Recurring Services

Recurring Services are used for services that are to be executed on a recurring basis. They can recur either based on a calendar recurrence pattern or a cumulative usage recurrence pattern or condition (limit/ range) or combination of recurrence patterns. The recurrence is defined by the validity period and frequency of execution in a Recurring Service Program. The frequency of execution can be described either by an interval or a cyclic pattern. The Recurring Service Program Schedule describes when the services are planned for execution. The services to be executed are defined in the Service Catalog and cannot be modified for a single instance of a Recurring Service Program. For each occurrence in the Program Schedule a Request can be generated consisting of the services defined for that occurrence.

Examples of when Recurring Services are used:

• A service schedule for a service object with different actions at different times e.g. inspections, filter change, oil change
• Periodic services for the 3 air conditioners for Model A, at a customer location.
• Pest control, where traps are monitored and maintained at some period interval e.g. every 3 weeks
• Car service every 5,000km, engine tune-up at 40,000km
• Printer service every 10,000 black/white copies and every 2500 color copies
• Cleaning services at a customer where different sections are cleaned in a routing sequence at each occurrence

Recurring Service Program

A Recurring Service Program can be used for synchronizing services for efficient execution where the services are related by

• The same base schedule (e.g.: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) or cumulative usage interval (e.g.: every X clicks (km, number of copies etc.)) or condition - limit/ range (Temperature, Pressure).
• That the execution is at the same customer or for the same service object/ model.

In short, the process of defining a Recurring Service Program is done by

• Creating the Recurring Service Program
• Adding a calendar to base the schedule on
• Adding service triggers (calendar-base/ usage-base/ condition-base/ combination)
• Adding Service Scopes (with Cycle Pattern where needed)
• Generating a Recurring Service Program Schedule
• Making the Recurring Service Program Active
• Generating Requests from Recurring Service Program Schedule (or scheduling generation)
• Modifying the active Recurring Service Program

Recurring Service Scopes

Recurring scopes can be defined for models and service objects together with a service or just for a service.

• When the recurring scope is defined for a model, only objects associated with the selected model and located in the program location will be included in the Program Scope Schedule. However, to create a recurring scope for a model a Location needs to exist on the program ‘Item Information’.
• When a recurring scope is defined for a service object, it will be directly included in the Program Scope Schedule.
• It is possible to select multiple service objects at once by enabling the "Select Multiple Objects" toggle when creating recurring scopes. A scope line will be created for each object selected and the selection of objects can be limited based on the following parameters:

• Service Applicability
• Contract line
• Model
• Customer

• When the recurring scope is associated with a contract line, it is possible to select all items (objects/ models) covered by the selected contract line by enabling 'Cover All Items' toggle. Similarly, recurring scopes can be created for children objects as well as the parent objects in a structure covered by a contract line.
• It is possible to change Models and Objects in the scope line if the recurring service program is in Preliminary status.

Recurring Program Schedule

When the calendar-based Program Schedule is generated, Program Occurrences will be created with one occurrence for each day inside the program's Valid From and Valid To dates according to the program's Interval Type and Program Interval.

For usage-based programs, the program schedule occurrences will be created based on the actual condition of the service object determined by cumulative measurements/readings. Once the usage-based trigger is added to the program and there is at least one measurement registered, a program schedule occurrence will be created with a Trigger Value and a Recorded Value. This will be further updated accordingly when the system receives the cumulative readings.

For condition-based triggers, a program schedule occurrence will be created only when the recorded reading falls inside/outside the expected range or violates specified criteria.

When more than one trigger is added to the program a 'combined' program occurrence will be created amalgamating the triggers. There will always be one open program occurrence in a combined schedule.

At the schedule generation Recurring Scopes will be related to the Program Occurrences following the recurrence pattern defined for each Recurring Scope. Requests can be generated from the Recurring Service Program when it is set to Active status. The Recurring Service Program and its Recurring Scopes can be modified to a limited extent in active status.