User Guide
This tool uses api-keys from Maximo to login, please contact Corporate Reliability to get your api-key.
Once you’ve received your api-key please enter it and click Login. The program might take up to 5 minutes to start, it is applying various optimizations to ensure searching is performant.
The api-key is used to retrieve the latest item changes from Maximo automatically, you may choose to click Continue if you currently do not have network / Maximo access, but the Item information will be outdated.
Warning: Your api-key has the same permissions as your user account, please do not share your key with anyone else, since the changes they make will be under your name.
Since you will be uploading items, you will need to activate power user mode. To do so, click 5 times to the left of the dark mode toggle, until you see the "Request Item" button turn into "Upload Item". You are now a power user! If you click the button once again, the count will reset until pressed 4 more times and you will be turned back into a normal user, making all of the power user features disappear and showing you the "Request Item" button again.
Click in the black square above
The tool comes with two built-in themes: dark and light mode. To toggle between them, click the toggle switch in the upper-right-hand corner.
To load the information of an existing item, enter the item number into the "item number" textbox and click "Load".
To search for an item, enter keywords into the “Item Description” field and click
(Search) or hit the “enter” button on your keyboard. A good search phrase describes the part thoroughly, and should include the catalogue/model number if available. The more keywords, the more likely you are to find the item you are looking for. Keywords can be separated by dashes, spaces, or commas.
In some cases, the catalogue number will not be a part of the item’s Maximo description, but it will be a part of the “Reorder Details” field along with vendor number and manufacturer. In other cases you may want to search for items from a specific manufacturer/vendor (e.g. BDI). Or you may want to search the "long description" field in maximo. To search these extra fields, click the
(Extended Search) button. This is most useful when searching for generic items such as pipe fittings or bushings, or plant-specific parts which often have more details hidden in the long description.
After the search is completed, items will be displayed under the “Related Items” dropdown. Items will be organized in order of closest matches. On the left-most side, the percent match of your search to the item is displayed. Note: the more keywords entered, the longer the app will take to search.
In most cases, a 90-100% match means that the item you’re searching for, and the item displayed are the same, given that your keywords include a model number, catalogue number, or universal code for the item (e.g. 12B19 sprocket).
In the example above, a search for “12B19 sprocket” yielded a result with a 100% match with item# 9070997.
In some cases, an item you’re searching for will be standardized, but it won’t show up in the first few results for a couple of reasons.
In many cases, the item description will have the catalogue number separated by dashes. As a result, if you were to enter the catalogue number without spaces, the program will not detect a match.
To fix this issue, split up the catalogue number every 4-5 characters with a dash (-), and search for the item.
Sometimes we use a different name for the same part. An example of this is gearboxes, which are in Maximo as “SPEED RDCR”, short for speed reducer. Another example of this, is a sheave, which is standardized as “PULLEY” instead. We also sometimes use abbreviations for common phrases. For example “CARBON STEEL”, is shortened to “CS”.
The program does attempt to replace abbreviations it is aware of, but doesn’t cover all cases.
Use this excel sheet to reference all abbreviations and standards:
If you want to upload one item at a time, fill in all the fields under “Item Information”, except for “Item Number” (filling in this field is not necessary, as the app automatically detects the latest number). Please ensure that you have selected the correct item type from the “Item Type (Series)” dropdown. Based on the selection, the generated item number will be different (selecting 9###### will generate the earliest number available that doesn’t start with 99 or 98.)
All required fields filled in.
Then click the “Upload Item” button. This will show a pop-up which will prompt you to confirm the upload.
Confirm all the details are correct and click upload item. If you wish to add more details, they can be added in the “Details” textbox. Once uploaded, a link will be generated and displayed in the bottom textbox. Clicking this link will take you to the Maximo page of the item.
At times, if the description has been copied from an excel sheet and pasted into the “Item Description” field, or if the description has special characters (e.g. &, “, %, ^, etc.) the item will fail to upload. In this case, try retyping the special characters, or please upload manually through Maximo.
This feature is present under the “Batch Upload” drop-down. Batch Upload can be used to both upload an item normally, as well do an inventory upload where an item can be added to a storeroom's inventory as well as be assigned a vendor and catalog number.
