What is jLogBook?

jLogBook is a corporate wide electronic logbook designed for Industrial Operating Conditions. jLogBook replaces the paper-based logbook that is typically situated in most control rooms or technical and maintenance workshops.

In contrast to the paper-based logbook, jLogBook provides many advantages over the conventional form of recording logs. For example:

• There is immediate corporate visibility to log entries made in any of the logbooks across the sites. As soon as an entry is made to a logbook, that information is available to all the consoles across the site and to authorized users off site. The primary advantage reported by users of electronic logbooks is that an immediate improvement in the coordination of operations is achieved since everyone is aware of the operations being undertaken.
• Entries to the logbooks are not limited to operators and may be made by any of the personnel in any of the areas of the site. For example, a maintenance manager can add an entry to the control room logbook if the repairs he is undertaking relates to that area.
• It becomes very easy to find information in the logbooks using the filtering and sorting tools. If for example, a user wants to see all log entries relating to a particular piece of equipment, then he or she may filter on that equipment name and only the relevant records will appear.
• The presentation of the logs is improved. Instead of hand written logs, the information is sorted, ordered and displayed in color-coded form in a grid.
• It becomes much easier to categorize the log information so that the data entry is simpler and later analysis becomes meaningful. The administrator can set up default codes for the various categories that the operator must choose from when adding a log. At a later stage, queries can be made against these codes.
  
• There is password control for each user. Users are allowed to see exactly what they need to see and no more. Each user may also be restricted if necessary so that they may not enter new logs, or modify existing logs or only enter logs in a certain area, or modify logs that have been in the system for a certain time. They may also be required to reenter their password when they create a log or at the beginning of a shift.
  
• Logs may also be printed out on any of the printers on the network, which means that your users can have a hard copy of the logs without having to go to the control room.
• The latest logbook entries may be viewed on the Intranet using a standard browser like Internet explorer or Netscape. This means that anyone who has access to a browser on the Intranet can view the information without having to install any additional software. As new logs are added, so they become available on the Intranet. The reports closely resemble the logbook and may be configured through the normal configuration screen.
• Since jLogBook uses a standard database and publishes the table structures, users may access the logs using any of the off the shelf query tools that are available. With these tools, custom queries or custom reports may be generated. In particular, you can use the jWorkBook obtainable from the St James web site to view the logs. The jWorkbook is free and comes with a standard set of queries that can be modified by the user to access the jLogBook.

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