Use the Resource Scheduling Board
Introduction
Resource Scheduling Board (RSB) gives you the possibility to plan and organize work in your company in a visual way, where you can see exactly what is happening with your resources day by day.
A Maintenance Manager or Maintenance Planner can easily schedule and reschedule objects on the Board. Scheduling is updated in real-time.
Overview
In the following articles, you can read about how to use the board and view data relevant for you.
In the article Manage the General View of the Board, you will find information about how to:
- Specify the view of the board and the data on it.
In the article Schedule Objects on the Board, you will find information about how to:
- Work with different features when scheduling objects.
Manage the General View of the Board
By using the toolbar at the top of the Resource Scheduling Board, you can specify how you want to view the board and the data on it. Read more in the following articles.
Reload the Board
Reloading the board is useful when you want to be sure that what you see on the board is the most actual version of data from your company. In the instance when you open a Work Order Card and make some changes to it and then come back to the board, the changes will not be applied to the board. You need to reload the board for the changes to be visible.
Specify the View
From the Today button, you can:
- Select 'Today' to scroll to today's date.
- Select 'Previous Week' to view the previous week (based on the current date). Use it again to scroll to next previous week until you zoom out the current view.
- Select 'Current Week' to scroll to and zoom in on the current week.
- Select 'Next Week' to view the next week (based on the current date). Use it again to scroll to next week until you zoom out the current view.
Apply a Filter
From the Apply Filter button, you can select:
- Apply Filter – use it to apply existing saved filter for RSB. You can use filters created by yourself or shared by someone else.
- Create Filter – use it to open Filter Page and create a filter for your view. You can read more about filters in the chapter about it.
- Clear Filter – use it to remove filter currently applied to the board.
- Save Filter – use it to save filter currently applied to the board.
Manage How Objects Are Shown
Collapse or expand capacities
From the Collapse/Expand Capacities button, you can either expand or collapse the view of capacities on the board.
Show or hide objects
From the View tab, you can specify whether you want to either show or hide certain information. You have the following options:
- Show/Hide Info* – two actions for showing/hiding the info on the bottom of the board.
- Show/Hide Progress* – two actions for showing/hiding the progress info on the object.
- Show/Hide Unscheduled* – two actions for showing/hiding unscheduled objects.
- Show/Hide Workload* – two actions for showing/hiding workload on the board.
- Highlight All/Overdue* – two actions for highlighting (or not) overdue objects. The action disabled when Highlight Object is on.
- Show/Hide Priority* – two actions for showing/hiding priorities on the board.
- Highlight All/Object* – two actions for highlighting (or not) objects with the same source after selection. The action disabled when Highlight Overdue is on.
- Show/Hide Blocks Connection* – two actions for showing/hiding connections of objects on the board. The connection is related to order of task on resource lines.
- Compress/Expand Objects* – two actions for compressing/expanding objects on the board.
- Orders Vertically/Horizontally* – two actions for changing the way how order objects are organized on the board. Actions disabled when Advanced Planning is on.
- Group of actions Objects – here you can turn on/off visibility of all possible objects on the board. In each specific group you can also find an action that turns on/off visibility on the groups.
- Group of actions Search – here you can open a specific list of objects that should be visible on the board, and by selecting from the list, you will be scrolled to the chosen object, and the frame around it will be visible. If you are not showing specific object on the board, the related action is disabled.
- Print – action saves the current view of the RSB as a PDF file. The file will always show all resources and contractors on the first page. The number of pages depends on how many days you see on the board.
- User Setup – opens setup dedicated for the current user.
- Group of actions Simulate – here you can run simulations directly from the RSB.
Objects on the Board
On the RSB you can show the following objects:
- Work Orders for resources.
- Work Orders for expenses.
- Work Orders without resource/expense lines.
- Round Orders.
- Round Orders without resource lines.
- Simulation of these objects.
All of them are shown in the same style. Simulations of the objects above are always shown in a lighter color than the orders. See screenshot 01.
- Maintenance Task
- Simulated Maintenance Task
Both are shown in the same style. Simulations of tasks are always shown in a lighter color than tasks.
- Maintenance Absence
All objects except Maintenance Absence have their own label that can be set up in the Scheduling Board Setup. The Label is always visible on the board.
All objects (resources, groups, objects on the board) have their individual tooltip which is shown when you hoover over the object. Tooltip can be set up in the Scheduling Board Setup. See screenshot 02.
Object on Group
Sometimes you may be interested in what is happening exactly inside of a group. To do this, you can show specific objects on the groups. You can find the action for that in the toolbar in group Objects in the relevant objects. See screenshot 01.
When this option is on, relevant objects appear on all groups. They're always one-line objects with different shapes than the object representing the actual object. Only Maintenance Tasks are shown as objects with the same shape as the original object on the resource. The color is always lighter than the original color of the object.
