This document discusses meters in IBM Maximo Asset Management. It defines meters as a way to collect metering data for assets and locations. There are three types of meters: continuous, gauge, and characteristic. Meters can be used to trigger preventive maintenance and condition monitoring work orders. The document provides details on creating and configuring meters, entering meter readings, and using meters for maintenance planning and work order generation.

1. Robert Zientara
di-rz.pl
Meters in IBM Maximo Asset
Management

2. What is a Meter?
Meter is a definition of how to collect metering data.
Once associated with an asset or location, it stores
the readings for this asset/location.
Meter can be used by multiple assets/locations. One
asset/location can have more than one meter.
Meter is not equal to physical metering device and
cannot be used to manage it. For this purpose you
need to create an asset.

3. Use of Meters
The purpose of meters is to control the meter-based
Preventive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring.
Meters can record:
 Mileage or number of cycles. This can trigger Preventive
Maintenance (regulation, calibration, overhaul) e.g. every
10000 miles.
 Condition Monitoring. This information is used for generating
inspection Work Orders before the actual failure occurs.
 Energy, fuel consumption – to compare the effectiveness of the
assets or locations.
 Asset productivity e.g. number of pieces manufactured.

4. Meter Types
Maximo has three meter types:
 Continuous meter – usually presents the mileage of the device
e.g. number of hours worked. New reading must be greater
than (or equal) to the previous one. Maximo automatically
calculates the daily average. This value is used to determine the
next Preventive Maintenance date.
 Gauge meters – presenting current condition of the device e.g.
temperature. Readings are not dependent on the previous
values and can repeat: 73, 68, 77, 73…
 Characteristic value – the reading can be only one of the
predefined text values e.g. number of broken fibers in the line:
„<5”, „5-10”, „>10”.

5. Applications using Meters
Item Master
Assets
Locations
Condition Monitoring
Master PM
Preventive Maintenance
Work Order Tracking (indirectly)

6. Meters Application
From Go To menu choose:
 Assets
 Meters

7. Checking where the Meter is used
The tab Where Used in Meters application let you
check where this meter is used:
 For which assets,
 locations,
 items,
 PMs, and
 Condition Monitoring measurement points.

8. Creating a Meter
When creating a meter you must define its type first:
 Continuous Meter (CONTINUOUS)
 This meter type requires additional parameter: Reading Type
 Cumulative value (ACTUAL)
 Incremental value (DELTA)
 Can have unit of measure defined e.g. km
 Gauge Meter (GAUGE)
 Can have unit of measure defined e.g. ºC
 Characteristic Meter (CHARACTERISTIC)
 Must have alphanumeric domain assigned

9. Meters Grouping
If multiple assets/locations use many meters, then
instead of adding them one by one, you can group
the meters and add just one meter group to the
asset/location.
Meter groups are also used for adding meters to
rotating items in Item Master application. All
rotating assets created from this item will inherit all
the meters from this meter group.
Meter Groups are defined in the application of the
same name (located in Assets module)

10. Adding Meters to Asset/Location
Meter can be added to the asset/location on the
Meters tab in respective application
 Click New Row button to add one meter
 Enter information in Meter Group field to add multiple
meters
When defining a meter, you can enter its last reading
and reading date.

11. Adding Meters cont.
For continuous meters additional information must
be entered:
 Average Method
 All readings (ALL) – Maximo calculates the daily average based on
all readings
 Static value (STATIC), you have to enter the Average Units/Day
information manually, Maximo will not calculate the daily average
 Last n Readings (SLIDING-READINGS), you have to enter in the
field Sliding Window Size how many readings will be included
in average calculation.
 Reading from last n Days (SLIDING-DAYS), you have to enter in
the field Sliding Window Size how many days will be included
in average calculation.

12. Adding Meters cont.
Another mandatory parameter for continuous meter
is Reading Type:
 Cumulative value (ACTUAL)
 Incremental value (DELTA)
 This attribute is defined already at the meter level, but you can
change it for specific asset/location
Usually this type of a meter has a maximal value
which can be displayed e.g. 99999 and after that the
meter starts again 0. You enter this maximal value in
Rollover field.

13. Entering Meter Readings
Meter reading for an asset/location can be entered in
respective application using an action Enter Meter
Readings

14. Entering Meter Readings cont.
The value of the checkbox Delta? is determined
based on the content of Reading Type field:
 Reading Type=DELTA  Delta?=Yes
 Reading Type=ACTUAL  Delta?=No
You can check/uncheck Delta? to temporarily
overwrite the Reading Type setting and for
example for ACTUAL meter enter the incremental
value instead of cumulative one.

15. Entering Meter Readings cont.
When the Rollover? flag is set, that means the
CONTINUOUS meter has reached its maximal value.
This causes the next value to be lower than previous
one.
The cumulative value will be equal to:
 Rollover + (Rollover - previous reading) + new reading
 Example: last reading = 98500, Rollover = 99999, new reading
= 925. New total value = 99999+(99999-98500)+925=102423
 NOTE: Rollover? flag is active only for meters, which have a
value in Rollover field.

