You can build a very sophisticated database structure using the Facility, Plant, LUnit, and Process Unit features.
For instance, if you are a contractor, you could manage multiple customers at different sites with the Facility level.
You can use the Facility / Plant / LUnit tree to organize your customers or sites by region, state, county, or area. You would place each different customer in their own Facility, then break each customer down into states or counties, and then each site as a LUnit.
You can also have a very flat structure in which all of the LUnits are in the same Plant and all of the Plants are in the same Facility.
The Process Unit field is NOT nested in the Facility / Plant / LUnit structure. Use the Process Unit field if you need to track, manage, and report on components within Process Units that may or may not be independent of the LUnit for each component. (Search “Process_Units”—no quotations—for more details.)
There are, however, a few limitations.
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Every component must be in a LUnit. This tells the Technician where to go to get the safe work permit in order to perform her inspections.
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Each component may also be in a Process Unit, but they don’t have to be.
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You must set a Time Zone for each Facility.
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Any User for a database can see and work on data in the entire database. You cannot designate users for any specific chunk of the database, but they can see and work on everything. If you need to prevent certain users from seeing (or modifying) certain data, then you need to set up different Chateau databases.
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The Picklists apply to the entire database. If you want different picklist values for any property, you must have separate databases.
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The Audits and Porches apply to the entire database. If you want to run Audits on some of the components but not on others, or use different people to receive email alerts, you must set up separate Databases.