To use calendars in service

You can use a calendar in Service, to define the availability of:

  • A serialized Item
  • An Installation group
  • A service engineer
  • A service center
  • A response time
Availability type

The functionality of the usage of availability type is very useful for calendars that are related to service engineers. The availability type gives the user the possibility to dedicate some engineers for a specific type of work or to define availability schemes for call solution outside normal working hours. In these availability schemes you can define if:

  • During the normal working day an engineer is available for all types of work (availability type = normal service)
  • During the evening from 17.00 to 24.00 hrs the engineer can be called for call solution (availability type = call solution).

In the calendars of the serialized item and the Installation group, the availability type must be used to define the periods that the objects or the configuration is available for service. Because the objects or the configuration for call solution is normally always available, the user must define free periods for maintenance with the help of availability types in the objects or the configuration calendar.

Blank availability type, which is mainly used for Sales and Warehousing, can also be used within Service. If the availability of a resource is not that important, service types with a blank availability type (empty field) can be used. The benefit is that only once the standard calendar template needs to be defined with blank availability, linked to an appropriate time interval type. So for example, 'blank' can be used for the company, service center and response code when the availability is more important (service engineer) then separate availability types regarding certain service types can be defined and linked to the company.

In service the blank availability type is seen as a normal availability type, which needs to be defined. As a result, the system does a check if the blank availability type on the used service type is linked to the involved calendar.

To use the blank availability type on the service type, select also the blank availability check-box for the concerned calendar and make sure the standard template is defined with the "blank availability", or in a more specific way by defining the availability types in calendar lines.

In the specified modules of Service, the search sequences for calendars are as follows:

  • Service Planning & Concepts module: Serialized item - Installation group- Service Center- Company.
  • Call Management module: Response Time
  • Service Order Control module: Serialized item - Installation group- Service engineer - Service Center - Company.
Note

If no calendar is defined for the response time, the calls are planned immediately.