Equipment Systems
Groups of Equipment Records
Combine several Equipment records in Calibration Control (our Calibration Management Software) into a group, an Equipment System, for any purpose, such as creating a single test system. Equipment Systems are useful when test equipment and measurement tools are identified as individual assets (Equipment records) which can be tracked and maintained as a collective group.
View Systems Grid
To create or view Equipment Systems, select Systems from the Calibration tab of the menu ribbon. From the Systems grid, double-click to open a record or right-click to use the context menu.
Equipment System Dialog
Enter or edit data for the following fields of the Edit System dialog:
- System Name: Name of the System. This is the only required field for a new Systems record.
- System Code: Shorter code name of the System
- Site: Company field for geographic Site or Company.
- Department: The department in your organization where the System is currently located.
- Location: The location within the department where the System can be found. This could be a specific area or work place, even an engineer's desk.
- Status: Select the system's current Status from the combo box.
- Custodian: Select an individual who has possession or custody of a System.
- Technician: The person who normally calibrates this System.
- Owner: The System Owner (Person field), if not the organization.
- Checked Out By: This field will auto-populate if a Person was required or identified during check out.
- Checked Out: This field will auto-populate with the date if the System is currently checked out.
- Certificate: Certificate number that was issued by the organization responsible for its last Calibration event. Primarily used as an aid for traceability back to a national measurement standard, especially if this System is a Calibration/Test Standard.
- Notes: Add short descriptions to an Equipment System record.
Assign Equipment to a System
Assign multiple equipment records to the System from under the Equipment tab of the Edit System dialog. Click on the link button to select which equipment records belong to this system.
Multiple equipment records can be selected and linked all at once. Simply click and drag your mouse over the required records down the far left-hand column of the list before clicking the [Submit] button. Unlinking records from the Equipment System can be done only one at a time.
(Note: An alternative method of assigning individual Equipment records to a specific System is described further down from the Edit Equipment dialog perspective.)
Notes Tab
Create a new Note or link existing Notes records related to this Equipment System.
Custom Fields Tab
Customizable fields are available to rename and utilize Characters (text fields), Dates, Numbers, and Check boxes (booleans). Visit the Change Field Names help topic to learn how to edit these field names.
Meta Tab
Available in all dialogs, this is a READ-ONLY information tab used as a reference to view which user created the record and which user was the last to edit it, including the dates and times these occurred.
The Mass Update Function
Update Equipment Records: Use the [Update Equipment Records] button of the Edit Equipment System dialog to apply any recent data field changes to all of the related Equipment records linked to this System. . .
. . . From the pop-up dialog, confirm which of the System fields should reflect in all of the linked Equipment records. Every field is checkmarked by default; remove selections as necessary. Note: The blank fields are considered NULL or empty values and will update (and remove any populated data of) those fields in the linked Equipment records.
Then, all of the Equipment records linked to this Equipment System will be updated as well.
Link / Assign a System from an Equipment Record
An alternative method to link to a System is in an open equipment record. From the Edit Equipment dialog's Misc tab, view the [System:] combo box to choose from the drop-down list the System Name to which this tool or piece of equipment belongs.
Printing Equipment System Asset Label
Configure your default Equipment Systems Asset Label from Options / Advanced / Report & Label.
Print out System asset labels with barcodes to Use Scanner in the Check Out feature dialog.
Check Out an Equipment System
In the Check Out activity dialog, enter (or scan a barcode for) a valid Equipment System Name as the 'Equipment ID' to check in & out a collection of tools at one time.
The 'Equipment ID' field of the Check Out dialog reflects as 'System ID' once the Equipment System Name has been validated. The Equipment System record will then update to show the most recent Check Out status and data.
Also, any Equipment record linked to the checked out System will update and reflect the current Check Out status from the Misc tab of the Edit Equipment dialog.
