Escalations not running

Sometimes we find issue in running escalations, even after all validations are done in it. 

There are a few steps that can be performed to make it run:

1. Deactivate, then activate the Escalation again.

2. Restart the Maximo Application Server.

3. Turn Off Admin mode.

3. Navigate to Cron task set up application; re-create the crontask instance for that escalation.

4. Use the update query to manually set LASTRUN field for the escalation in the TASKSCHEDULER table.

5. There may an issue in your database, when two Application servers runs the same escalation, this will lock the table or record when two servers trying to update the same table. So, make cron tasks enabled in only one Application server by setting property mxe.crontask.donotrun=ALL

http://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21571386

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=280443

ABC Analysis

ABC Analysis is a business tool used to categorize inventory items. Also known as Selective Inventory Control.

It is carried out regularly to take into account - new parts/ additions to inventory and changes in cost.

A Items: very tight control, high cost, complex parts - requires most management attention

B Items: less tightly control, medium cost, medium complexity

C Items: simplest control possible, low cost - marginally important

Pareto's law:

ABC Analysis is one way an application of Pareto's law, or the 80/20 rule (for eg: 80% of world's wealth possessed by 20% of people).

A Class Items often form 20 % of the volume and around 80 % of value.

C Class Items often form 80 % of the volume and around 20% of value.

Uses:

Inventory planning for high cost A Items. Frequency value planning for inventory. Market conditions (is the part easily available)

Identify parts that will have most significant impact on finance.

Effective purchasing (like just in time) and storage methods most suitable to the parts and their dollar value.

In Maximo:

In Inventory Application, there is a section for ABC Analysis.

In Organization Application, Select Action --> Inventory Defaults. You have a Cycle count and break point.

There is a report with description "Inventory ABC Analysis"

  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_analysis

Read specific format files in Maximo

Customer can use many file formats for their business operations. When it needs to be read from Maximo, we can make it by doing a configuration in the web.xml file.

The following are the steps needed to perform it:

1. Navigate to this folder <INSTALLFOLDER>/deployment. Open the web.xml and add the mime type we want to view at the end.
The below mime type is for Visio documents.

 
<mime-mapping>
 
        <extension>

            PUB

        </extension>

        <mime-type>

           
application/vnd.ms-publisher

        </mime-type>

</mime-mapping>
  

Similar configuration can be done for other type of files like powerpoint, cad drawings or any other Viewer Software etc,
2. Build the MAXIMO.ear and restart the server
3. Clear the cached files (delete temp files) in the local PC [client’s system].

The mime types of applications [like application/vnd.ms-publisher] can be found in the registry. 

It can be opened by Start --> Run --> regedit
http://www.maximokb.com/kb/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=22

Consignment Items

Consignment Items are owned by external Supplier, but possessed in the Inventory of the Customer. The Customer pays for Items to the Supplier when they use them.

When Consignment Works Best:
  Consider a Car manufacturer that produces a wide range of Cars ranging in price from medium to high cost based on models.
  Car manufacturer has customers (Shops) that stock his low-to-mid-priced models but are hesitant to stock the more expensive Cars because they do not have confidence that their customers are willing to pay that much for a Car.
  So, the Car Manufacturer strongly believes that getting his high-end Cars in the Shops where customer can see and touch them is critical in driving up sales for these models as well as helping to promote his brand which ultimately drives up sales for the lower cost models.

Maximo
  When you create an item; you can specify the item as a consignment item. Rotating Items and condition enabled items cannot be flagged as consignment Items.

 An invoice is automatically generated when the item is consumed from the storeroom. Invoices can generate manually or frequency based.
 If invoices are based on frequency, then out of box cron task FREQCONSINV evaluates consignment Items to be processed. The frequency and units specified for inventory record are used to find the next invoice data. In Organization application, the maximum no. of lines on Consignment invoices is set.
 Consignment items have an impact on inventory costs only when they are consumed, at which point, payment must be made to the item vendor.

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v49r1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.mbs.doc%2Fitem%2Fc_consignment_items.html

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v49r1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.mbs.doc%2Finventor%2Fc_consignment_items_inventory.html

http://www.inventoryops.com/ConsignmentInventory.htm

Run an exe from Maximo 7.1

We might require running an executable file, based on some condition in Maximo.

It can be done using Escalations application in Maximo 7.1. An executable file can be set to run at a specific interval of time.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21497074
This article provides steps to start a notepad from the Escalation application.

      

You can create escalation for any business object. Because all applications are associated with business objects, you can create escalations for any application.

In this link, they created escalation for ACTIONGROUP application, with a screen shots in a document

IBM explains this feature to test for running an executable file.

It can be extended to 

i) Delete the log files, 

ii) Move the files to different directory in the Server Machine or 

iii) Start a cron jobs to perform a task.

Get DB Connection from Connection Pool

In Maximo, there are some causes that creates performance problem. One of them is Out of Memory.
Maximo uses proprietary connection pooling. There are some default connection settings available in properties,

[mxe.db.initialConnections=15, mxe.db.maxFreeConnections=30, mxe.db.minFreeConnections=10, mxe.db.newConnectionCount=5]. These values are optimal when only one JVM is deployed.

However, when Maximo is implemented in a clustered environment, these settings can create a large number of open connections to the database. These unused connections results in unnecessary memory usage. You can tune the database by revising connection settings for fewer open connections to improve performance [mxe.db.initialConnections=6, mxe.db.maxFreeConnections=10, mxe.db.minFreeConnections=4, mxe.db.newConnectionCount=3].

Having seen the problem by many connections to database, we must avoid creating new database connections in customization, especially in crontasks. The below code snippet can be used to getDBConnection from existing connection DB pool.

 

Launch in Context

Launch in Context is an option available in System Configuration --> Platform Configuration in Maximo 7.5.
It is used to create and manage launch entries that opens an application or website [in the same or a different browser session], that is external to the system.

This document briefs the use of Launch in Context option to open an external link by passing TICKETID as parameter from SR application.  

The below IBM article shows a way to show the ship address, billing address and address of a Person on Google Maps.

 https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/groups/service/html/communityview?communityUuid=a9ba1efe-b731-4317-9724-a181d6155e3a#fullpageWidgetId=W5f281fe58c09_49c7_9fa4_e094f86b7e98&file=a6af8bfb-8b72-4b57-945c-786ab4d71b14

Open an external webpage from SR application, passing the TICKETID as parameter.

1.  Open the “Launch in Context” application from System Configuration --> Platform Configuration.

2. Create a new Launch Entry  

      3. The major parameters to note here are as follows:

i) “Console URL” à http://www.ibm.com/ticketid={ticketid} [I used a sample link].

   Any variable to be passed should be included within {}.

ii) “Target Brower Window”  --> It should be “_blank”, to open in a new window.

The Launch Contexts section is optional. Here, this Launch Entry is restricted to SR application.

If there are no values in the Launch Context section, it can be used from any object.

  

4.   Save the Launch entry.

Add a link in SR application

1.     Go to application designer, open SR application. Go to Select Action --> Add Modify Signature Options.
2.     Create a new option like below

  

Maximize the Advanced Signature Options section, and associate the launch entry created earlier.

3.  Make sure to grant this option to the security groups that you decide on.

4.      Now, you can do “Select Action / Add Modify Toolbar Menu”, and have a button created which will call this signature option

 

 

Here, the Image value uses the same icon that launches query reports.

5.    The new button now appears on the SR screen

6. Clicking that tries to open the Console URL link.