16. Entering Meter Readings cont.
Meter readings can be entered in Work Order
Tracking application too. But only for WO’s
associated with an asset/location.
NOTE: this meter reading will be visible in Manage
Meter Reading History window but is has no
visible information about Work Order number which
prevents user to check at which mileage this work
has been done.

17. Copying the Meter Readings
Assets are usually organized in vertical structures:
 Engine is part of a truck and they both have the same mileage
meters.
It is expected that both: engine and truck will have
separate history of meter readings, because the
engine can be moved between vehicles.
At the same time, meter reading from the truck
should be copied over to the engine’s meter.

18. Copying the Meter Readings cont.
Maximo allows for copying meter readings between
parent asset and children, but also the reading from
the location can be copied over to the assets in this
location (in both cases the delta values are copied to
the meters with the same name).
This mechanism can be enabled/disabled by
choosing appropriate value in the Accept
Rolldown From field:
 From parent asset (ASSET)
 From location (LOCATION)
 Do not copy the readings from other objects (NONE)

19. Reviewing Readings
The meter readings can be reviewed in the Manage
Meter Reading History window in
Assets/Locations application.
You can also modify the reading in the fields:
Modified Delta and Modified Reading
(depending on the flag Enter as Delta?)
Any change in the historical values will update
cumulative value in all consecutive readings, also the
daily average will be updated.
NOTE: existing meter readings cannot be deleted.

20. History of Continuous Meter Readings
Action Reset/Replace Meters contains interesting
statistics about continuous meter: mileage since last
repair, overhaul and inspection.
This calculation is based on the type of the Work
Order type, which is configured in Organizations
application, Work Order Options/Work Type.

21. Replacing Meters
Meters must be sometimes replaced due to failures
or calibration.
New device will have (usually) the reading equal to
0, which is lower than previous reading (for
CONTINUOUS meters).
To report that meter was replaced, you must trigger
the Reset/Replace Meter action and enter initial
meter reading.

22. Fuel Consumption Registration
In order to collect fuel consumption information, the
meter with the same name e.g. DIESEL must be
assigned to non-rotating item (fuel) and the asset
(truck).
Each issue transaction of the item (fuel) for the asset
having meter: DIESEL will increase the assets meter
reading and add same number of gallons/liters.

23. Condition Monitoring Application
From Go To menu choose:
 Assets
 Condition Monitoring

24. Condition Monitoring Application cont.
This application is used to define the measurement
points which are associated with gauge or
characteristic meters.
Each measurement point has its upper and lower
thresholds.
Once the threshold is reached, Maximo will generate
a Work Order (usually of type INSPECTION) for the
related asset/location. The purpose of this Work
Order is to check what is wrong and identify an issue
which can be fixed before the real failure occurs.

25. Condition Monitoring Application cont.
NOTE: In order to generate Work Orders
automatically the cron task
MeasurePointWoGenCronTask must be enabled.
Because the readings can change rapidly, it is likely
that large number of information will be entered in
Maximo.
Usually this requires an integration with
measurement equipment (to avoid manual input).

26. Defining Measurement Point
To define a measurement point an asset (or location)
and a meter must be selected first.
Depending on the meter type, additional information
should be entered defining the activities which will
be triggered when the threshold is reached (see next
slides).

27. Defining Measurement Point cont.
 Gauge meter
 Upper Limits and Lower Limits sections must be filled out.
Each section has two values: warning and action. Warning value
has no functionality–it must be configured separately e.g. an
escalation generating email notification. Action value will generate
a Work Order which will be defined based on the information from
either PM or Job Plan (only one of the values can be entered).

28. Defining Measurement Point cont.
 Characteristic meter
 For each value a PM or Job Plan should be defined, which will be
used to generate the Work Orders.

29. History of Work Orders
In Condition Monitoring application in section
History you can check the list of Work Orders
generated for this measurement point.

30. Using Meters in Work Orders
At the task level in a Work Order you can define
Observations, which can be connected with
measurement points defined in Condition
Monitoring application. This is helpful for
inspections to answer the questions like:
 Visible leaks: No, Minor, Major
 Trees require cutting: Yes, No

31. Using Meters in Preventive Maintenance
You define the meter-based PM on the Frequency
tab in Preventive Maintenance application.
Frequency field must be filled in.
You can additionally provide the number of units
before the threshold is reached to generate the WO
(Generate WO Ahead By)

32. Using Meters in PM cont.
Daily average is presented in the field Average
Units/Day. When you divide Frequency by this
value, you will get number of days between WO’s,
next WO date is visible in Estimated Next Due
Date.

33. If you want to learn more about Maximo…
Please read my book:
IBM Maximo Asset Management.
The Consultant’s Guide

34. Legal information
All product and company names mentioned in this
publication may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners.