Setting up the plant

What an administrator configures, in the order it makes sense to do it.

Administration is configuration, and only configuration — the closed lists a plant sets up once.

What is not here

Assets, vendors, contracts and parts are not administered here, even though they are records you create. They are edited on their own screens, beside their meters, their contracts, their coverage and their stock — because that context is the reason those screens exist. Administration links out to them rather than offering a generic table.

The order to do it in

1. Sites and the location tree

   Everything hangs off where things are. Sites and organisation

2. People and access

   Users, their roles, and how widely each reaches. People and access

3. Asset configuration

   Types, categories, criticality, meter types, manufacturers and models — before you load assets. Asset settings

4. Work configuration

   Priorities and their service levels, work order types, categories, resolution codes. Work settings

5. Workforce

   Skills, certifications, shifts and worker types. Workforce settings

6. Inventory and tools

   Stores and bins, part categories, reorder policy, tool statuses and conditions. Inventory · Tools

7. Commercial

   Vendor and contract types, and what each coverage category means. Commercial settings

8. Statuses and custom fields

   Adjust the lifecycles and add the fields your plant tracks. Do this once you have seen the defaults in use. Statuses · Custom fields

9. Notifications

   Who is told what, and on which channel. Notifications

Configuration screens

Each module has a designed screen rather than a row of generic tables, because a priority is a rung on a ladder and belongs beside the other rungs.

Screen	Covers
Statuses and transitions	What each status means and where a record may go next
Rules	What the product should do by itself, and what it has actually done
Currency	Exchange rates, and the money no rate can convert
Custom fields	What this plant tracks that the product does not
Work	Priorities, service levels, types, categories, resolution codes, request sources
Assets	Criticality, types, categories, meter types, manufacturers, models
Access	People, roles, and how widely they reach
Sites and organisation	Sites, locations, working weeks, companies, cost centres
Workforce	Skills, certifications, shifts, worker types, training
Tools	Statuses and conditions that decide what can be issued
Inventory	Stores and bins, part categories, reorder policy
Vendors and contracts	Vendor and contract types, coverage categories
Notifications	Who is told what, and what actually arrived
Documents	Retention, categories, tags
Inspections	Types, templates and the questions each version asks

Everything else

Smaller closed lists — tool conditions, skill categories, location types — are edited in a generic table, which is the right answer for them. Nobody wants a bespoke screen for Tool Conditions. See administered lists.