In screenshot 02, you can see that there is one object on the group that represents the original planned object for one of our resources. But two others are shown as regular objects, but on the group. This is because these two are dedicated to the group, but not planned for specific resources.
When you double click on the object on the group, you will be scrolled to the original object. Around the original object you will see a blinking frame. If you cannot see the original object (because you collapsed a group), and you double click on the group object, the view will be expanded so the original object appears.
Objects on the group cannot be moved. They only represent the original block.
Symbols
On the RSB (from the User Setup) you can turn off visibility of symbols. When it's on, you might see four different symbols on the board.
- A symbol informing that this resource has at least one overbooked day in the current scope. See screenshot 01.
- A symbol visible when you're using maintenance skill-based planning. It means that this resource has at least one order where skills are needed, and this resource does not have the proper skills. See screenshot 02.
- If the smbol is shown in the top left corner, it represents overdue object. See screenshot 03.
- If the smbol is shown in the top right corner, it represents connection with other lines. The order of tasks is applied on the document. See screenshot 03.
Schedule Objects on the Board
The following articles include explanations of how you can work with different features when scheduling objects on the board.
Info
Info is an area dedicated for resources and external contractors. When it's on, you can see some fields at the bottom of the page. See screenshot 01.
- Selected: information which resource/contractor is selected.
- Orders: number of orders visible in the current view* of the RSB. If simulations are visible there is additional value in brackets defining how many simulated instances there are for the selected object in the current scope of the RSB. Orders shows the number of work orders and round orders (and their simulations).
- Maintenance Tasks: number of maintenance tasks visible the current view* of the RSB. If simulations are visible, there is additional value in brackets defining how many simulated instances there are for the selected object in the current scope of the RSB.
- Resource Workload: shows the workload of the selected resource (it is not applied to external contractor) as X / Y (Z %) or X (X1) / Y (Z % - (Z1 %)) where X = usage on orders and tasks, X1 = usage on simulated orders and tasks, Y = resource capacity, Z = percent value of usage divided by capacity, Z1 = percent value of usage with simulations divided by capacity. The value shows only data from the current time scope of the board. Filters are not applied to this value. Values for simulations are shown when simulations are visible on the board. Workload contains data even if related objects are not visible on the board (for example if you are not showing work orders, workload will contain usage from them.
*if you for some reason don’t see some objects (if filters are applied, or you are not showing them), the numbers of objects will take this view into consideration. So, this value literally shows how many of the orders/maintenance tasks are visible on the board, not how many of them are in the database.
In screenshot 02, resource DF has been selected. All simulations have been set up to be showing, so you can see that:
- DF has 4 orders (20 simulations).
- DF has 1 maintenance task (no simulations).
- Current workload for DF in the time scope is 4 hours (44 simulated) from 142 hours of capacity which gives 2.82% of current workload and 30.99 % if we take simulations into consideration, so in this case we are sure that DF will not be overbooked in the general time scope.
In screenshot 03, the external contractor ‘CONT 30 – 40' has been selected. All simulations have been set up to be showing, so you can see that:
- CONT 30 – 40 has 5 orders (value for simulations is not shown because in EAM we are not simulating expenses).
- Since external contractors are not included in maintenance task, there are no maintenance task for them.
- Resource Workload is dedicated to resources only, and since external contactors do not have capacity that can be used to calculate the value, there is no value to be shown.
In screenshot 04, an object (group on the board – vendor groups are also treated as groups in that case) which can't be assigned has been selected. If you were to click anywhere on the empty space on the group line, information about Not Assigned Work would be shown.
- You can see 28 orders and 98 simulations that are not assigned to anyone.
- We have 7 maintenance task and 38 simulations that are not assigned to anyone.
- Resource Workload can't be calculated so it is empty.
If you select any object from which data about an assignment is taken, the information will be updated for the relevant record. For example: selecting the work order object scheduled for a specific resource will update the information for this resource.
Progress
When you're showing progress, some objects have a progress bar showing at the bottom. See screenshot 01.
- Work Order Object – progress bar represents what quantity is already consumed/what quantity is still possible to use. Screenshot 01 shows the object from the line shown on screenshot 02.
- Round Order Object – progress bar represents how many assets were done or skipped/how many assets the round order contains. In screenshot 03, you can see the object where 2 assets are processed (1 done, 1 skipped) and 3 assets are on the round order.
Objects that don't have progress bar:
- Empty Work Order (without any resource or expense line).
- Empty Round Order (without any resource line).
- Tasks (all).
- Simulations.
- Maintenance Absence.
