Search Results eam_cause_codes_pk

Overview

EAM_CAUSE_CODES is a master reference table in the Oracle E-Business Suite Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) module, owned by the EAM schema. It stores the cause codes that describe the underlying reasons or contributing factors for equipment failures, defects, and maintenance events. Cause codes form one leg of the classic failure-analysis triad — problem, cause, and remedy — and are consumed by maintenance work orders, failure analysis records, and reliability reporting. Because the table holds the authoritative, reusable definitions of cause codes rather than the transactional events that reference them, each row represents a distinct business concept that is shared across many downstream records.

The documented DBA object is EAM.EAM_CAUSE_CODES, governed by the primary key constraint EAM_CAUSE_CODES_PK, which is defined on the CAUSE_CODE column. A unique index, EAM_CAUSE_CODES_U1, is also defined on CAUSE_CODE, confirming it as the natural business key. From a dimensional modeling perspective, the metadata's heuristic Data Vault classification is hub-leaning: the table behaves like a hub, storing a stable list of unique business keys (cause codes) with descriptive attributes, and serving as the integration point for links to failure combinations. This classification is offered as a modeling suggestion rather than a prescriptive design.

Key Information Stored

Eight columns are documented for this table. The most significant are:

• CAUSE_CODE — The business-key identifier for each cause, also serving as the single-column primary key (EAM_CAUSE_CODES_PK) and covered by the unique index EAM_CAUSE_CODES_U1. This is the value other tables reference.
• DESCRIPTION — The human-readable text describing the cause, used in list-of-values displays, work order entry, and reports.
• EFFECTIVE_END_DATE — Supports date-effective (end-dating) behavior, allowing a cause code to be retired from active selection while preserving historical references.
• CREATED_BY, CREATION_DATE — The standard EBS who/when audit columns capturing the row's creation.
• LAST_UPDATED_BY, LAST_UPDATE_DATE, LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN — The standard EBS audit columns capturing the most recent modification and the login session that made it.

The table has no documented surrogate sequence-generated primary key; the business key CAUSE_CODE functions directly as the primary key, which is characteristic of a reference/hub-style table. The absence of a separate surrogate column simplifies joins but means the cause code value itself is the durable identifier.

Common Use Cases and Queries

Cause codes appear in work order failure entry, failure analysis, and reliability reporting. Typical usages include validating that a chosen cause is still active and joining cause codes to failure combinations for analysis.

A common report joins the cause list to the failure combination table:

• SELECT cc.cause_code, cc.description, fc.* FROM eam.eam_cause_codes cc JOIN eam.eam_failure_combinations fc ON fc.cause_code = cc.cause_code;
• To retrieve active causes only: SELECT cause_code, description FROM eam.eam_cause_codes WHERE effective_end_date IS NULL OR effective_end_date > SYSDATE;
• For an LOV feed, filter on description for user-friendly selection.

Reliability engineers use the table to standardize root-cause categorization across assets, enabling Pareto analysis of failure causes. Auditors query the audit columns to trace when a cause definition was created or last changed.

Related Objects

The documented foreign-key relationship identifies the principal dependent object:

• EAM_FAILURE_COMBINATIONS — References EAM_CAUSE_CODES via EAM_FAILURE_COMBINATIONS.CAUSE_CODE. This table links problem, cause, and remedy combinations and is the primary transactional consumer of cause definitions.

Beyond the documented FK, cause codes are commonly referenced by EAM work order failure analysis records and reliability reporting views that denormalize cause descriptions for analysis. The EAM_CAUSE_CODES_U1 unique index and EAM_CAUSE_CODES_PK constraint are the principal integrity objects supporting lookups by CAUSE_CODE.