Next Plus can be deployed as a comprehensive maintenance management application within your production environment. It enables structured processes, centralized data collection, workflow automation, and built-in traceability โ helping you replace fragmented or manual maintenance methods with a robust digital solution.
Next Plus helps manufacturers maintain operational stability, reduce unplanned downtime, and meet compliance standards such as ISO, AS9100, and FDA 21 CFR Part 11.
This guide serves two key user types:
Editors โ responsible for configuring the system, workflows, schedules, and forms.
Operators โ maintenance technicians and production personnel who perform and report on tasks in the system.
๐ง Maintenance Request Management
What You Can Do
Next Plus allows operators to submit structured maintenance requests. These can include severity levels, affected machine or asset, required photos, and any relevant symptoms.
Requests pass through a defined lifecycle, which can include stages like review, triage, assignment, and completion. Each step is timestamped and tracked.
Editors can configure the fields shown in the form, create rules for auto-assigning requests, and define escalation protocols if tasks aren't handled in time.
Typical Use Cases
Operators report line stoppage and escalate the request based on production impact.
Maintenance managers analyze the top 10 causes of breakdowns over the last quarter.
Common Tasks for Operators
Task | How to Do It |
Report a broken part | Go to Maintenance โ New Request and fill in required fields |
Add supporting evidence | Use the Add Attachment function for images, PDFs, or videos |
Track request status | Navigate to My Requests or filter requests by asset or time |
Complete a request | Mark request as completed from inside the request view |
๐ Custom Maintenance Workflows
What You Can Do
Create flexible maintenance workflows to represent structured procedures like breakdown repair, root cause analysis (RCA), or planned maintenance activities. Each workflow can include:
Conditional steps based on machine type, failure type, or request data
Step-by-step instructions and documentation
Role-based permissions and digital sign-offs
Example Workflow: "Pump Failure Response"
Initial operator inspection
Maintenance review and assessment
Inventory check or parts ordering
On-site repair task with embedded checklist
Testing and result logging
Supervisor sign-off and downtime reporting
Workflows ensure standardization, traceability, and accountability across teams and shifts.
๐๏ธ Preventive Maintenance Scheduling
What You Can Do
Next Plus supports time-based and usage-based preventive maintenance scheduling. You can:
Define recurring tasks based on operating hours, shifts, or calendar dates
Set thresholds using external data (e.g. sensor values, production cycles)
Link to dynamic forms, checklists, and data logging steps
Example Use Cases
Weekly lubrication for high-speed motors
Monthly fire extinguisher inspections
Quarterly calibration of weighing equipment based on batch counts
Preventive maintenance in Next Plus helps reduce reactive repairs, improve asset lifespan, and comply with audit readiness protocols.
๐ Data Collection & Reporting
What You Can Do
Next Plus logs every maintenance event, capturing who did what, when, and why. This includes:
Time to acknowledge and respond to issues
Repair duration and downtime
Machine availability and MTTR/MTBF calculations
Reports can be exported or visualized in dashboards that show performance trends over time.
Built-In Analytics Examples
Median repair time by machine type
Failure frequency heatmap per shift
Historical request volume by production line
Maintenance metrics can be shared with QA, production, or engineering teams to close the loop between root cause and corrective action.
๐ Integration Potential
Next Plus supports data integration with inventory management, purchasing systems (ERP), and SCADA/IoT platforms.
Example integration workflows:
A maintenance request triggers a stock check. If the part is unavailable, an automatic purchase request is created.
Preventive maintenance triggers an IoT sensor reading and logs the result into the session form.
A breakdown triggers a downtime event that syncs to a production dashboard in real-time.
โ ๏ธ Integration setup depends on your current IT systems, APIs, and project scope. Please consult with your system admin or Next Plus support to plan your integration strategy.