Resource Usage
When planning orders and tasks for your resources, you want to be sure that you're not planning too many orders and tasks for them and that none of your resources will be overbooked. That is why a visible workload is crucial during the planning process. On the RSB, you can see workload for specific dates in two different ways. The workload refreshes when you edit objects on the board (by moving them or by editing them from the context menu).
In both cases (capacity and workload) if the Advanced Planning is on, it shows the value for the first day of the work. In the example in screenshot 01, work order object is planned for three days. This work order line is planned for 4 hours. All hours are shown for the first day only.
Capacity
On the board you can show capacities for resources. This is a line at the bottom of a resource row. Line is calculated based on the resource capacity and resource quantity on orders and tasks. If you are only showing rounds on the board, the capacity line will still show the current quantities on orders, rounds and tasks. See screenshot 02. With this function you can control where your resource is booked for 100% and when it is overbooked so you can consider replanning the current work. When you're showing simulations on the board, quantities from simulations are added to the capacity chart on the RSB. When resources are multiplied on the board (grouped by Work Type or Asset Resp. Cent.), capacity chard is also multiplied.
Workload
The Capacity chart is useful, but it expands the view of the board and sometimes you just want to keep more objects in the same area. That's why Workload can be useful. When the option is on, specific days for the resource are colored so you can easily see what is already planned for this resource. See screenshot 03. The color is calculated based on the resource capacity and resource quantity on orders and tasks. If you're only showing rounds on the board, the color will still show the current workload on orders, rounds and tasks.
- Gray – this resource has no capacity for that day, you should not plan anything.
- Blue – this resource is booked at 100% that day.
- Red – this resource is overbooked that day.
When you're showing simulations on the board, the workload is updated with values from simulations.
Maintenance Absence
Maintenance Absence object is shown as two points in the time and the line between them. It represents a resource who is not available, but it doesn't show the capacity of a resource. When seeing this object on the board, you should consider not planning anything for this resource during the maintenance absence.
Priority
When you're showing priority on objects, every time when the object has priority (for example simulations don't have priority), you'll see a bookmark in the top right corner of the block. The color of the bookmark is created based on the color value defined for the specific priority.
Block Connection
This function is rather dedicated for advanced planning purposes. It can be used when you're not using advanced planning, but the view may not be so clear. On order/task lines you have a possibility to define the order in which all resources must do their work. It is useful if you want to define that some tasks must be done before others. See screenshot 01.
Being on the board, you can turn on the option to show block connection. In the example from screenshot 02 - if you select any block that is connected with other blocks (symbols for order connection might be useful), the connection lines will be added.
In the screenshot 03, you can see that something isn't right as some resources are planned to carry out tasks before other tasks that should have been done first. In the example of screenshot 04, the issue has been fixed and is now planned properly based on expectations. As you can see, only the order of objects were changed and not any resources.
Filters
On the RSB you can create a filter. You can save the current filter, apply saved filter created by you, or shared with you by another user, or set up saved filter as the default filter. You might use different fields to create a filter. For example, you can create a filter based on the asset number, asset location, resource no., asset responsibility center, etc.
Applied filters are shown on the top of the board. See screenshot below. If you create a PDF with the current RSB, you'll see some information at the bottom of the page stating that filters are applied.
Filters are powerful when you work in an environment where you have many records to show on the board, and you don't want to see some of them. In such cases, it not only reduces the number of visible objects, but it also improves how fast the RSB works.
Context Menus
Each object on the board has its own context menu. To open the context menu, right-click on the object. These menus might be more or less extensive. It depends on what you can do with the specific object. For example:
- Resource Context Menu
- From the resource you can open its card, capacity, maintenance availability, maintenance skills, or absences. You can also easily open a list with work order lines when this resource is overbooked.
- You can also open a list with orders or tasks for this resource. Or you can create a work order or maintenance task for this resource. See screenhot 01.
- Work Order Context Menu
- Here you can find an action for opening the current order card, or lines (resource, expense) from the order. You can also edit the line directly from the board or use functions for dividing the line by quantity or remove scheduling from the line (it removes the record number from the line). You can also open the asset card. See screenshot 02.
- Empty Round Order Context Menu
- Empty objects do not have any line, so functions are limited. Here you can open the object card, or open round assets. See screenshot 03.
To sum up, all objects have a dedicated context menu to help you get the most important information out of them, and to speed up the process of working with these objects.
Sometimes, after using the action from the context menu, you will see a list of other records, for example when you are checking work order lines. From the list, you can choose the line that you want to inspect and select OK. When the line is shown on the board, you'll be scrolled to the object and the blinking frame will be visible around the object. See screenshot 04 and 05.
