Territory planning processThe territory planning functionality enables you to perform territory and preferred engineer simulations. The objective is to reduce travel by clustering the interchangeable work in geographical areas. The territory engine compares the required capacity for the serials, with the available capacity (the engineers or simulations engineers). The engine calculates the best possible combination of the required capacity for the serialized item and the available capacity. Optionally, an engineer can be made responsible for a territory and the optimal territories can also be calculated. You can select the serialized items that are to be serviced (required capacity) in a certain geographical area. The engine calculates the required capacity on historical and/or already known data. To check the available capacity, the user can specify existing service engineers, as well as simulation engineers, for maximum flexibility. If the calendar and availability type of an engineer is defined, the engine calculates the available capacity. The user can use the simulation results, to modify the preferred engineer on the serialized item and/or the territory. Note The user can also manually change the preferred engineer and the territory of the serialized item. Step 1. Determining or calculating the required capacity for a list
of serials In order to determine the required capacity, the user specifies the serialized items for which the capacity requirements must be considered. The user can select the serials that must be part of the geographical clustering calculation based on:
Based on these criteria, Infor LN compiles a list of serials. The list can be modified by the user. The user can trigger the calculation to aggregate the available capacity data into different categories such as planned activities, service orders. After triggering the calculation, LN provides an overview wherein the capacity figures can be maintained manually including the number of visits. The user loads the known capacity requirements data into the territory plan. For Field Service, LN bases the number of visits on the number of planned activities and service orders. The number of visits determine how much travel time is used for the serial during the simulation. The user has the option to roll up the underlying capacity figures to the top serial item. In case the top serial item is the planning level, it is advised to roll up the capacity of the parts to the top serial. The required capacity is loaded into the territory plan. Step 2. Determining the available capacity The available capacity must be configured by the user:
Configuring the available capacity - The available capacity for resources and the number of territories determine the output of the engine. For the input parameter, the number of territories determine the number of geographical clusters into which the total data set is divided. The capacity available for a territory determines whether the set of serials and the related capacity requirements match, ( for example, travel as activity duration) This input parameter helps determine the optimal geographical distribution of territories, on the map. Step 3. Calculating the capacity allocations The purpose of the engine is to assign as many required capacities (serialized items) as possible to resources (available capacities, that is the (simulation) employees), taking available capacity, required capacity, and travel time into account. Use the Calculate Capacity Allocations (tsspc4200m000) session to start the territory engine. The engine can be triggered after configuring the input data:
Calculation of the territory plan:
Step 4. Using the output of the engine The basic output of the calculation is the territory or preferred engineer identified for a serialized item. The territory plan can be used to update these attributes of the serialized item.
Step 5. Recalculating the travel time When the territory engine is run, you can recalculate the travel time, because the travel time used by the engine is based on the center of gravity. However, the center of gravity is typically, not the home address of the engineer. Therefore, there can be a discrepancy between the calculated and the actual travel times. For example employees are hired to complete assignments in an area that is not, by default, close to the employee's home address resulting in a deviation from the reference point and the center of gravity. This is applicable only for two calculation options:
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