In order to use the batch item upload feature, you will need to copy and paste from an excel sheet. There are several restrictions on the format of the excel sheet. First and foremost, there are 5 required columns that must be present when you paste if you are trying to just upload normally. Here is an example of a valid table format:
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fill in the second row with the correct info
However, the column headers are NOT mandatory. If you choose not to include column headers, then the pasted table cannot have more than 5 columns and all columns must be in the same order as the table above. You can also not do inventory upload if you don't include column headers. Here is an example:
| BLADE,BANDSAW,1/2"x0.020",35-3/8",12/14TPI,48-39-0616,MILWAUKEE | EA | 403 | PLS |
The first column must be pasted, even if it is left blank.
If you would also like to add an item to a storeroom or add a vendor and catalog number, then there are 9 total columns that should be present:
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class | Site | Storeroom | Vendor | Catalog number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
From the additional 4 inventory upload fields, only "Site" and "Storeroom" are required fields. If the site or storeroom columns are missing while the vendor or catalog number columns are present, the tool will give you an error and not let you upload. However, if both site and storeroom are present, then vendor or catalog number are not necessary to continue with the upload. Please also note that the catalog number cannot be assigned without a vendor.
If your pasted table has column headers, the names of the headers should be exactly the same as specified above, any typos will cause the upload to fail. In case you forget the required headers, clicking the “Copy Headers” will copy the headers to the clipboard, and will allow you to paste the headers into any excel document you like.
Copy Headers Button
Moreover, each row under the headers should contain the information of the item you want to upload. Here are some examples of valid tables:
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ROLL KIT,DRIVE,0.045",079596,MILLER | EA | 500 | ERM | |
| ROLL,DRIVE,V-KNURLED,1/16",132955,MILLER | EA | 500 | ERM |
| SWITCH,PRSR,DIFFERENTIAL,0.009-0.075PSI,P32AF-2C,JOHN-CONT | EA | 401 | ERM | |
| TRANSFORMER,40VA,120/208/240V,FOOT,PF42440,PACKARD | EA | 401 | ERM | |
| VALVE,GAS,1" NPT,L-PRSR,V4943A1011/U,HONEYWELL | EA | 409 | ERM | |
| RELAY,TIMER,DELAY-ON-MAKE,438UX,ARTI-CONT | EA | 401 | ERM |
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class | Site | Storeroom | Vendor | Catalog number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRG,PB,2 BOLT,1-15/16",NP-31,SEALMASTER | EA | 408 | ERM | GC | GCL | V520097 | MOR-443 | |
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class | Site | Storeroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEAR,SPUR,14-1/2deg PRSR,S2020,MARTIN | EA | 408 | ERM | AA | AAG | |
New Maximo #s will be generated for all the items.
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9129549 | REGULATOR,AIR,1"FNPT,5-125PSI,W/GAUGE,51.545,TOPRING | EA | 409 | ERM |
| 9129550 | TAP,PIPE THREAD,2”NPT | EA | 403 | ERM |
| 9813209 | PULLEY,TAKE-UP,3-1/2",DWG# K1-29-198-A2-D3 | EA | 408 | ERM |
| 9813210 | PULLEY,DRUM,6-1/2",DWG# K1-29-198-A2-D2 | EA | 408 | ERM |
Existing items will be edited
The order of the columns doesn’t matter, and more columns can be added. If you choose to add more columns, do not use any of the above column names. This way, the program will ignore the additional columns.
Here are examples of invalid tables:
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ROLL KIT,DRIVE,0.045",079596,MILLER | ERM | |||
| TAP,PIPE THREAD,2”NPT | EA | 403 | ERM |
Here, the issue unit and commodity groups are empty for the first item, meaning this item will not upload. However, the second item will upload since the columns are filled completely.
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROLL KIT,DRIVE,0.045",079596,MILLER | EA | 500 |
This table is missing the GL Class column.
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class | Storeroom | Vendor | Catalog number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEAR,SPUR,14-1/2deg PRSR,S2020,MARTIN | EA | 408 | ERM | AAG | V520097 | MOR-543 | |
This table is missing the Site column.
| Maximo | Description | Issue Unit | Commodity Group | GL Class | Site | Storeroom | Vendor | Catalog number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRG,PB,2 BOLT,1-15/16",NP-31,SEALMASTER | EA | 408 | ERM | ZX | GCL | V520097 | MOR-443 | |
This table has an invalid Site (ZX doesn't exist as a SiteID) and thus the item will be created but inventory upload will fail so no storeroom, vendor or catalog number will be added.
