The Allocation and Monitoring Process can be broken down into three Activities
In order for employees to appear in Allocate Resource window and Resource Monitoring Gantt window , the following data must be defined:
In order for employees to appear in Allocate Resource window and Resource Monitoring Gantt window , the following data must be defined:
The skills/properties of a employee will determine whether the Employee will be considered suitable for a Work Order/Operation and will appear in the Allocate Resource or will match the search criteria's in Resource Monitoring Gantt window.
Note that the employee's allocations, such as, absences, training allocations, project allocations, breaks and lunches will only be visible in Allocate Resource dialog and Resource Monitoring Gantt if IFS Human Resource Management is used.
The properties of a Tool/Facility will determine whether the Tool/Facility will be considered suitable for a Work Order/Operation and will appear in the Allocate Resource dialog.
In order for the Allocate Resource right mouse option to be available on a Work Order/Operation, either of the following data must be defined on the Work Order:
The Allocate Resource allows you to allocate and reallocate resources to work orders and operations according to the constraints provided in work orders and operations. Maintenance employees and tool-and-facilities are considered as allocate able resources in IFS Service & Maintenance. Employees can be allocated at either work order level or operation level.
The time horizon displayed in the Allocate Resource Dialog is based upon the Work Order Date Constraints.
The start of the time horizon will be evaluated in the following priority order when allocating a work order or an operation:
The end of the time horizon will evaluated in the following order when allocating a work order:
The end of the time horizon will evaluated in the following order when allocating a work order operation:
Please refer to Allocate Resource respectively Reallocate Resources.
When allocating an employee, the available time for the employee is considered, and will be fetched according to the following criteria:
When allocating a tool or facility, the available time for the tool/facility is considered, and will be fetched according to the following criteria:
The allocation constraints in the Allocate Resource Dialog determines when an
allocation may or may not occur. The concept is that an allocation must occur
between the allocation start constraint and allocation end constraint for the
work order/operation.
The allocation constraints are basically the constraining dates given on the work
order: Requested Start, Late Start, Fixed Start and Requested Finish. The
dates will be shown as allocation constraints (blue horizontal bars appearing
that restricts the movement of the allocation bar in the lower pane of the
Allocate Resource window) to avoid the user accidentally
allocating the work order /work order operation outside these dates. However it
is possible to override the constraints from the work order by simply ticking
the "Ignore Constraints" checkbox in Allocate Resource
window.
The allocation start constraint will be evaluated in the following order when allocating a work order or an operation:
The allocation finish constraint will be evaluated in the following order when allocating a work order:
The allocation finish constraint will be evaluated in the following order when allocating a work order operation:
Requested Finish - If there is a Requested Finish on the work order then the Requested Finish will be considered the end constraint of the allocation.
Note: Tools/Facilities are not possible to allocate outside the Planned Start and Planned Finish of the Work Order.
There are a number of configurations that can be conducted to the Allocate Resource dialog. These settings can be changed by pressing the Search.. button in the Allocate Resource dialog. From there the user needs to navigate to tab Settings, here the user controls the following settings (settings are stored in the user profile and will used the next time the user opens the allocate resource dialog):
Show Days Before:
Number of days that the user wants to display as a buffer prior to the start
of the time horizon of the Allocate Resource window.
Show Days After:
Number of days that the user wants to display as a buffer prior to the end
of the time horizon of the Allocate Resource window.
Snaptime in Minutes:
This parameter is used to specify the minutes rounding which is used when
allocation bars are moved and/or incremented/decreased in the Allocate
Resource window.
Possible values are: 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and 60.
Population Fallback dates
The Population Fallback Period can be set to 7,21 or 38 days and is used
when no end time has been given for the allocation horizon.
If the user cannot find a suitable resource in the returned result set or if the user wants to refine the search in anyway adding an extra search criteria's, then the search criteria's may be manipulated by pressing the Search.. button in the Allocate Resource dialog. From there the user needs to navigate to tab General to change the search criteria for Employee or Tool/Facility or to the License and Competency tabs.
