Group planning process

To generate the plan, LN does the following:

Step 1. LN populates the activities in the group planning based on the planning attributes
  • The group planning populates the selected activities in the groups. Service activities are grouped into activity sets and groups, based on the planning attributes. Activity sets are always part of a group.
  • Activity groups are planned in parallel with time and activity sets, within a group, are sequentially planned in time. Group sequences with Group Method set to Parallel are used to generate groups. Group sequences with Group Method set to Sequential are used to generate activity sets within a group.

Note: If the activity set is frozen, LN does not allow you to add orders to an existing activity, but new orders can be manually added to an activity set. LN allows you to manually add new service orders to an existing plan, even though the activity set is frozen.

Step 2. Sort the activities

LN sorts the activities in groups and activity sets. By default, sorting is based on the latest finish time. Each activity set contains one order with the earliest of the latest finish time, that is also the earliest time the activity set can start and be used for sorting.

Step 3. Plan forward against the calendar

LN plans the sorted activities considering the time windows into account. Planning is based on the Plan Forward parameter in the Generate Plan (tsspc3200m000) session.

Note: Planning can also be based on the route. You can use the Plan Method parameter in the Service Planning Parameters (tsspc0100m000) session.

Step 4. Modify the plan manually

LN allows you to modify the plan at two levels:

  • At group level: Moves activity sets from one group to another
  • Within a group:
    • Changes the sequence of the activity sets
    • Reschedules from specific activity set from user determined start/end time
    • Splits the activity sets
    • Adds (rush) orders to the activity set
    • Changes the sequence of the orders in a group

For example, for a day, when the work load within a group is satisfactory, the user can merge all activity sets in a group, resulting in a single group-activity set combination that contains many service orders. These service orders can be sequenced again before the plan is frozen. Note Merging of activity sets results in re-sorting and re-planning

Step 5. Assign resources

You can assign engineers to the activity:

  • Manually
  • Automatically

You can define up to 20 skills for an activity. The required activity skills must meet the employee assigned for the activity between the planned start and finish time of the activity.

Using the Group planning module, you can create a group of activities or buckets of work to be executed, that can be assigned to an employee/resource.

LN allows you to assign the resources at these levels:

  • At group level ( based on characteristic): Groups are created for activities with similar characteristics or attributes. For Example, all the washers, dishwashers, and air conditioners are classified in 3 groups. Washers: Marc, John and, Hank; Dishwasher: Peter, Dave; Airco: Marco. LN assigns the resource if the characteristics of the group and the employee are similar. If multiple resources are similar, LN displays the list of employees and the planner can manually select one of the engineers. If a single resource is similar, LN assigns the resource. Alternately, resources can be assigned based on the priority rule. For more information, refer to Priority Rule.
  • At activity set level. The resource of the group level is the assigned resource. Individual activity sets cannot be assigned to employees. When an activity set is assigned to another employee, the activity set can be moved to another group that is assigned to another resource. The assignment can also be changed on the service order.

Note LN allows you to generate a default assignment. You can assign an engineer to a service order activity directly, based on the service type. However, the assignment generated by group planning is considered before the default assignment.

Step 6. Recalculate planned start and finish time

LN calculates the new start and finish times. When the new planned start and finish times are known, including travel durations, the slack or shortage of time can be displayed to the user (planner) for every group assigned to a resource.

Step 7. Release group planning

The group planning activity data is copied to the corresponding service order activities, work order activities and planned activities using update activities from the Group Planning session. For service orders, the updated travel date/time fields are also copied. Use the Release Plan (tsspc3240m000) session to release the group plan.

Note LN allows you to delete the groups from group planning when the resources and the planned start and finish time, are updated.

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