Maximo

Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5) says:
"You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it just mean that a new WO can be created from a task (as an separate record)?

Thank you.



Related:
IBM Support: "Working as designed, submit an RFE". -TS006181298
RFE: Converting task to child WO: WOCLASS remains as 'ACTIVITY' (incorrect)

A task is 'converted' to a child work order by simply applying either a Job Plan or adding a task to the task work order.  As each task is actually a work order, it has the ISTASK=0, and all that happens when you add a task to the task work order is that flag is changed to ISTASK=0.  In either case they have the parent work order populated.

------------------------------
Craig Kokay,
Lead Senior Maximo/IoT Consultant
ISW
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ph: 0411-682-040
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 13, 2020 02:11 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Maximo 7.6.1.2:

In the absence of formal documentation about tasks, I've been referencing a document called Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5).

In that document, there is a line that says: "You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

Question:
What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it merely mean that a new WO can be created from a task?

(I haven't found an OOB way to alter a task so that it is a traditional WO.)

Thank you.

Excellent response, just shows that even after 22 years implementing Maximo there are still things you can learn from others :-)

------------------------------
Steve Lee
Maximo Technical Sales Specialist
IBM
Leeds
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 14, 2020 12:38 AM
From: Craig Kokay
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

A task is 'converted' to a child work order by simply applying either a Job Plan or adding a task to the task work order.  As each task is actually a work order, it has the ISTASK=0, and all that happens when you add a task to the task work order is that flag is changed to ISTASK=0.  In either case they have the parent work order populated.

------------------------------
Craig Kokay,
Lead Senior Maximo/IoT Consultant
ISW
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ph: 0411-682-040

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 13, 2020 02:11 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Maximo 7.6.1.2:

In the absence of formal documentation about tasks, I've been referencing a document called Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5).

In that document, there is a line that says: "You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

Question:
What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it merely mean that a new WO can be created from a task?

(I haven't found an OOB way to alter a task so that it is a traditional WO.)

Thank you.

I did a quick try on Craigs methods - open the Activity in the WOTrack by clearing the search of all parameters and then applying either one of the described methods. Both work smoothly.

But i think there is a downside: The WOCLASS stays "ACTIVITY". I don't think i would suggest a customer to create this inconsistency by handling it that way. We use the WOCLASS in a lot of places (custom lookups, reports,...), and those will fail when you use described tricks.


------------------------------
David Metzler
Solution Architect
RODIAS GmbH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 14, 2020 12:38 AM
From: Craig Kokay
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

A task is 'converted' to a child work order by simply applying either a Job Plan or adding a task to the task work order.  As each task is actually a work order, it has the ISTASK=0, and all that happens when you add a task to the task work order is that flag is changed to ISTASK=0.  In either case they have the parent work order populated.

------------------------------
Craig Kokay,
Lead Senior Maximo/IoT Consultant
ISW
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ph: 0411-682-040

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 13, 2020 02:11 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Maximo 7.6.1.2:

In the absence of formal documentation about tasks, I've been referencing a document called Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5).

In that document, there is a line that says: "You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

Question:
What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it merely mean that a new WO can be created from a task?

(I haven't found an OOB way to alter a task so that it is a traditional WO.)

Thank you.

I wouldn't recommend depending on WOCLASS (especially not the actual value, potentially the internal value) because you can create custom WOCLASS values (in addition to some add-ons like HS&E/O&G adding a bunch of their own). Users are also able to change the WOCLASS during creation and can set it on things like JOBPLANS if they want. If you want different logic between tasks and the main WO we look at istask flag instead.

------------------------------
Steven Shull
Director of Development
Projetech Inc
Cincinnati OH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu October 15, 2020 02:25 AM
From: David Metzler
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

I did a quick try on Craigs methods - open the Activity in the WOTrack by clearing the search of all parameters and then applying either one of the described methods. Both work smoothly.

But i think there is a downside: The WOCLASS stays "ACTIVITY". I don't think i would suggest a customer to create this inconsistency by handling it that way. We use the WOCLASS in a lot of places (custom lookups, reports,...), and those will fail when you use described tricks.


------------------------------
David Metzler
Solution Architect
RODIAS GmbH

Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 14, 2020 12:38 AM
From: Craig Kokay
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

A task is 'converted' to a child work order by simply applying either a Job Plan or adding a task to the task work order.  As each task is actually a work order, it has the ISTASK=0, and all that happens when you add a task to the task work order is that flag is changed to ISTASK=0.  In either case they have the parent work order populated.

