Planning process with the necessary functions overview

Modified on Wed, 4 Aug, 2021 at 9:08 AM

The goal of the planning is to assign logistics, teams and work orders and to create and keep the necessary information together in one place. This process usually doesn´t work linear, e.g. due to a change in the weather forecast, new incoming work orders with higher priority or simply a sick technician.

With the help of a flexible planning environment, re-planning is made possible.

The process of a work order is listed below based on the various planning statuses. The execution tool has the following possible planning statuses by default *can be changed by Admins - see below:

In backlog: Not yet ready to be planned. When running schedule optimisation, scheduling will not be attempted.
Ready for execution: Ready to be planned and all requirements fulfilled. When running schedule optimisation, scheduling will be attempted.
Being planned: Activities have been planned but not started or completed. When running schedule optimisation, scheduling will be attempted.
Dispatched: Work order is ready to be picked up
Being worked on: There are technicians currently working on the work order. The work order can be finalised or opened after completion
Finished: Estimated hours are equal to completed hours and the work order has been marked as finished.
Closed: A user has approved the finished work order and closed it, and the work order is locked.
Cancelled: Work order has been cancelled and is no longer relevant, and the work order is locked but can be reopened.

Work order status mapping for Admins

As an admin, you can configure the work order planning status to be more in line with how your project works. You can define your own status and add as many as needed. Please follow the article Account settings that guides you to set it up correctly.

The first status is set after importing the first work order. A status can change by following the steps below:

1. The status "In backlog" indicates the work order isn't ready for execution and won't be included in the scheduling. It is possible to edit the work order and manually change the status to "Ready to execution" when ready, thereafter the work order will be planned automatically. A possibility is also to plan the work orders manually and manually change the status to "Being planned".

2. The work orders in "Ready for execution" can be planned as usual by the scheduling and the status changes to "Being planned".

3. When a work order is in "Being planned" status, it can manually be changed on all work orders in the planner to "Dispatched" and will finalise the planning.

4. This status can be undone and the undispatched work order(s) is back to "Being planned" status. The work orders are still visible in the timeline, but the planning isn`t yet finalised.

5. The plan can be cancelled and the work order deleted from the plan. In that case, the work orders automatically go back to the status "Ready for execution".

6. It is possible to delete single work orders from the plan. In that case, the tool changes the status to "Ready for execution".

If a work order is set back in the process, it will restart with a new status.

The main function of the planning model is the planning process itself. The planning process is made possible in two different ways in the manual planning and the scheduling. The following first three points are relevant only for the manual planning or for the adjusting of any scheduled plans. The last two points are universal for all processes.

Further details about the scheduling are available in the article Scheduling.