September 9, 2020 | By admin

Power Platform Maintenance Management Reporting System

The Microsoft Power Platform is a business applications platform enabling organisations to create and deploy apps, reports and workflows. Connecting the apps to Office 365, Dynamics 365, Azure and hundreds of third-party applications provide your organisation with a complete end-to-end digital solution that transforms business processes.

The Power Platform comprises Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents. One of the primary value-adds of the Power Platform is the end-to-end solutions it delivers. Each of the Power Platform applications can be used on their own to solve a business problem, but it is in the integration of the applications where the real value stands out.

This article outlines how to create a Maintenance Management and Reporting System using Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate and DataFlex Pro (Common Data Service).

Power Platform Maintenance Management Reporting System

A Maintenance Management and Reporting System can be used to analyse and identify trends in equipment faults. The automated system replaces a paper-based approach to fault reporting and vastly improves the accuracy of management information to ensure regulatory compliance is met.

An automated and compliant solution with the Power Platform

Our solution combines Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and the Common Data Service (CDS), now known as DataFlex Pro, to provide a Maintenance Management and Reporting System.

  • Power Apps is used to record faults and give approvers and repair teams a user-friendly interface to review the fault
  • Power Automate then progresses the raised fault through the required lifecycle. When a fault is raised, the approvers and repair teams are automatically notified that action is required via a URL within an email. This URL directs the user back into Power Apps for review
  • CDS is used to store all created faults. Records update in real-time, in Power Apps, while maintaining version control. In addition, logical look-up data is stored in the CDS, which the Power App utilises for drop-down menus, e.g. a list of components, specified stakeholders, etc
  • Power BI provides a rich and configurable dashboard user interface for the user. It enables Management Information (MI) and the ability to conduct trend analysis. The MI also supports compliance efforts, ensuring regulations are met.

The below diagram shows how to combine Power Platform applications to deliver the Maintenance Management and Reporting System.

Power platform maintenance management reporting system

Benefits

  • A paperless maintenance management process with one standardised way of working when raising a fault
  • Each fault request will be logged and tracked, ensuring an accurate audit trail
  • The process of approval and escalation is automated, saving time and effort
  • A rich dashboard and reporting suite provides the management information needed, as well as enabling analysis for future trends.

Summary

The Power Platform offers an abundance of opportunities to digitally transform and automate manual processes to improve operational efficiencies and make everyday working more productive.