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Maintenance

Overview

The Maintenance module manages all equipment upkeep for Scott Recycling's garage. Use it to track your equipment, log repair requests, schedule preventive maintenance, and monitor equipment health — all from within Odoo.

Last Updated: February 2026 Target Audience: Garage Staff, Fleet Managers, Supervisors

Getting to the Maintenance App

  1. From the main Odoo dashboard, click the Maintenance app icon
  2. You'll land on the Maintenance Requests list — your primary working view

Top Menu Navigation

Menu What It Shows
Maintenance All maintenance requests (your main view)
Equipment Machines, Equipment, and Equipment Categories
Configuration Maintenance Teams, request stages, and equipment categories
Reporting Analysis of maintenance activity and equipment health

Equipment

Equipment records represent anything the garage maintains — trucks, forklifts, balers, trailers, tools, lifts, etc.

Viewing Equipment

  1. Go to Maintenance → Equipment → Machines & Equipment
  2. You'll see a list of all registered equipment with key details

Equipment Fields

Field Description
Equipment Name Descriptive name (e.g., "SBT-1 — Freightliner M2 Box Truck")
Equipment Category Grouping (e.g., Box Trucks, Forklifts, Balers, Shop Tools)
Maintenance Team Which team is responsible for this equipment
Technician Default person assigned to maintenance on this equipment
Used By Department or employee who uses this equipment
Maintenance Count Number of maintenance requests logged against this equipment
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) Average time between breakdowns — a key reliability metric
Latest Failure Date When this equipment last had a failure
Estimated Next Failure System-calculated prediction based on MTBF

Adding New Equipment

  1. Go to Maintenance → Equipment → Machines & Equipment
  2. Click New
  3. Fill in:
    • Equipment Name — Be descriptive (include fleet number if applicable)
    • Equipment Category — Select or create a category
    • Maintenance Team — Assign the responsible team
    • Technician — Default assignee for maintenance requests
    • Used By — Department or specific employee
  4. Optionally add Vendor, Serial Number, Model, and Effective Date (when it entered service)
  5. Click Save

Equipment Categories

Set up categories first to keep things organized. Good categories for our garage:

  • Box Trucks — Local delivery trucks (SBT-1, SBT-2, MOR-1, etc.)
  • Tractor Trailers — OTR long-haul trucks
  • Forklifts — Warehouse forklifts and pallet jacks
  • Balers — Material compaction equipment
  • Shop Equipment — Lifts, air compressors, tools, etc.
  • Trailers — Detachable trailers

Maintenance Requests

A maintenance request is a work order — something needs to be fixed, inspected, or serviced.

Types of Maintenance

Type When to Use Example
Corrective Something is broken or not working right "SBT-1 brake lights not working"
Preventive Scheduled service to prevent breakdowns "MOR-1 — 50,000 mile oil change"

Creating a Maintenance Request

  1. Go to Maintenance → Maintenance (or click New Request from any view)
  2. Fill in:
    • Request Name — Short description of the work needed (e.g., "Replace front brake pads")
    • Request Date — When the issue was reported (defaults to today)
    • Maintenance Type — Corrective or Preventive
    • Equipment — Select the equipment this is for
    • Maintenance Team — Auto-fills from equipment, or select manually
    • Responsible — The technician who will do the work
    • Priority — 0 (Normal), 1 (Important), 2 (Very Important), 3 (Urgent)
    • Scheduled Date — When the work is planned
  3. Add notes in the Description field and the chatter (message log) at the bottom
  4. Click Save

Maintenance Request Stages

Requests move through stages as work progresses:

Stage Meaning
New Request Just submitted, not yet started
In Progress Work has begun
Repaired Work is complete
Scrap Equipment is beyond repair

To move a request to the next stage, click the stage buttons at the top of the request form, or drag the request in the Kanban view.

Request Views

View Best For
List Sorting and filtering all requests
Kanban Visual pipeline — drag requests between stages
Calendar Seeing scheduled maintenance on a timeline
Pivot / Graph Analyzing maintenance data (response times, frequency, etc.)

