The desk
Which machines get somebody today, and which fault do we stop treating one call at a time?
12 open · 3 down · 925 acres behind them
Hands-on · Put jobs on today’s run and the day adds itself up: drive, bench time, acres covered, acres left standing. It is a capacity check and it will tell you when the day is full — which is the half a ranked list never says out loud. Kept for this browser tab.
Open jobs · in the order somebody should be sent
1
Hollingsworth Farms
DownKnown faultS780 combine · Header height sensor faulting, will not lower
Behind it · 310 acres of wheat, rain forecast Thursday
T-44713 h openCairo · 41 min from Grand Islandclosed 41× before
2
Ostrem Brothers
DownKnown faultS770 combine · Same header sensor fault as last August
Behind it · 240 acres of wheat
T-44731 h openDoniphan · 18 minclosed 41× before
3
Novak Irrigation
DownPivot control panel · Will not restart after a power cut
Behind it · 0 acres — the crop is off this quarter
T-44742 h openSt Libory · 36 min
Down, and nothing behind it. This is exactly the case where “down” on its own would send somebody to the wrong farm.
4
Vandenbrink & Sons
Limping8RX tractor · Hydraulic pressure dropping under load
Behind it · 180 acres, planting the cover crop
T-446819 h openWood River · 22 min
5
Ferrelly Grain
LimpingKnown fault9RX tractor · Display blanking intermittently
Behind it · 95 acres, and they can run it without the display
T-447012 h openChapman · 28 minclosed 17× before
6
Marchetti Farms
LimpingKnown faultSprayer, 400 series · Boom section three not shutting off
Behind it · 60 acres, and it is double-applying while it runs
T-446322 h openWood River · 22 minclosed 17× before
Costing chemical every hour it runs. The customer has not asked us to hurry and should have.
7
Vandenbrink & Sons
LimpingBaler, round · Net wrap not feeding every third bale
Behind it · 40 acres of hay down and rain Thursday
T-446915 h openWood River · 22 min
8
Cattermole Dairy
LimpingFeed mixer, 900 series · Auger bearing screaming, gearbox running hot
Behind it · 420 head fed twice a day
T-445944 h openAlda · 15 min
Not acres. This one stops twice a day whatever the calendar says, and the ranking rule has an exception for it.
9
Prazak Land Co
Waiting on a partKnown faultS780 combine · Header height sensor, third time this season
Behind it · 0 — they have moved to the older machine
T-446231 h openShelton · 34 minclosed 41× before
Waiting on a harness. The part is on back order until the 12th and they have been told the date rather than promised a visit.
10
Bierbaum Feedlot
Waiting on a partKnown faultTMR mixer · Load cell drifting
Behind it · Weighing by eye, which they hate
T-445561 h openDoniphan · 18 minclosed 9× before
11
Hollingsworth Farms
RoutineGrain cart, 1300 bu · Scale reading 400 lb light
Behind it · Nothing — they are weighing at the elevator
T-446527 h openCairo · 41 min
12
Ostrem Brothers
Routine9R tractor · Service due, 500 hours
Behind it · Nothing
T-44726 h openDoniphan · 18 min
Nothing on this screen assigns anybody. The run is which jobs go out, never who goes: half of that is which technician can actually fix a header sensor, and that is not on any system we own.
Why the list is in that order
- 1Down, then limping, then waiting on a part, then routine.
- 2Inside each of those, by what is standing behind the machine — acres, or head, or nothing.
- 3Not by when the call came in. A pivot panel that will not restart on a quarter already cut is down and is holding up nothing.
- 4Livestock is an exception to the acres rule and is written on the row rather than converted into a number. A mixer feeding 420 head twice a day cannot be scored against wheat.
- 5Waiting on a part is a date, not a visit. The customer is told the date and nobody drives out to confirm what we already know.
Urgency and consequence are printed as two separate things because they disagree often enough to matter. 1 of the 3 jobs marked down has nothing at all behind it this morning, and it is thirty-six minutes away — sorted on urgency alone it would be third on this list, which is exactly where it is, and a dispatcher who read only the chip would go.
Why there is a second list at all
Three of the twelve jobs above are the same header height sensor harness, and it has been closed forty-one times in two seasons across fourteen customers. Every one of those was a legitimate afternoon’s work, invoiced and closed on time, and closing them is precisely what stopped anybody asking the question.
A ticket system that measures how fast the desk clears will show that harness as a hundred and seven hours of well-handled work. It is a hundred and seven hours of a fault nobody escalated for two years.
The same morning in three figures
Acres standing still
925
behind 6 of 12 open jobs — the other 6 are holding up nothing at all today
One of them is marked down and is thirty-six minutes away, which is why down on its own does not order the list.
Already a known fault
6 of 12
on the desk this morning, and every one of them will be closed properly and be back
That is the case for the recurring screen and it is the whole case.
Longest open
61 hours
a load cell drifting on a feedlot mixer, waiting on a part, with nothing standing behind it
Bottom of the list above, top of any list sorted by age.