------------------------------
Craig Kokay,
Lead Senior Maximo/IoT Consultant
ISW
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ph: 0411-682-040

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 13, 2020 02:11 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Maximo 7.6.1.2:

In the absence of formal documentation about tasks, I've been referencing a document called Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5).

In that document, there is a line that says: "You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

Question:
What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it merely mean that a new WO can be created from a task?

(I haven't found an OOB way to alter a task so that it is a traditional WO.)

Thank you.

I think "As each task is actually a work order, it has the ISTASK=0" should have ended with "...ISTASK=1".

------------------------------
Blessings,
Jason Uppenborn
Sr. Technical Maximo Consultant
Ontracks Consulting
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 14, 2020 12:38 AM
From: Craig Kokay
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

A task is 'converted' to a child work order by simply applying either a Job Plan or adding a task to the task work order.  As each task is actually a work order, it has the ISTASK=0, and all that happens when you add a task to the task work order is that flag is changed to ISTASK=0.  In either case they have the parent work order populated.

------------------------------
Craig Kokay,
Lead Senior Maximo/IoT Consultant
ISW
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ph: 0411-682-040

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 13, 2020 02:11 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Maximo 7.6.1.2:

In the absence of formal documentation about tasks, I've been referencing a document called Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5).

In that document, there is a line that says: "You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

Question:
What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it merely mean that a new WO can be created from a task?

(I haven't found an OOB way to alter a task so that it is a traditional WO.)

Thank you.

I do not think there is an OOB method to make this change. You might try creating a new Action with an automation script that will set the ISTASK attribute to editable and set the value to 0.
This is because in the core code this field is always set to Read Only so you can't just display the field on the screen in order to make the change. In any case it would be better to implement in this way so you could manage the access to your new action.

I haven't tested this but in theory this would make this a standard Work Order but still remain as a child of the parent work order.

------------------------------
Steve Lee
Maximo Technical Sales Specialist
IBM
Leeds
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 13, 2020 02:11 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5) says:
"You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it just mean that a new WO can be created from a task (as an separate record)?

Thank you.

Trying to "promote" a Task to a Child WO by simply changing IsTask from 1 to 0 is dangerous.  When a Task is "promoted" by adding a Task directly or through a Job Plan, the IsTask value is not the only thing that changes.  The TaskID will be NULLed out and the WOGroup, which is set to the Parent when IsTask is 1, will be changed to the WONum.  And as already pointed out by someone, the WOClass will remain WOACTIVITY.  That means that the WO will continue to appear in the "Activities and Tasks" application.

Allowing Tasks to be promoted is a bad idea in any case.  It will create problems if records such as PRLine, LabTrans, MatUseTrans, etc. have been already been created with the EnteredAsTask flag set to 1.  These types of records store the WONum of the WO that is being charged in a RefWO fields.  The screens that display these types of records look up the WorkOrder record for the RefWO and populate the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields based on the EnteredAsTask value.  When creating one of these records, the EnteredAsTask is set to 1 if a value is entered in the TaskID field and the RefWO is set to the WONum of the WorkOrder records where the Parent and TaskID match the values entered in the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields.  When displaying an existing record with EnteredAsTask set to 1, the system will set the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields to the Parent and TaskID of the Reference WO respectively.  If the Task was promoted after the record was created, the Task on the Reference WO will be NULL making it appear as if the transaction was charging the Parent WO.

For this reason, I strongly discourage clients from allowing Tasks to be promoted.  Doing so is also a prerequisite if the client wants to implement intelligent WONum for Tasks where the WONum is the Parent + "-" + TaskID which makes integration with other applications much easier.

How would you recommend we disable task promotion?
Original Message:
Sent: Fri October 16, 2020 01:57 PM
From: Julio Hernandez
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Trying to "promote" a Task to a Child WO by simply changing IsTask from 1 to 0 is dangerous.  When a Task is "promoted" by adding a Task directly or through a Job Plan, the IsTask value is not the only thing that changes.  The TaskID will be NULLed out and the WOGroup, which is set to the Parent when IsTask is 1, will be changed to the WONum.  And as already pointed out by someone, the WOClass will remain WOACTIVITY.  That means that the WO will continue to appear in the "Activities and Tasks" application.