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance lets you schedule recurring service so equipment gets maintained on a regular cycle — before things break.

Setting Up a Preventive Schedule

  1. Open an Equipment record
  2. Go to the Maintenance tab
  3. Click Add a line under Preventive Maintenance
  4. Fill in:
    • Maintenance Type — What kind of service (e.g., "Oil Change", "Tire Rotation", "Annual Inspection")
    • Maintenance Team — Who handles it
    • Responsible — Default technician
    • Recurring Period — How often (e.g., every 90 days, every 6 months)
  5. Save

The system will automatically generate maintenance requests based on the schedule. These show up in the main request list with Maintenance Type = Preventive.

Don't Skip Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance reduces breakdowns and extends equipment life. If a preventive request is generated, it should be completed on schedule — don't just close it without doing the work.

Suggested Preventive Schedules

Equipment Type Service Frequency
Box Trucks Oil & filter change Every 10,000 miles or 90 days
Box Trucks Brake inspection Every 30,000 miles or 6 months
Box Trucks DOT annual inspection Every 12 months
Box Trucks Tire rotation/replacement Every 40,000 miles
Tractor Trailers Oil & filter change Every 15,000 miles
Tractor Trailers DOT annual inspection Every 12 months
Forklifts Hydraulic fluid check Every 30 days
Forklifts Annual OSHA inspection Every 12 months
Balers Belt inspection & tensioning Every 90 days
Shop Lifts Annual safety inspection Every 12 months

Maintenance Teams

Maintenance teams organize who handles what. You can have a single garage team or split by specialty.

Viewing Teams

Go to Maintenance → Configuration → Maintenance Teams

Team Fields

Field Description
Team Name Name of the team (e.g., "Garage", "Fleet Maintenance")
Members Employees on this team
Color Color coding in Kanban views

The Maintenance Calendar

Go to Maintenance → Maintenance and switch to the Calendar view (calendar icon in the top-right).

This shows all scheduled maintenance on a timeline. Use it to:

  • See what's coming up this week/month
  • Avoid scheduling conflicts (don't pull two trucks at once if you only have one bay)
  • Plan around busy pickup days

Reporting & Equipment Health

Maintenance Analysis

Go to Maintenance → Reporting to see:

  • Number of requests by team, equipment, or technician
  • Average time to repair
  • Corrective vs. preventive breakdown
  • Requests by priority level

Key Metrics to Watch

Metric What It Tells You
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) Higher is better — equipment is more reliable
Corrective vs. Preventive Ratio If most requests are corrective, you need more preventive maintenance
Average Repair Time How long equipment is out of service
Open Request Count Backlog of unfinished work

Common Tasks Quick Reference

Task Where to Go Steps
Report a breakdown Maintenance → New Create a corrective request with equipment and priority
Check what's scheduled Maintenance → Calendar view Review upcoming preventive and scheduled work
Mark work as done Maintenance → Open request Move to "Repaired" stage
Add new equipment Equipment → Machines & Equipment → New Fill in name, category, team, technician
Set up recurring service Equipment → Open record → Maintenance tab Add preventive maintenance schedule
See equipment history Equipment → Open record View all past maintenance requests
Check fleet health Reporting Review MTBF, open requests, repair times

Tips for Our Garage

Our Setup

Since we only maintain our own equipment (trucks, forklifts, warehouse equipment), the Maintenance module is our internal shop management tool. Every piece of equipment should have a record, and every repair or service should have a request — even quick fixes. This gives us history for DOT audits, insurance, and replacement planning.

  • Log everything — Even a 10-minute fix should get a request. It builds history.
  • Use priorities correctly — Urgent means the truck can't run. Normal means it can wait for a scheduled slot.
  • Keep equipment records current — Update serial numbers, assign technicians, set categories.
  • Review MTBF regularly — If a truck's MTBF is dropping, it may be time to consider replacement.
  • Link to Fleet — Reference the Fleet app vehicle name in the equipment name so dispatchers and mechanics speak the same language.

External Resources