Note: Please note that any changes to the Gantt Timescale will also be saved in the user profile and will used the next time the user opens the allocate resource dialog.
If the user wants an explanation to a symbol or a color used in the Allocate Resource this can easily be achieved by pressing the Legend button in the Allocate Resource dialog. From there the user can find information about symbols and colors used by allocations, calendars and date constraints.
The Resource Monitoring Gantt allows you to get an overview of the availability of employees or tools-and-facilities in terms of their schedules and allocations and also to monitor the progress of their assignments.
The Time horizon displayed in the Resource Monitoring Gantt will be set when populating the client.
Please refer to Monitor Resources.
Please refer to Reallocate Resources.
Work orders , operations and tool/facility allocations may be rescheduled and reallocated using drag and drop in the Resource Monitoring Gantt, making it possible to reallocate and reschedule here in a much quicker way than in Allocate Resource. This quick reallocation feature is basically to be enables the planner/dispatcher/service manager/call center to quickly deal with Exceptions to be able to quickly shuffle allocations between Employees and/or Tools/Facilities.
However in order to provide this kind of quick reallocation/rescheduling of allocations the Resource Monitoring Gantt overrides the date constraints of the work order and or operation and also overrides organizational requirements (Site, Maintenance Organization, Team) as well as craft license and competency requirements. It is still however possible to reallocate an allocation in accordance with organizational-, date- and skill requirements from the Allocate Resource dialogue whilst in the Resource Monitoring Gantt. This can be achieved by selecting right mouse button Allocate Resource for an allocation in the Resource Monitoring Gantt.
There are a number of configurations that can be conducted to the Resource Monitoring Gannt. These settings can be changed by pressing the Search.. button in the Resource Monitoring Gannt window. From there the user needs to navigate to tab Settings, here the user controls the following settings (settings are stored in the user profile):
Snaptime in Minutes:
This parameter is used to specify the minutes rounding which is used when
allocation bars are moved and increased/decreased in the Gantt.
Possible
values are: 1, 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60.
Jeopardy Buffer in Minutes: In Jeopardy Warnings are used to catch Exceptions before they even occur. User may define Jeopardy Buffer Time in Minutes which will raise a In Jeopardy Warning a certain predefined number of hours/minutes (In Jeopardy Buffer time) before an Exception occurs. If buffer for instance is defined to 1 hour then a In Jeopardy Warning will be raised when 1 hour remains until Work Order Late Start or SLA Start and the Work Order has not been started. Alternatively when 1 hour remains until the Work Order Requested Finish or SLA Finish and the Work Order has not been promoted to Work Done. Allocations In Jeopardy will be marked with a yellow color warning to the left hand side of the allocation bar.
Show Progress: Progress indicates the calculated progress of a work
order or an operation. It is only possible to see Progress for work orders
that have been defined to use Progress Templates.
The progress bar is displayed as a thin bar at the bottom of the allocation
bar.
Note: Please note that any changes to the Gantt Timescale will also be saved in the user profile and will be used the next time the user opens the allocate resource dialog.
As a part of the monitoring and reallocation process it is also possible to transfer work orders to mobile and to reassign a work order that has been transferred to mobile. This can be achieved by right mouse button selecting a work order, operation or a tools/facilities line and selecting the option to Transfer to Mobile (if not already transferred) and Reassign (if already transferred) .
As a part of the monitoring and reallocation process it is also possible to promote or/and demote work orders. This can be achieved by right mouse button selecting a Work Order and selecting the status and then the status user wishes to promote or demote Work Order status to.
If the user wants an explanation to a symbol or a color used in the Resource Monitoring Gantt this can easily be achieved by pressing the Legend button in the Allocate Resource dialog. From there the user can find information about symbols and colors used by allocations, calendars and date constraints.