Allowing Tasks to be promoted is a bad idea in any case.  It will create problems if records such as PRLine, LabTrans, MatUseTrans, etc. have been already been created with the EnteredAsTask flag set to 1.  These types of records store the WONum of the WO that is being charged in a RefWO fields.  The screens that display these types of records look up the WorkOrder record for the RefWO and populate the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields based on the EnteredAsTask value.  When creating one of these records, the EnteredAsTask is set to 1 if a value is entered in the TaskID field and the RefWO is set to the WONum of the WorkOrder records where the Parent and TaskID match the values entered in the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields.  When displaying an existing record with EnteredAsTask set to 1, the system will set the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields to the Parent and TaskID of the Reference WO respectively.  If the Task was promoted after the record was created, the Task on the Reference WO will be NULL making it appear as if the transaction was charging the Parent WO.

For this reason, I strongly discourage clients from allowing Tasks to be promoted.  Doing so is also a prerequisite if the client wants to implement intelligent WONum for Tasks where the WONum is the Parent + "-" + TaskID which makes integration with other applications much easier.

------------------------------
Julio Hernandez

Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 14, 2020 02:57 AM
From: Steve Lee
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

I do not think there is an OOB method to make this change. You might try creating a new Action with an automation script that will set the ISTASK attribute to editable and set the value to 0.
This is because in the core code this field is always set to Read Only so you can't just display the field on the screen in order to make the change. In any case it would be better to implement in this way so you could manage the access to your new action.

I haven't tested this but in theory this would make this a standard Work Order but still remain as a child of the parent work order.

------------------------------
Steve Lee
Maximo Technical Sales Specialist
IBM
Leeds

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 13, 2020 02:11 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Work Order Operations Are Now Tasks - Overview and FAQ (Maximo 7.5) says:
"You can easily convert any task to a child work order with tasks of its own."

What does "convert" mean in that context? Does it mean that a task can be altered so that it is now a traditional WO? Or does it just mean that a new WO can be created from a task (as an separate record)?

Thank you.

Related:

Prevent tasks from being converted to WOs

Enabling tasks as work orders

Thanks to Julio for this very comprehensive explanation of what Maximo actually does in this case.

I am guessing that now User1971 is asking how to prevent users from taking the actions as described in Craig's post if this indeed will cause these issues.

The first thing that comes to mind is to make the Job Plan field read only if the ISTASK is =1 - this should prevent a job plan being applied.
Secondly do a similar thing with the New Row button on the tasks table if the parent work order ISTASK=1

Julio, If the task work order does not currently have any transactions associated e.g. PRLINE, POLINE, MATUSETRANS etc would allowing these actions still be an issue?

In all cases it may be easier/safer to just prevent these actions and if a task on a work order cannot be completed and you need to perform this work at a later date then using the follow up work order process would be the best option.

------------------------------
Steve Lee
Maximo Technical Sales Specialist
IBM
Leeds
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri October 16, 2020 01:57 PM
From: Julio Hernandez
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Trying to "promote" a Task to a Child WO by simply changing IsTask from 1 to 0 is dangerous.  When a Task is "promoted" by adding a Task directly or through a Job Plan, the IsTask value is not the only thing that changes.  The TaskID will be NULLed out and the WOGroup, which is set to the Parent when IsTask is 1, will be changed to the WONum.  And as already pointed out by someone, the WOClass will remain WOACTIVITY.  That means that the WO will continue to appear in the "Activities and Tasks" application.

Allowing Tasks to be promoted is a bad idea in any case.  It will create problems if records such as PRLine, LabTrans, MatUseTrans, etc. have been already been created with the EnteredAsTask flag set to 1.  These types of records store the WONum of the WO that is being charged in a RefWO fields.  The screens that display these types of records look up the WorkOrder record for the RefWO and populate the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields based on the EnteredAsTask value.  When creating one of these records, the EnteredAsTask is set to 1 if a value is entered in the TaskID field and the RefWO is set to the WONum of the WorkOrder records where the Parent and TaskID match the values entered in the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields.  When displaying an existing record with EnteredAsTask set to 1, the system will set the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields to the Parent and TaskID of the Reference WO respectively.  If the Task was promoted after the record was created, the Task on the Reference WO will be NULL making it appear as if the transaction was charging the Parent WO.

For this reason, I strongly discourage clients from allowing Tasks to be promoted.  Doing so is also a prerequisite if the client wants to implement intelligent WONum for Tasks where the WONum is the Parent + "-" + TaskID which makes integration with other applications much easier.

"Allowing Task to be promoted is a bad idea in any case." is in my opinion a bit strong. Not in ANY case?  hrmmmm.,, as in never?  You make some good use cases for when it should not be.  However there are use cases where it can and should be.

