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Master data

Manage the reference tables that tasks, components, and reports depend on: thresholds, units, products, tools, repair-request types, and shutdown reasons.

Required role

Admin.

Overview

Master data is the set of small lookup tables that sit under everything else. Tasks reference units on their numeric fields. Repair requests reference the repair-request types dropdown. Shutdowns reference shutdown reasons. Get this data tidy and your reports are meaningful; leave it sloppy and every report is noisy.

On a new installation, master data comes pre-seeded with generic defaults. You almost always need to tailor it to your industry before your team starts executing real work.

The master-data tables

Table Drives Typical size
Units Numeric fields on tasks. 10–30 entries
Thresholds Min / max validation on numeric fields. 20–100
Products Lubrication & consumable catalogue for Lubrication / Repair tasks. 20–200
Tools Tool registry for Maintenance / Repair tasks. 30–150
Repair-request types Dropdown for repair request submissions. 10–40
Shutdown reasons Dropdown for shutdown reports. 10–30

Each table has the same web-portal shape: list → create → edit → delete.

Units

Measurement units with optional conversion factors.

Fields

  • Name — "Celsius", "bar", "litre".
  • Symbol — "°C", "bar", "l".
  • Type — Temperature / Pressure / Flow / Volume / Mass / Length / Time / Other.
  • Conversion factor (optional) — relative to the canonical unit for the type (e.g. if you keep both bar and psi, bar = 14.504 × psi).

Usage

  • Tasks reference units on numeric fields.
  • Threshold limits reference units.
  • Reports can convert between compatible units when aggregating.

Tips

  • Keep canonical units consistent within a type (pick °C or °F, not both, unless you genuinely need both).
  • Add conversion factors only for compatible types where your team uses multiple (e.g. bar and psi for pressure).

Thresholds

Min / max acceptable values for a measurement.

Fields

  • Label — descriptive ("Motor bearing temperature max").
  • Unit — linked to the Units table.
  • Minimum — lower bound. Blank if unbounded.
  • Maximum — upper bound. Blank if unbounded.
  • Type — Advisory / Warning / Critical. Drives the colour highlighting on mobile.

Usage

  • Attach a threshold to a numeric field on a task.
  • When the technician enters a value, the mobile form highlights it:
    • Green — inside range.
    • Orange — edge of range (if you configured soft limits).
    • Red — outside range.

Highlighting is advisory — the task still submits. The intent is to flag the value to both the technician (who may retry) and the Supervisor during approval.

Tips

  • Start conservative and tighten over time as real data accumulates.
  • Review quarterly against the histograms in Reports.

Products

Lubrication products and consumables.

Fields

  • Name — manufacturer name ("Mobil SHC 624").
  • Category — Grease / Oil / Cleaner / Sealant / Other.
  • Unit — the unit quantity is recorded in.
  • Compatible components (optional) — restricts the dropdown on specific tasks.

Usage

  • Lubrication-type tasks reference a product for the Product used field.
  • Repair tasks can reference parts used.
  • The Consumption Report (if available) aggregates quantities per product for reorder.

Tips

  • Match your actual purchasing catalogue. "Generic grease" is useless for procurement.
  • Deprecate, don't delete, products that you stop using. Deactivation preserves history.

Tools

The tool registry — specific tools technicians use.

Fields

  • Name — "Torque wrench 20-100 Nm", "Megger 500V".
  • Category — Hand / Power / Measurement / Specialty.
  • Available quantity (optional) — if your plant tracks tool inventory.

Usage

  • Tasks that require specific tools can reference them so the technician knows what to bring.
  • Repair tasks can log tools used for cost / audit purposes.

Repair-request types

The dropdown of failure categories on a repair request.

Fields

  • Label — the display name on the mobile dropdown.
  • Category — Mechanical / Electrical / Hydraulic / Pneumatic / Structural / Other.
  • Active — toggle off without deleting.

Usage

  • Technicians pick from this list when raising a repair request.
  • The Repair Request Report aggregates by category.

Tips

  • Keep the list short (<30). Long dropdowns on mobile are painful to scroll.
  • Use categories for aggregation; labels for specific failure modes.

Shutdown reasons

The dropdown of shutdown causes.

Fields

  • Label — "Equipment failure", "Planned maintenance", "Material shortage".
  • Category — Unplanned / Planned / Force majeure / Other.
  • Active — toggle off without deleting.

Usage

  • Technicians pick from this list when reporting a shutdown.
  • The Shutdown Report and OEE Report aggregate by category.

Tips

  • Distinguish Planned from Unplanned clearly — OEE calculations depend on it.
  • Review quarterly — add reasons that you find technicians typing into the "description" field repeatedly instead of picking.

CRUD workflow

Same for every table:

Create an entry

  1. Settings → Master data → (table).
  2. Click New.
  3. Fill in the fields.
  4. Save.

Edit

Click a row → Edit → save. Changes propagate immediately to new forms. Already-submitted data keeps the old value for audit integrity.

Deactivate vs delete

  • Deactivate — removes from mobile dropdowns, keeps in reports. Reversible.
  • Delete — removes permanently. Blocked if the entry is referenced by existing data (the system warns you).

Always prefer deactivate.

Import / export

Each master-data table supports CSV import / export. Useful for:

  • Initial seeding from an existing catalogue.
  • Bulk deactivation / re-categorisation.
  • Sharing a curated list between installations.

See File formats for the CSV format.

Things to watch for

Renames propagate; deletes don't

Renaming a unit updates every display everywhere. Deleting a unit that's in use is blocked — but deleting one that's been used historically and is no longer referenced leaves reports with nothing to render against old values. Deactivate.

Don't seed maximally

A master-data list of 500 lubricants (most of which you don't stock) makes technician dropdowns unusable. Prune aggressively.

Consumption reports depend on quantities

If technicians skip the "quantity" field on lubrication tasks, consumption reports are meaningless. Consider making quantity required.

Troubleshooting

Problem Fix
Technician can't find a product on mobile Check it's Active and compatible with the component (if compatibility is configured)
Unit missing on a task Add to Units table, then reference on the task field
CSV import fails Check encoding (UTF-8) and header row; see File formats
Report column shows raw IDs instead of names The referenced master-data entry was deleted; recreate or migrate the report