Separate total order age from waiting for diagnosis, parts or tests when commissioning a maintenance dashboard.
Index
An old work order can contain little technical activity and extensive waiting for decisions. A maintenance dashboard should show where time accumulated because reducing parts waiting requires a different action from releasing diagnosis.
The unit of analysis determines the result
The useful unit is the interval between state changes, linked to the same order and equipment. Opening and closing dates provide a total duration but do not explain responsibility for obstructions. Reentering a state creates another interval without deleting its earlier passage.
Compare configured extraction from maintenance software with a custom analytical layer. The latter is justified when the source retains events without coherent interval calculations or several sources record different parts of the journey. States lacking reliable dates must appear as incomplete coverage rather than zero duration.
Requirements for comparing BI proposals
- Define elapsed time or an operational calendar according to purpose and show the convention applied.
- Separate open orders from closed orders; ongoing duration depends on the chosen reference date.
- Retain reopening and waiting reasons so the measure can be checked against its event sequence.
A check before using the measure
In a hypothetical scenario, an order returns twice to parts waiting. Check that the dashboard sums those intervals without including testing time. Then change the reference date for an open order: only its ongoing interval should grow. Operational decisions must remain linked to records that the reviewer can inspect.
Reference for assessing scope
Microsoft Learn: facts, dimensions and analytical model grain
Prepare your project with Quantum9
Bring Quantum9 state histories for several orders and the question the manager needs answered.