You can define an unlimited number of collection elements, which you can then add to collection plans to determine what quality results data will be collected and tracked. You can add, change, and delete collection elements as your requirements change. You also can customize your collection elements by:

• Defining collection element values. See: Defining Collection Element Values.

• Defining specification limits. See: Defining Collection Element Specification Limits.

• Defining action rules and quality actions. See: Defining Collection Element Actions.

   To define a collection element:

1. Navigate to the Collection Elements window.

   Attention: The steps listed below describe how to define collection elements one-at-a-time in the Collection Elements window. You also can define several collection elements simultaneously using the Collection Elements Summary window. See: Combination Blocks.

2. Enter the Collection Element name.

   The collection element name can contain alphanumeric characters, spaces, underscores (_), and single quotation marks ('). You cannot use words that are reserved for column names in collection plans such as NAME, OCCURRENCE, ORGANIZATION_ID, and CREATED_BY. See: Reserved Words.

3. Check the Enabled check box to enable the collection element.

   You can only add enabled collection elements to collection plans and specifications.

4. Select its Collection Element Type. See: Collection Element Types.

5. 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.

6. Optionally, enter a Hint.

   Hints are additional text that appears in the message line as the user enters quality results to guide the user during data entry. See: Entering Data in Forms.

7. You can select any data type, however, you cannot change it once you define the collection element. The available data types are Character, Number, Date, Date and Time, Comment, and Sequence.

   Comment: This Data Type enables you to define up to 2000 characters within the current collection element. Up to five Comment collection elements can be added to a collection plan (See: Creating Collection Plans), each with the ability to contain up to 2000 characters in its string value. The Reporting Length field indicates the number of comment characters viewable within the Long Comments field, when viewing quality results (See: Viewing Quality Results). When within the View Quality Results window, you can select Ctrl-E to view or update all 2000 characters of the comment.

   Sequence: This Data Type enables the current collection element to be a sequential, automatic numbering identifier. The sequence number is generated when the record is saved, not when the record is created. The Sequence Element Audit Report enables you to verify that all sequence type collection element numbers generated when entering collection plan results have been used and that you can account for any deleted numbers. See: Sequence Element Audit Report.

   Note: Sequence and Comment types are not supported in Enterprise Asset Management Transaction Integration

8. Optionally, check 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 or read only when added to a collection plan. See: Defining Collection Plan Elements.

9. 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 up to 150 characters in length.

10. 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. You can enter a decimal precision up to 12 places.

11. Optionally, enter a UOM. See: Overview of Units of Measure.

    Units of measure can be entered for any collection elements regardless of data type. You can override the UOM assigned here with a different UOM once you assign a collection element to a collection plan. See: Defining Collection Plan Elements.

12. 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 that collection element), it is automatically entered when the user enters quality results. For example, assume that you define a collection element called Inspector ID. Since inspector 101 performs most inspections, you enter 101 as the Default Value for the Inspector ID collection element. As you enter quality results, the value 101 automatically appears in the Inspector ID field. You can override this value unless the collection element has been defined as read only in the collection plan. See: Default Value Assignment Rules and Defining Collection Plan Elements.

13. 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 a 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, Release 3.2.

    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

    Attention: 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, only the list of values is used for validation; the SQL validation statement is ignored.

14. Save your work.

   To define sequential counter information for a collection element:

If you selected Sequence in the Data Type field, you can customize how the sequence numbering will appear when entering and displaying quality results. Once the current collection element is included within a collection plan (See: Creating Collection Plans), automatic counter sequencing will display within the Results column, accessed when entering Quality results (See: Entering Quality Results Directly). Once the quality results have been entered for the collection plan containing the Sequence collection element, you can view the the sequence elements when viewing your quality results.

1. Choose Sequence.

2. Select one of 15 seeded sequence elements from the Result Column list of values.

3. Optionally, enter a Prefix and a Suffix for the current sequence element.

4. Optionally, enter a Separator. This will separate the prefix and suffix value from the sequence number.

5. Enter a sequence Start number. The default is 100.

6. Enter a sequence Increment number. The sequences will automatically increment by the value entered in this field. The default is 1.

7. The Number Segment Length value default is 8. This is the maximum length of the sequence element within the Results column, accessed when entering Quality results. See: Entering Quality Results Directly.

8. The Example field with default based on the information that you have entered in the Prefix, Suffix, Separator, and Start fields. This is an example of what the sequence element will look like within the Results column, accessed when entering Quality results. See: Entering Quality Results Directly.

9. Optionally, select the Zero Pad Sequence check box to enable the sequence number to have zero as the prefix. In the example above, the sequence number would display as 0100 within the Results column, accessed when entering Quality results. See: Entering Quality Results Directly.

10. Save your work.

   To delete collection elements:

1. Navigate to the Collection Elements window.

2. Select the Collection Element using Query Find. See: Searching for Data.

   You cannot delete collection elements that have been added to collection plans or specifications even if they have not been used to collect quality results. You cannot delete collection elements that are referenced in settings that have been saved. See: Copy Settings.

   You also cannot delete predefined reference information collection elements. You can, however, disable collection elements that you cannot delete.

3. Choose Delete Record from the Edit Menu.

4. Save your work.