Summary
I have produced a fairly in-depth technical article which explains in some detail how and when the equipment last & next PPM dates are calculated and displayed. Understanding these details will give you a thorough knowledge of how PPM scheduling functions in e-Quip, and what happens behind the scenes when you save a PPM job. Even if you’re not interested in the technical detail, there is a section of tips which might help you to choose the most appropriate strategy (or more likely, strategies) for your inventory.
The article involves quite a few symbols and screen shots which are quite difficult to view in a browser, so instead I have provided a link to the original Word document which is much more readable. You can find the Office 7 version here and the Office 97/2003 version here. Office 7 is much better at displaying equations than Office 97/2003, so read that version if you can.
I don’t want to give the impression that the article is full of equations, but once you’ve typed “The latest value of the WorkEndDate field for all completed PPM jobs for a device” 5 times the temptation to reach for the Microsoft Equation Builder becomes overwhelming. Throughout the article I use the symbols below to save an enormous amount of repetition.
If you have any problems viewing either of the documents then contact me and I will email you a copy.