Creating Work Orders and Tasks
From the RSB you can easily create a one-off work order or task. To do this, open the context menu for the resource and use the Create Work Order or Create Maintenance Task action. It opens the wizard from which you can create a specific record. Note that if you run a context menu by clicking somewhere on the row of the resource, and the place will be after today's date (represented by a red line), the date of your selection will be applied to the wizard. If you run the context menu directly from the resource or from the date before today's date, today's date will be applied. See screenshot 01 and 02.
Creating a one-off record doesn't only take the date into consideration. It also controls from which resource you started a process (even from which group), and it will apply these values to the final document.
- For example: your board is grouped by work type, and you start a process from resource XYZ in work type group ABC. You apply a work order category code that has some default resources on it. The created work order will then contain these default resource lines, but also this XYZ resource with the work type ABC already specified on the list. This means that you can easily create work orders for specific resources with specific work types.
When the RSB is grouped by Asset Responsibility Center, it doesn't matter from which group you started a process. Asset Resp. Cent. from the selected asset will be applied. The resource line for resource XYZ will be created.
When you create a Maintenance Task, a work type code is applied and Asset Responsibility Center from the group where the resource XYZ were located is also added to the task.
Use Planning By Time when Scheduling
It's possible to turn on Planning By Time which enables you to accurately represent the duration of work orders on the Resource Scheduling Board.
Setup
Make sure you have Unit of Measures set up for the unit you want to use for Planning by Time for example minutes, hours, pieces, etc.
- Set up units by going to Asset Management Setup > Related > Unit of Measurement Types. See screenshot 01 below for an example.
- In the Work Orders and Rounds tab, enable the parameter Planning By Time in the 'Advanced' section.
Use Planning By Time
Now your resource and expense lines can be planned exactly for a specified time range.
Example: You have a resource planned for 1.5 hours. The starting date and time is set up as 1/3/24 12:00 PM. The ending date and time will be calculated as 1/3/24 1:30 PM. View screenshot 02 for reference. The duration of 1.5 hours will then be shown on the RSB.
Note: If you change any of these values:
- Quantity - starting date and time remains unchanged, but ending date time is updated.
- Starting date (or time) - ending date time will be updated.
- Ending date (or time) - starting date will be updated.
Switching on Planning By Time automatically switches on Planning By Hours in the RSB.
Scheduling Objects
Moving blocks
You can grab any object and move it around the block. It changes the relevant record in the background and updates the board after any changes.
- Work Orders can be scheduled between resources and external contractors.
- Round Orders can be scheduled only between resources.
- Maintenance Tasks can be scheduled only between resources.
- Maintenance Absence can be scheduled only for the same resource.
When you group the board by Work Type and by Asset Responsibility Center, you can drop a block on the group. It will remove the resource no. (or expense no. when the board is grouped by asset resp. cent.) from the line.
When the RSB is grouped another way than by Asset Responsibility Center, and you are showing NOT ASSIGNED on the board, you can drop object on this group. It will remove resource no. from the line and work type (if the grouping was by work type).
When the RSB is grouped by Work Type, you can drop a block on a resource in the UNASSIGNED group, which removes the work type from the line, and applies the specific resource no.
Edit from context menu
Some objects have an ‘edit’ option from the context menu. The option opens a window where you can edit the record from the database. Changes are applied to the record and after closing the window, the board will be updated with the changes.
Unschedule
Some objects have an ‘unschedule’ option from context menu. It removes the resource/expense no. from the line. Changes are applied to the record and the board will be updated with the changes.
Scope Highlighting
If you set up highlighting scopes (in User Setup) and you move a block on the board, and the block has a dedicated time scope when it should be started, then the specific time period will be highlighted. In screenshot 01, an object has been grabbed to try and change the planned date for it. As you can see, the time scope between original planned date and latest finish date is highlighted.
In the situation that you're using advanced planning (also planning by hours), you might notice that the highlighted scope does not reflect the latest finish date (as in screenshot 02). This is because the block that is being moved is planned for more than one day. Therefore, you should plan the starting date of the work earlier than the latest finish date to be sure that it will be finished on time.
With planning by hours, the highlighted time scope reflects the exact time during the day when the order should start in order to be finished on time, based on the duration of the order. See screenshot 03.
Skill-Based Planning
Skill-based planning highlights the scope, not based on dates, but based on resources that have required skills. Below you can see a screenshot where someone planned a work order for resource DF and DF doesn't have the needed skills. When we grab the relevant block, we can see that two things are happening:
- Time scope is highlighted.
- Resource line is highlighted – informing that this resource has the needed skills.
These two ways of highlighting work together to provide the best support in planning your work.
If you are working with resources in a specific group, the skill scope is highlighted only in that group. For example, we grouped our RSB by work types (or asset resp. cent.). Some of our resources are shown in more than one group. When we move a block that needs skills to be done, only resources (with needed skills) in that group are highlighted.