In the case of an invalid entry into any of the three fields "Site", "Storeroom" or "Vendor" (invalid means the site, storeroom or vendor is not listed as valid in Maximo), the invalid cell will be highlighted red and only the "inventory upload" for that item will fail. If there is more than one invalid field, it will only highlight one cell at a time so you will keep getting errors every time you press the upload button until they are all fixed.
If the “Maximo” column is filled in for an item, the program will update the existing item number with the specified info. If it is empty, the program will generate a new item number. The new item number will be displayed after the upload has been completed. If the item’s description has “dwg” (lowercase or uppercase) in it, the program will assume that this is an IKO custom part, and it will use a 98-series number. If the item’s commodity group is 490, and its GL class is PLS, a 99-series number will be assigned, as it is assumed this item will be a plant supply item. Currently there is no way to manually assign an item series to an item. After pasting the table, you can edit the table information by clicking on the cell you wish to edit.
Once the table has been pasted, it will appear like so:
If all information is correct, click “Upload Items”. On the right-most column of the table, you will see 1 of 5 icons for each item prior to and after clicking upload:
the item is still pending upload. This means the “Upload Items” button has not been clicked.
the item has failed to upload. Usually occurs when there are weird symbols in the item description, or if one of the fields is invalid (e.g. you specified a commodity group which doesn’t exist).
the item upload was successful (to both item master and inventory).
the item was uploaded successfully but failed to be added to inventory (storeroom/vendor)
the item contains invalid information. Occurs when one of the required columns is empty.
the item is in the process of being uploaded.
To double check if any upload was successful scroll down and look under the "Logs":
Once the upload is finished, the status bar beneath the paste location will change to show how many items were successfully uploaded as well as how many items were successfully added to inventory. In the case that no site or storeroom information was available, the number for items added to inventory would be zero.
In addition, a link will be generated in the textbox where the status message is shown. Clicking this link will take you to the Maximo website, where all the items that were uploaded can be viewed in a list format.
Clicking the "Copy Item Numbers" button will copy all the item numbers and allow you to paste them back into excel.
Batch upload failure cases: note- None of the inventory failures will apply if you don't have any of the inventory upload columns added in when you paste. If you only want to upload normally and not add to storeroom, then only include the original 5 columns.
- Invalid core fields (Issue unit, Commodity Group, GL class) - this will lead to no upload of any sort taking place.
- Invalid inventory fields (Site, Storeroom, Vendor) - this will lead to no inventory upload happening and the invalid field will be highlighted red.
- Missing columns for any core field (Maximo/Item number, Description, Issue unit, Commodity Group, GL class) - this will lead to an error asking you to add in the remaining columns.
- Empty cells for any field where the column is included will lead to no upload of any kind taking place.
- Attempting inventory upload to an item that already has inventory data such as a storeroom or cost assigned - this will lead to inventory upload failing.
2023-08-16.13-35-26.mp4
Vendor-upload.mp4
Image upload is located under the "Image Upload" dropdown. This feature allows you to attach images to items in Maximo (at the "item master" level).
To upload images, you can click “Choose Files” or simply drag and drop images into the file picker (if you have multiple images, you will need to select them all and drop them in).
The images must be in PNG or JPEG/JPG format. In addition, the file name must be the 7-digit maximo number you want to attach the image to. For example, if I want to upload an image to item# 9008899, my image file must be named 9008899.jpg or 9008899.png. If these conditions are not met, the image will fail to upload.
Clicking upload will upload all the images. If an image already exists for the item you are uploading to it will fail to upload. Check the “Logs” accordion to find out why an image failed to upload in case it happens.
After upload has finished you will see one of three symbols:
| Image | Meaning |
|---|---|
 |
Item type or name is invalid, check logs dropdown |
 |
An image already exists for the specified item number. Please upload image through Maximo. |
 |
Image was uploaded successfully |
 |
Image pending upload |
2023-08-16.13-38-07.mp4
If any error occurs, a detailed description will be available in the "Logs" dropdown.