Interesting thing is this:  The WPEDIT settings "should" prevent he editing of a work order plan (i.e. adding a Job Plan and Adding task) if set correctly.  However even with the WP Labor unchecked you can "move" or "convert" the plan task (and it's associated WPLABOR) and as you describe, the already incurred transaction "gets lost" as you describe.  In my opinion, if there are transactions against a plan and the edit setting is checked such that plans cannot be edited (Labor, Material etc.) that "should" include tasks as well for the very reason you describe.  To me this sounds like a program error.

I believe the statement "The screens that display these types of records" refer to the View Costs dialog box and perhaps some others (sorry I do not have a handy list on my desk.). That being the case, the fact that costs were incurred when the transactions were recorded and they are indeed "lost" when the task is converted means the "View Costs" temporary MBO apparently does not include the necessary logic to get all related workorders in a hierarchy regardless of wogroup or parent value.

------------------------------
Bradley K. Downing , MBA
IBM Certified Adv. Deployment Prof. Maximo v7.6.1
IBM
Bakersfield CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri October 16, 2020 01:57 PM
From: Julio Hernandez
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Trying to "promote" a Task to a Child WO by simply changing IsTask from 1 to 0 is dangerous.  When a Task is "promoted" by adding a Task directly or through a Job Plan, the IsTask value is not the only thing that changes.  The TaskID will be NULLed out and the WOGroup, which is set to the Parent when IsTask is 1, will be changed to the WONum.  And as already pointed out by someone, the WOClass will remain WOACTIVITY.  That means that the WO will continue to appear in the "Activities and Tasks" application.

Allowing Tasks to be promoted is a bad idea in any case.  It will create problems if records such as PRLine, LabTrans, MatUseTrans, etc. have been already been created with the EnteredAsTask flag set to 1.  These types of records store the WONum of the WO that is being charged in a RefWO fields.  The screens that display these types of records look up the WorkOrder record for the RefWO and populate the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields based on the EnteredAsTask value.  When creating one of these records, the EnteredAsTask is set to 1 if a value is entered in the TaskID field and the RefWO is set to the WONum of the WorkOrder records where the Parent and TaskID match the values entered in the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields.  When displaying an existing record with EnteredAsTask set to 1, the system will set the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields to the Parent and TaskID of the Reference WO respectively.  If the Task was promoted after the record was created, the Task on the Reference WO will be NULL making it appear as if the transaction was charging the Parent WO.

For this reason, I strongly discourage clients from allowing Tasks to be promoted.  Doing so is also a prerequisite if the client wants to implement intelligent WONum for Tasks where the WONum is the Parent + "-" + TaskID which makes integration with other applications much easier.

IBM Support said: "It's working as designed, submit an RFE". -TS006181298

RFE: Converting task to child WO: WOCLASS remains as 'ACTIVITY' (incorrect)



Original Message:
Sent: Fri October 16, 2020 01:57 PM
From: Julio Hernandez
Subject: Convert task to child work order?

Trying to "promote" a Task to a Child WO by simply changing IsTask from 1 to 0 is dangerous.  When a Task is "promoted" by adding a Task directly or through a Job Plan, the IsTask value is not the only thing that changes.  The TaskID will be NULLed out and the WOGroup, which is set to the Parent when IsTask is 1, will be changed to the WONum.  And as already pointed out by someone, the WOClass will remain WOACTIVITY.  That means that the WO will continue to appear in the "Activities and Tasks" application.

Allowing Tasks to be promoted is a bad idea in any case.  It will create problems if records such as PRLine, LabTrans, MatUseTrans, etc. have been already been created with the EnteredAsTask flag set to 1.  These types of records store the WONum of the WO that is being charged in a RefWO fields.  The screens that display these types of records look up the WorkOrder record for the RefWO and populate the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields based on the EnteredAsTask value.  When creating one of these records, the EnteredAsTask is set to 1 if a value is entered in the TaskID field and the RefWO is set to the WONum of the WorkOrder records where the Parent and TaskID match the values entered in the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields.  When displaying an existing record with EnteredAsTask set to 1, the system will set the non-persistent WONum and TaskID fields to the Parent and TaskID of the Reference WO respectively.  If the Task was promoted after the record was created, the Task on the Reference WO will be NULL making it appear as if the transaction was charging the Parent WO.

For this reason, I strongly discourage clients from allowing Tasks to be promoted.  Doing so is also a prerequisite if the client wants to implement intelligent WONum for Tasks where the WONum is the Parent + "-" + TaskID which makes integration with other applications much easier.