Ability to batch update of the LOCATION Custodian (like it's enabled on Assets)

Preface 

Sund & Bælt operates large civil infrastructures like bridges, harbors, rail corridors, road corridors and landworks. Having thousands and thousands of assets and locations, Sund & Bælt has taken this approach to work with assets and locations: 

• Locations = Functional Positions (FPOSs)​ 
  • The location that holds the equipment providing a certain functionality​ 
  • In Sund & Bælt's implementation, an FPOS can only hold one Asset (system supported rule) 
• Assets​ 
  • The (currently) installed equipment which (for now) provides a certain set of functionalities 

The benefit of this approach is many. Having set an important list of values on a specific FPOS Location, all such values are inherited by the (currently) installed asset: 

• System (which in Sund & Bælt supports the Site) 
• Custodian 
• GIS coordinates 
• Metering 
• Criticality assessment 

Moreover, updating both the FPOS Location and the (currently) installed asset with WO costs, it’s possible for Sund & Bælt to compare and assess on apparently alike FPOS Locations as well as on apparently alike assets when it comes to: 

• uptime 
• maintenance costs per asset type 
• maintenance cost per manufacturer (of assets) 
• maintenance cost distribution across manufactures 
• impact on railway lines close to salty environments vs. non-salty environments 
• … 

Batch change Custodian within the Location app 

Please enable batch change Custodian within the Location app. The need doesn’t exist on weekly basis but change of area of responsibility within the team of Asset Operations Managers (AOMs) or leaving or newly hired AOMs exists. Such change causes that many thousands FPOS locations need to be updated with correct Custodian. 

Exists already for assets 

This IBM idea describes a need for being able to batch update custodian within the Location app. Identical functionality has existed for many years within the Asset app. Batch updating of custodian on assets is OOTB functionality in Manage. 

Benefits and user experience optimizing 

Typically, an AOM has many FPOS locations (and thereby assets) within his area of responsibility. When an AOM leaves Sund & Bælt, many thousands of FPOS locations need to be updated. This is only possible manually and requires many hours of work. 

Alternative tool has been tried. Having tried to circumvent this missing functionality within the Locations app, the MxLoader has been tried out. So far without any success since the Custodian attribute won’t allow a change through the object structure. Only adding yet another Custodian into the LOCATIONUSERCUST is what happens.