To define collection elements:Collection elements are the basic building blocks of collection plans, the data structures that you use to collect Quality results. Before you can collect quality data, you must first create a collection plan. Begin by creating collection elements, which define the characteristics of the product or process that you want to monitor, record, and analyze. See: Overview of Collection Elements.
When you define collection elements, you are creating data fields that you can use in collection plans to collect quality results. After you create a collection element, it is available as a selection on a list of values that you can choose from when you set up collection plans. You can create an unlimited number of user-defined collection elements, or you can use any of Quality's predefined collection elements (See: Predefined Collection Elements) in your collection plans; for example, Asset Num, Asset Serial Number, Asset Group, Activity, and Work Order. You can also create collection elements by copying them from one collection plan to another.
To define collection elements:Navigate to the Collection Elements window.
Note: The steps listed below describe how to define collection elements one-at-a-time in the Collection Elements window. You can also define several collection elements simultaneously using the Collection Elements Summary window. See: Combination Blocks.
Note: The following Collection Elements are included with Oracle Enterprise Asset Management; you do not need to define them: Asset Group, Asset Num, Asset Serial Number (the asset's Inventory Serial Number), Activity, Maintenance Work Order, Maintenance Operation Sequence.
Select the Collection Element name.
The collection element can contain alphanumeric characters, spaces, underscores, and single quotation marks. You cannot use words that are reserved for column names, such as NAME, OCCURRENCE, and ORGANIZATION_ID. See: Reserved Words.
Select the Enabled check box to enable the collection element. You can add enabled collection elements to collection plans.
Select its collection Element Type. See: Collection Element Types.
Enter text for the data entry Prompt.
The prompt is the label for the collection element field displayed in the Results region of the Enter Quality Results window. Prompts also become the column headings on reports and online inquiries. The default prompt is the name of the collection element, but you can overwrite it.
Optionally enter a Hint.
Hints are additional text that appears in the message line, as you enter quality results, to guide you during data entry. See: Message Line.
Select the collection element's Data Type.
You can select any data type, however, you cannot change it after you define the collection element. The available data types are Character, Number, Date, Comment, and Sequence.
Attention: Oracle eAM Self-Service Applications do not support the use of sequence data type collection elements.
Optionally select the Mandatory check box to indicate that a value must always be entered for this collection element, when entering quality results. A mandatory collection element can be redefined as non-mandatory when added to a collection plan.
Enter the Reporting Length.
The reporting length specifies how much space is allocated for this collection element's quality results values on reports, inquiries, and in the Enter Quality Results window.
Note: The reporting length does not determine the amount of space used to store quality results values in the quality data repository. Results values can be up to 150 characters in length.
If the Data Type is Number, enter the Decimal Precision.
If you define specification limits for this collection element, entering the decimal precision (refers to the number of places after the decimal point) here controls the decimal precision of the specification limit values that you can define.
Optionally select a UOM. See: Overview of Units of Measure. Units of measure can be entered for any collection element, regardless of data type.
Optionally enter a Default Value for the collection element.
When you set a default value for the collection element (generally, the most commonly used value for the collection element), it is automatically entered when you enter quality results. You can overwrite this value. See: Default Value Assignment Rules.
Optionally enter the SQL Validation Statement.
This statement is used for validation when you enter quality data. You can base a collection element's data validation on any table in the Oracle database. To do this, you can define a SQL validation statement that Quality uses for validation when you collect quality data. This SQL statement must be a SELECT statement in which you select two columns. For example, if you have entered machine numbers in the database table, you can cross-validate machine numbers entered as you collect quality results against the numbers. See: SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference.
For example, to validate machine numbers from a table called 'machine_numbers' stored in the database, enter the following SQL validation statement:
SELECT machine_number, machine_description
FROM machine_numbers
WHERE NVL(disable_date, SYSDATE+1) > SYSDATE
AND organization_id=:parameter.org_id
ORDER BY custom_machine_number
Note: To constrain the SQL Statement to the current organization, you can use the variable, ':parameter.org_id' for the current organization id. To constrain the SQL Statement to the current user's id, you can use the variable, ':parameter.user_id' for the current user's id.
If you define both a SQL validation statement and a list of collection element values, the list of values is used for validation; the SQL validation statement is ignored.
