Contents

Scheduling Jobs

Purpose

This article will help you learn the concept of scheduling Jobs and the different ways in which that can be done.


How to Schedule a Job into a Time Slot - Show Scheduler

To schedule a job into a Time Slot within DRS, go to the Jobs screen and from the view you can either select the job by ticking the checkbox, right clicking on the Job or clicking the Job to navigate into it and then from either of those screens Click on ‘Show Scheduler’ to bring up the appointment slots

The Order contact name and phone number may be populated with values from the Order, these can be changed by overtyping the values in the fields. Determine whether a text message will be sent to the customer and select the yes or no values and click update.

Select the required appointment slot and click the green scheduling tick to schedule the appointment. You will receive confirmation of the appointment and you can close the window selecting the close button.


Options within the scheduling window

The icons left and right of the date allow users to scroll forwards and backwards through the relevant period for slots. The Date button once select allow you to change date periods and see available slots.

This allows users to see a list of operatives who can carry out the work. Selecting an operative from this list will show slots just for the operative and once scheduled will lock the job to the operative. Please note this is based on permissions at profile level and may not show for all users.

The refresh icon will refresh the slots.

The cog icon will allow users to select and change to different slot templates if configured in the system. Please note this is based on permissions at profile level and may not show for all users.

The Red X will cancel the slot request and close the scheduler down.


How to Schedule a Job into a Floating Time Window using Schedule Now

To schedule a new Job into a floating time window within DRS, go to the Jobs screen and from the view you can either select the job by ticking the checkbox, right clicking on the Job or clicking the Job to navigate into it and then from either of those screens click on ‘Schedule Now’. Schedule Now can be performed on multiple jobs at a time if required.

You can also use Schedule Now on a suspended Job. This is used to reschedule the work back into the original Time Slot where possible and can be used to reschedule work that has had to be rescheduled due to absence for example.

This then will bring you up a number of options

Scheduling Modes

No Preservation (Recommended) - During optimisation the Job may be assigned to a different Worker and/or Assignment Period, but it will stay within the Slot.

Preserve Other Routes - During optimisation the Job may move to a different Assignment Period but it will stay within the slot and with the Worker you selected.

Preserve Other Routes and Route Order - During optimisation the Job may move to a different Assignment Period, but it will stay within the slot, with the Worker you selected and keep its position within the Worker’s route (i.e. the Worker’s Jobs for that day will not be re-sequenced ).

Preserve All Planning - The system will not optimise the Job.  The Job will stay fixed to the Worker and Assignment Period you selected.  However, if this causes a violation the scheduling will fail.

Force - The system will not optimise the Job.  The Job will stay fixed to the Worker and Assignment Period you selected.  If this causes a violation the Job will be Forced.

Keep the current time window of Jobs - If a new job will honour the creation to target date when selected and will schedule a floating job in this window. The appointment slot will be creation to target date and assignment date will be allocated within that window. If the job is suspended when selected the job will be scheduled back into the original appointment slot window the job was allocated before being suspended.

Change the current time window of Jobs - This allows you to override it and specify the dates it floats within


Rescheduling a Job

To reschedule a job, repeat the steps above under How to schedule a Job into a Time Slot, to launch Show Scheduler.

Select a different appointment slot, select the Appointment Reason of why the Job is being reschedule and schedule as above, this will replace the initial time slot on the job with the new one and update the assigned Worker and the assignment period on the Job.

When rescheduling a job, the scheduler screen will display details under the ‘Rebooking’ section informing users on the number of times a booking has been made.

From here you can click the hyperlink to get the underlying details of the audit of the job.


Manual Assignment

Manual Assignment allows you to schedule a job into a slot or window at a specified assignment time to a particular worker that is required. This should be used sparingly and would be used to schedule work for exceptions outside of the scheduler booking.

To Manually assign a job

Click on jobs from the navigation menu > from the view select the job > Click on the Manual assignment button

Cancel - To close the window

Schedule now - once everything is populated click this to schedule the job

Diagnostic – Click to see diagnostics on whether the job can be scheduled or not and if not why

Set job manually – set the window start and end date and times (this will be the Time Slot allocated)

Set job slot from slot hours configuration – choose a slot from your configuration – this is recommended to guarantee a slot based on your setup and send the correct text and confirmation.

Update current time window – changes the current time window

Assignment from & to – set within the slot when attendance needs to be.

Time Lock – lock the job to this time or not

Assigned to – Select the worker required

Lock while Assigning – Lock to the worker Yes/No

If scheduling fails, immediately force without asking – if the job cannot be scheduled do you want to automatically force this job without any warning. Yes/No – This is based on permissions against the profile.

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