of parts that you use as your pick list when buying parts, adding parts to work orders, etc.
If you want, you can keep up with parts purchases in the system. If you do track these purchases, it's very easy to look up your history of purchases for a given part over time so that you can see what vendor you purchased the part from, when you purchased it, and what you paid for it.
The inventory module of the system lets you look up parts by part number, by part type or by inventory location so that you can see the quantity on hand (and corresponding costs) at any point in time.
The Mechanic's Edge allows you to set up scheduled maintenance events for each equipment unit to be performed at certain regular intervals. For example, you may have certain service events that are to be performed every 1000 hours, or every 10,000 miles or kilometers. Or, you may have inspections that are due every 6 months or every year... Each machine gets assigned to a schedule that you set up in the system. You can have different schedules for different types of machines. This screen shot shows a detailed schedule assigned to all skidders.
The system combines this schedule designation for each equipment with the information from the work orders (and your entries for odometer and hour meter readings which you can enter for your equipment/trucks). With this information, it can keep track of when services are coming due. You can then run a report like the following one to see what equipment units are due for which types of services. The software will flag to you those units with maintenance events that are coming due or are overdue:
