Defining the relationship between tasks/services that must be carried out as a part

Defining the relationship between tasks/services that must be carried out as a part of the plan

This page allow you to define relationship between various tasks. Tell me more.

Select “Relationships” link from the bottom of the page to define the relationships between the various work units in the plan.

The “Define Relationships” page appears.

The system displays the following fields:

Plan No.	The number of the plan for which you wish to view the task relations.
	The description of the plan is displayed alongside.
	Zoom facility available
Plan Sch. Start Date	The date on which the plan is scheduled to start.
Sch. Compl. Date	The date on which the plan is scheduled to complete.
Est. Duration (Hrs.)	The number of hours required for carrying out the plan.

Enter the following fields:

Code	Use the drop-down list box to select the equipment or location for which you wish to define the relationship between the tasks. The system fills in this field with all the equipment and locations that are attached to the plan. When you select the equipment or location, the system fills in the “Transaction No.” field with all the work orders that must be carried out as a part of the plan on the equipment or location.
	The description of the selected equipment or location is displayed alongside.
	Zoom facility available
Maintenance On	Indicates whether the maintainable object that is selected in the “Code” field is “Equipment” or a “Location”. This field cannot be edited.
Transaction No.	Use the drop-down list box to select the work order, inspection order or calibration order for which you wish to define the task relationship. The system fills in this field with all the transaction numbers of the transactions that must be carried out as a part of the plan on the equipment or location selected in the “Code” field. If you leave this field blank, the system retrieves all the tasks and services for which no work orders have been generated in the “Work Unit Code” field. The system leaves the field blank, by default.
	The description of the selected work order is displayed alongside. This field cannot be modified.
	Zoom facility available
Transaction Type	The type of the transaction, which can be “Work Order”, “Inspection Orders” and “Calibration Order”. This field cannot be modified.
Work Unit Code	Use the drop-down list box to select the task, procedure or service for which you wish to define the relationship.
	If you have selected an inspection order or a calibration order in the “Transaction No.” field, the system leaves this field blank.
	If you have selected a work order in the “Transaction No.” field and if the work order is scheduled by “Task”, the system fills in this field with all the tasks and services that belong to the work order. If the work order is scheduled by “Work Order”, the system leaves this field blank.
	If you left the “Transaction No.” field blank, the system fills in this field with all the tasks and services for which no work orders have been generated yet.
	The system leaves the field blank, by default.
	The description of the task or service is displayed alongside.
	Zoom facility available
Work Unit Type	The type of the work unit, which can be “Task”, “Procedure” or “Service”. This field cannot be modified.
Constraint Type	Use the drop-down list box to select the type of the constraint that is defined for the task or service that is selected in the “Transaction No.” field. The system displays any one of the following:
	Start No Earlier Than – Select this option to indicate that the task or service must start on a date not earlier than the date displayed in the “Date” field.
	Start No Later Than – Select this option to indicate that the task or service must start on a date that is not later than the date displayed in the “Date” field.
	Finish No Earlier Than – Select this option to indicate that the task or service must complete on a date that is not earlier than the date displayed in the “Date” field.
	Finish No Later Than – Select this option to indicate that the task or service must complete on a date that is not later than the date displayed in the “Date” field.
	Must Start On– Select this option to indicate that the task or service must start on the date specified in the “Date” field.
	Must Finish On –Select this option to indicate that the task or service must complete on the date that is specified in the “Date” field.
	None – Select this option to indicate that there are no constraints on the task or service.
Date	The date based on which the constraint has been defined for the task or service (Date Format). Data entry in this field is mandatory is you have selected an option other than “None” in the “Constraint Type” field.

Enter the following fields in the “Task Relationships” multiline

Code

Use the drop-down list box to select the equipment or location for which you wish to define the relationship between the tasks. The system fills in this field with all the equipment and locations that are attached to the plan. When you select the equipment or location, the system fills in the “Transaction No.” field with all the work orders/inspection orders/calibration orders that must be carried out as a part of the plan on the equipment or location.

Transaction No.

Use the drop-down list box to select the work order, inspection order or calibration order for which you wish to define the task relationship. The system fills in this field with all the transaction numbers of the transactions that must be carried out as a part of the plan on the equipment or location selected in the “Code” field. If you leave this field blank, the system retrieves all tasks and services for which no work orders have been generated in the “Work Unit Code” field. The system leaves the field blank, by default.

Note: Ensure that you select a transaction number in the “Transaction No.” field or enter a work unit in the “Work Unit Code” for equipment or location selected in the “Code” field in the multiline.

Work Unit Type	Use the drop-down list box to specify the type of the work unit for which the relationship is defined. The system provides the options: “Task”, “Procedure” and “Service”. Ensure that you select a type if you enter a work unit code in the “Work Unit Code” field. The system leaves the field blank, by default.
Work Unit Code	The task, procedure or service for which you wish to define the relationship (Alphanumeric, 30). Ensure that the work unit is already defined as a part of the plan. Leave the field blank, if the transaction is a calibration order or an inspection order and if the transaction is a work order scheduled by “Work Order”.

Note: Ensure that the “Code – Transaction No. – Work Unit Type – Work Unit Code” combination is not similar to the one selected in the header.

Service Variant

The variant of the service that is displayed in the “Work Unit Code” field (Alphanumeric, 4).

Note: Ensure that the “Code – Transaction No. – Work Unit Type – Work Unit Code – Service Variant” combination is not duplicated in the multiline.

Rel. Type	Use the drop-down list box to specify the type of the relationship between the task or service that is selected in the “Work Unit Code” field with the task or service selected in the “Work Unit Code” in the multiline. The system provides the following options:
	Start – Start relationship – Select this option if the execution of the task or service selected in the header should start at the same time of the execution of the task or service selected in the multiline.
	Finish – Finish relationship – Select this option if the execution of both the tasks/services should complete at the same time.
	Finish – Start relationship – Select this option if the task/service selected in the header should start after the completion of the task/service selected in the multiline.
	Start – Finish relationship – Select this option if the execution of the task/service selected in the header must start after the task/service selected in the multiline has started and completed before its completion.

The system leaves the field blank, by default.

Note: Ensure that a reverse relationship is not defined for any of the work units in the plan. For example, when Task “A” is related to Task “B” with a “Start – Finish” relationship, ensure that Task “B” is not related again to Task “A” with the same “Start – Finish” relationship.

Lag (Hrs.)

The time gap between the two tasks/services (Decimal). If you leave the field blank, the system considers the lag hours as “0”.

The system displays the following fields in the multiline:

Maintenance On	The maintainable object which belongs to the plan. The system displays “Equipment” or “Location”.
Desc.	The description of the equipment or location.
Transaction Type	The type of the transaction, which can be “Work Order”, “Inspection Order” or “Calibration Order”.
Desc.	The description of the transaction.

Click the “Save” pushbutton.

The system displays the following fields in the “Record Statistics” group box:

Created Date	The date on which the plan was created.
Created By	The login ID of the user who created the plan.
Last Modified Date	The date on which the plan was last modified.
Last Modified By	The login ID of the user who last modified the plan.

Defining the relationship between tasks/services that must be carried out as a part of the plan – An overview

You can define relationship between various tasks in this page. You can select the equipment or location and retrieve the tasks and procedures that have been defined as a part of the plan. You can define the relationships and constraints for the various tasks and procedures.

Define constraints

Constraints are defined for a task with respect to a specific date. The various types of constraints that can be defined are:

Start No Earlier Than – If this option is selected, the task or service must start on a date not earlier than the entered date.
Start No Later Than – If this option is selected, the task or service must start on a date that is not later than the entered date.
Finish No Earlier Than – If this option is selected, the task or service must complete on a date that is not earlier than the entered date.
Finish No Later Than – If this options is selected, the task or service must complete on a date that is not later than the entered date.
Must Start On – If this option is selected, the task or service must start on the specified date.
Must Finish On – If this option is selected, the task or service must complete on the specified date.

Define relationships

You can enter work units in the multiline and specify the relationship between the tasks in the header and the tasks in the multiline.

The various types of relationships that can be defined are:

Start – Start relationship – The execution of the task or service selected in the header should start at the same time of the execution of the task or service selected in the multiline. For example, if you have two tasks: ”Pour foundation” and ”Level concrete”, ”Level concrete” cannot begin until ”Pour foundation” begins.
Finish – Finish relationship – The execution of both the tasks/services should complete at the same time. For example, if you have two tasks: ”Add wiring” and ”Inspect electrical”, ”Inspect electrical” cannot finish until ”Add wiring” finishes.
Finish – Start relationship – The execution of the task/service selected in the header should start after the completion of the task/service selected in the multiline. For example, if you have two tasks: ”Construct fence” and ”Paint fence”, ”Paint fence” cannot start until ”Construct fence” finishes. This is the most common type of dependency.
Start – Finish relationship – The execution of the task/service selected in the header cannot finish until the task/service selected in the multiline starts.. For example, in a reactor where an exothermic reaction takes place and a constant temperature has to be maintained, “Circulation of the material” cannot stop until the “Transfer of material” has started.

The following diagram depicts the various relationships:

Figure Task relationship

What you can do in this page

Specify the work unit type

Define task constraints

Define task relationships

Specify the work unit type

You can select the type of the work unit for which relationship is being defined.

Set the “Work Unit Type” field as “Task” if you wish to define a relationship for a task.
Set the “Work Unit Type” field as “Procedure” if you wish to define a relationship for a procedure.
Set the “Work Unit Type” field as “Service” if you wish to define a relationship for service.

Define task constraints

You can define various constraints for task with respect to a specified date.

Set the “Constraint Type” field as “Start No Earlier Than” to indicate that the task or service must start on a date not earlier than the specified date.
Set the “Constraint Type” field as “Start No Later Than” to indicate that the task or service must start on a date that is not later than the entered date.
Set the “Constraint Type” field as “Finish No Earlier Than” to indicate that the task or service must complete on a date that is not earlier than the entered date.
Set the “Constraint Type” field as “Finish No Later Than” to indicate that the task or service must complete on a date that is not later than the entered date.
Set the “Constraint Type” field as “Must Start On” to indicate that the task or service must start on the specified date.
Set the “Constraint Type” field as “Must Finish On” to indicate that the task or service must complete on the specified date.

Define task relationships

You can define the relationships between the various tasks, which are scheduled in Microsoft Project.

Set the “Rel Type” field in the multiline as “Start – Start relationship” to indicate that the execution of the task or service selected in the header should start at the same time as the execution of the task or service selected in the multiline.
Set the “Rel Type” field in the multiline as “Finish – Finish relationship” to indicate that the execution of both the tasks/services should complete at the same time.
Set the “Rel Type” field in the multiline as “Finish – Start relationship” to indicate that the execution of the task/service selected in the header should start after the completion of the task/service selected in the multiline.
Set the “Rel Type” field in the multiline as “Start – Finish relationship” to indicate that the execution of the task/service selected in the header must start after the task/service selected in the multiline has started and completed before its completion.