A-FMDS User Guide
Day-to-day use of the Daily Management module in ProAlert Core
Day-to-day use of the Daily Management module in ProAlert Core
This guide covers how to use the screens. For why A-FMDS exists and how the pieces fit together, read the A-FMDS System Overview first. It explains the Target → Gap → Problem → Action loop this guide assumes you know.
A-FMDS (the Automated Floor Management Daily System) lives under the AFMDS menu in the main ProAlert Core navigation bar. It is available to every signed-in user.
| Menu item | Opens |
|---|---|
| Daily Management Board | The live board of recent gaps and problems. |
| Problems | The full problem list, with filtering and manual creation. |
| Actions | Every action across all problems. |
| Escalations | Escalation rules and the events they have fired. |
Every A-FMDS screen shows a small connection badge in the top-right (Connected). When it is green, the screen updates itself in real time as other people raise gaps, create problems, and complete actions: no need to refresh. All times are shown in your local time zone.
The Daily Management Board is the home screen of A-FMDS: the one you would put on a TV by the line. It has two live lists:
Every gap that has been detected, newest first: the metric, how far the actual missed the target, the severity, and a Promote button.
Every problem, newest first: number, title, category, severity, priority and status. Click a problem number to open it.
Severity is colour-coded everywhere in A-FMDS, so the board reads at a glance:
Critical Warning Info
On development and test servers the board shows a red Raise Test Gap button. It injects a sample scrap gap so you can watch the live flow end to end without waiting for a real event. It does not appear on production.
A Gap is the system saying "an actual value missed its target." Most gaps are raised automatically by ProAlert's detectors: a scrap-rate breach, a sensor alarm, a missed schedule. They appear on the board on their own; you do not create them by hand.
A gap on its own has no owner. To make it someone's responsibility you promote it to a Problem.
Critical gaps can be configured to promote themselves: the problem is created the instant the gap is detected, so the most serious issues never wait for a human to click. One problem can also gather several recurring gaps of the same kind, rather than spawning a new problem each time.
The Problems screen is the heart of A-FMDS. A Problem is an operational issue that someone is accountable for resolving.
AFMDS → Problems lists every problem, newest first, with a Status filter at the top. Choose a single lifecycle status, or leave it on "All statuses." Click any problem number to open its detail page.
Not every problem starts as a detected gap: sometimes a person simply spots one. Use the New Problem button on the Problems screen:
The detail page has four areas:
Click Edit on the header to change the title, classification, due date, description, or the Owner (chosen from a list of users). Saving an owner change formally assigns the problem: an unassigned Open problem moves to Assigned automatically.
A problem follows a controlled lifecycle. A-FMDS only allows valid moves, so a problem can never skip a step. The lifecycle buttons on the detail page show only the moves that are valid right now.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open | Raised, not yet assigned. |
| Assigned | Has an owner; work not yet started. |
| InProgress | The owner is actively working it. |
| AwaitingSupport | Waiting on another person or team. |
| Blocked | Stopped by an obstacle. |
| Resolved | The owner believes it is fixed. |
| Verified | An independent person confirmed the fix. |
| Closed | Done. The terminal state. |
| Reopened | Came back: closed too soon, or recurred. |
Resolved means "I think it's fixed." Verified means "someone else checked." Use Request Verification to resolve a problem and flag that it must be independently verified. Once flagged, it cannot be closed until someone clicks Verify. This is the ISO 9001 (International Organization for Standardization) corrective-action discipline built into the workflow.
If two problems are really the same issue, open the duplicate and click Merge. Enter the number of the problem to keep; the duplicate's linked gaps move onto the surviving problem and the duplicate is closed. Merges are recorded in both problems' timelines.
Every problem keeps a permanent Timeline: created, assigned, edited, status changes, verification, merges. Each entry is stamped with who did it and when. Expand Payload on any entry to see exactly what changed. The timeline is append-only: it is the audit trail and it cannot be edited.
A Problem says "this is mine to fix." The Actions are the concrete, individually-tracked steps that actually fix it. A problem usually needs several: contain it now, find the cause, apply the permanent fix, verify it held. Each has its own owner and due date.
On a problem's detail page, in the Actions panel, click + Add Action. Give it a title, choose an Action Type, a priority, an owner and a due date. Tick Verification Required if the action must be independently checked before it counts as done.
| Investigate | Dig into what is happening. |
| Containment | Stop the bleeding now, a temporary measure. |
| Correction | Fix this specific occurrence. |
| Corrective | Fix the root cause so it does not recur. |
| Preventive | Stop it happening elsewhere. |
| Verification | Confirm a fix actually worked. |
| Coaching / Followup / Custom | People follow-ups and anything else. |
Each action row shows the buttons valid for its current status:
NotStarted InProgress Complete Verified
(with Blocked and Cancelled as optional side exits)
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start | Begin work: NotStarted → InProgress. |
| Block / Resume | Flag an obstacle, or clear it. |
| Complete | Mark the work done (with optional notes). |
| Verify | Independently confirm a completed action. |
| Assign | Set or change the owner. |
| Cancel | Abandon an action that is no longer needed. |
AFMDS → Actions shows every action across all problems, with a status filter. It answers "what is outstanding everywhere?" and each row links back to its parent problem. Use the per-problem panel to work an action; use this list to survey them.
Escalation is A-FMDS's safety net: if a problem or action sits too long, the system raises it up the chain automatically. Nobody has to remember to chase it.
The AFMDS → Escalations screen has two parts:
Every escalation the engine has fired: which rule, which target, which level, and when. New ones appear live.
The active rules and their level ladders: "after N minutes, notify X." Read-only for now; a rule editor arrives in Phase F3.
A rule is a ladder of levels. Each level says "once the target has been open this many minutes, notify this person or role." A level can repeat. The background engine checks open problems and actions roughly once a minute and fires any level whose time has come: once each, so you are never spammed.
Example ladder for a critical problem:
When you have seen an escalation and taken it on, click Acknowledge on its row. The badge turns Acknowledged and records who acknowledged it. Acknowledging is the signal that a human now owns the escalation. It does not close the underlying problem; you still resolve that through its own lifecycle.
An escalation firing is not a reprimand. It is the system protecting the problem from being forgotten. The fastest way to stop escalations is to keep problems moving through their lifecycle.
A-FMDS does not enforce job titles: everyone can see everything. It works best when each role uses it for a clear purpose.
| Role | How they use A-FMDS |
|---|---|
| Operator / Line | Spots an issue the detectors miss and raises it with New Problem. Works the actions assigned to them. |
| Supervisor / Lead | Owns the daily board. Promotes gaps, takes ownership of problems, creates and assigns actions, drives the lifecycle, acknowledges escalations. |
| Maintenance / Engineer | Carries the corrective and preventive actions; completes them and records what was done. |
| Manager | Verifies resolved problems, watches the Escalations screen, uses the Problems list to see what is open and ageing. |
Everything above is available today. These capabilities are planned for later phases: see the rollout phases in the System Overview.
| Phase | What it adds |
|---|---|
| F3 | The full SQDCP (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, People) grid board with a TV display mode, click-to-drill cells, an Andon overlay, an escalation-rule editor, and exportable accountability reports. |
| F4 | Coaching notes, Leader Standard Work (LSW) routines and checklists, and Tiered Meetings with agendas built automatically from open gaps. |
| F5 | A knowledge base of past resolutions, recurrence-driven "similar problem" suggestions, mobile push notifications and mobile pages. |
A-FMDS is being built phase by phase against real use. If a screen does not match how your floor actually runs its day, that feedback is wanted. It is far cheaper to adjust now than after F5.