Koala Software:

MAINT_CLASS

OVERVIEW:

Equipment is divided into Classifications in order to make it easier for you and your customers to find it. Koala Software supplies LocPlus with some equipment classifications setup. However, every equipment dealer is different. Equipment dealers specialize in different kinds of equipment. That's why setting up and modify equipment classifications is important. You want to make your LocPlus software work the way you want it to and not the other way around.

In order to make your equipment classifications useful, the goal is to design classifications so that reasonable amount of equipment will fall into each class. For example, Plastic Injection Moulding equipment may be a good classification, but if your company only quotes out one piece like that every year or two, it is too specific of a classification to be useful. You don't want to have to look through a list of 200 insignificant classifications 30 times a day if 90 percent of your business is in only 10 or 15 of the them. And think of how much time might be wasted going into dozens of classifications that are normally empty.

On the other hand, Automatic Screw Machinery may also be a reasonable classification, but if 90 percent of your business is Screw Machines, it isn't going to help much to assign almost all of your equipment to the same classification.

Classifications need to be specific enough to break the equipment you work with into manageable sized groups. And remember, you can have a Miscellaneous classification for equipment that you may only quote only infrequently. Classifications may be further broken down into sub-classifications. For example, a classification Grinder may have sub-classifications of Cylindrical, Internal, Surface, Rotary, Other.

Finally, for your most important classifications particularly when you will have more than ten items in the group, you will want to have one or more size parameters. For example, if you typically have 100 metal coil slitters available to quote out it may take a little work to look through the list to find ones suitable for your customer. But since an 18 inch wide slitter is so different than a 48 inch slitter, if you specify the coil width as a size parameter you will be naturally drawn to the section of the list relevant to that customer. In addition, the sheet thickness is a critical parameter. If used as another size parameter, you can easily pare down your inventory of available slitters for a customer that needs to be able to cut 1/4 inch sheet.

You can add or modify LocPlus classifications at any time, but remember that if you change or split a classification you have to reassign any affected equipment. So put a little thought into organizing your equipment classificaitons, particularly the ones most important to you.

DATA FIELDS:

Class indexes tab (tan section):

Classification:
This shows a list of the classificaitons in your LocPlus MLS system. To see the setup for any one of the classifications, click on that classification so that it is highlighted. To add a new classification, press the 'New' button. To delete a classification, first select it and then press the 'Delete class' button.

You can also change the order that classifications will appear in LocPlus. You may prefer to put the most important classifications to you at the top of the list. To change the order, use your mouse to click and hold your click on the box to the left of the classification. While holding the click, slide the class up or down to it's appropriate spot.

Class:
Type the description of the class in this field. If you change the description after the class has been used, you will have to reassign the equipment previously assigned to that class. This description appears on LocPlus screens and is limited to 15 characters to better use space. Customers on your web site will see the longer 'Description:'

Description:
Longer description for the classification that will be used on the web site and can be used on reports.

Index #1 to Index #8:
You can define up to eight size parameters for each classification. As discussed above, these sizes will help you find and sort equipment. While not very useful for your less frequently used equipment classificatons, you should use at lease one or two size parameters for your most important classifications of equipment.

Item desc tab (tan section):

Item #1 to Item #12:
Not currently supported by Koala Software. Do not use.

Desc template tab (tan section):

New Equipment Default Description:
Each item in your available equipment inventory can have a detailed specification description. Spec sheets will often have mostly the same information for each piece of like equipment. Rather than reenter that information that repeats for each piece of equipment, you can place it here as a template and it will be used for each new piece of equipment added to this classification.

Other controls:

BUTTON: 'View / Edit sub-classes':
Each classification can be divided in to many sub-classifications. These are optional. To view the sub-classificaitons press this button.

BUTTON: 'Done':
When your finished with changes, press this button. If you have made changes, you will be asked if you want to save those changes. Changes are not applied until you leave this function, so if you are making lots of changes, you may want to exit occasionally to save your work rather than risk losing all your work if you have an equipment malfunction.

SUMMARY:

An important and useful tool. Plan your classifications, because it is easier to get them right the first time!