Paul Morrow Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Hi Guys I'm going to run this past you expecting it not to be possible as I can see it myself. In Printer Assets is there a way to track consumables? If not is there a way to link Printer Assets to an external database that would do the job? Any recommendation welcome. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Boardman Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Hi Paul Thanks for your post, could you expand on what level of information about consumables you are interested in? Thanks Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Morrow Posted August 11, 2016 Author Share Posted August 11, 2016 Steve We are looking a way to use the printer asset to record current stock levels for toners and inks associated with it. Ideally we could run a report against all printers to monitor stock levels and reorder toners & inks if required. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Giller Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 In theory, if your alerts and call logging procedures are consistent - whether they are manual, email or whatever - then logging a job for a printer x requires toner y (possibly y-cyan, y-magenta etc.) and this can trigger a script that reduces stock by 1 for that toner, and create a new job to order more stock at a certain trigger level. We've experimented with this and the difficulty has been having a wide variety of printers - the alerts are inconsistent for one thing, and don't even get me started on ordering stock from different suppliers depending on seemingly random criteria ... But yes, theoretically possible, it just requires a high level of organisation at the back end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Morrow Posted August 11, 2016 Author Share Posted August 11, 2016 I can see how random criteria would be an issue. So far I've tried creating assets for each type of toner to track usage but I can't relate it back to the printer that uses it. Incrementing and decrementing is therefore a manual exercise and equally easily done on separate spread sheet or database. You have given me an idea though with the scripting using the report csv to update a separate spreadsheet. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Boardman Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Paul On the stock levels, do you see these as being manually maintained? Would you see this as a simple text field say: Toner: Low Inks: OK Obviously these fields don't currently exist on the Printer class, but we are always looking if there are needs to increase the available attributes against each. We do have the Database Asset Import utility which can be used to update the attributes of assets in Hornbill. You could use this to update the values of the Asset from your external database, obviously once the additional fields were available, or for now possibly push this into the generic Notes fields for the printer. More info on the wiki about this utility. https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Database_Asset_Import In addition to this there is also the option to use the Custom Buttons on the asset forms to lookup information about the printer consumables from an external source - you can use the printer id as a variable in a URL if you use a a web based interface for monitoring the printer consumables, to launch and view the details about the printer consumable held elsewhere. https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Manage_Assets Let me know if any of this helps or would help? Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Morrow Posted August 11, 2016 Author Share Posted August 11, 2016 Steven Toner low or OK wouldn't really be useful as a step to update orders. I'm trying to tie the service desk completely to Hornbill for all their need so printer consumables was an issue raised with me as nobody likes back and forwarding between application. I would say stock level need manual intervention anyway so updating the asset is easy if there is something to update (manually or via import). I think the problem I am having is knowing where to record the information and then being able to separate it out again in a report. I've tried the notes field and it's proved to much of a catch all. In the Printer Asset Properties, if there were say up to 6 fields to record ink/toner codes and a beside these their quantities it would be excellent. A simple report against printers would supply a stock level for each consumable, exported as a csv and used to update orders. Pipe dream for another day - maybe in a future release? Thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Giller Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Just a flag - if you're recording Toner Codes and Stock Level you'd need more than 6 fields - CYMK + 4 Quantity fields is 8, and you'd probably want to record the trigger levels for placing an order, too. Also, the difficulty with recording them in the Printer Asset Properties table would be that if you have 4 Model X printers you'd only have 1 pool of CX, YX, MX, and KX toners so the logic to adjust the stock levels would get very complicated very quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Morrow Posted August 11, 2016 Author Share Posted August 11, 2016 Now that I think about it 10 field to include fuser and maintenance kits + quantity fields. The idea behind my reasoning is to have a master printer asset for each type/model of printer with common consumables. A Consumables Type of Printer Class. I'm only interested in the stock levels of consumables by printer type, not what consumables levels are on each printer asset. I think that would keep it simple and reportable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Giller Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Yep, that would work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Boardman Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 We are always looking to add additional attributes to the existing asset classes, so I will look to see if we can get these added when the next set of attributes are updated. Will advise once this is accepted, and progressed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Morrow Posted August 30, 2016 Author Share Posted August 30, 2016 Thanks Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArmandoDM Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 Hi @Paul Morrow, @DeadMeatGF the assets with class Printer are being enhanced with new properties which let you track the consumables (see screenshot). The new properties will be available in one of the upcoming updates for SM Regards, Armando Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Giller Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 That looks good, thanks @ArmandoDM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Morrow Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 exactly what I had in mind. Good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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