Define Scheduling Activity Type
Explanation
This activity is used to define activity types for Scheduling. To do this,
the work types or activity types defined in IFS/Service
Management/Service Management Basic Data/Request Work Task Basic Data/Work
Types or IFS/Service Management/Service Management
Basic Data/Request Work Task Basic Data/Activity Types should
be set up as scheduling activity types. The following scheduling information
can be defined per activity type:
-
Activity Category - The Activity Category that is to be
used as an Activity Type or Work Type in scheduling.
-
Type - The work type or activity type that is to be
used as an activity type in scheduling. Entering a value in this field
is required and cannot be changed once the record is saved. Use the Drop
down to select a suitable value. The Drop Down will display all work
types/activity types defined in the Service Management Basic
Data/Request Work Task Basic Data/Work Types or Service Management Basic
Data/Request Work Task Basic Data/Activity Types page.
-
Description - Description of the Work Type or Activity
Type.
- Duration (Hours): The duration in hours for the Default
Primary Scheduling SLA Type and/or
Default Secondary Scheduling SLA Type for the Work Tasks defined with the
Work
Type. If a Work Task is missing the Primary or Secondary Scheduling SLA
Type,
the Default Primary or Secondary Scheduling SLA Type which is defined per
Dataset
will be assigned to the Work Task. For such Work Tasks, or when the Scheduling
SLA Type duration cannot be calculated from the current work task dates, the
duration entered for the Default Primary Scheduling SLA Type or the Default
Secondary Scheduling SLA Type will be used to calculate the duration of the
primary or secondary scheduling SLA window.
- Initial Base Value: If the initial base value is provided for an
Activity Type this value will be added to set the total base value for the
activity. The total base value will then be calculated as ((Initial
Base Value + (Base Value per Hour)) multiplied
by the activity duration) multiplied by any relevant weightings. It is optional
to define an Initial Base Value for an Activity Type.
- Base Value Per Hour: A scheduling value per hour. This value will be used in the activity
base value calculation, i.e., the base value per hour will be multiplied
by the default duration and any relevant weightings, to set the base value
for the activity. Note: If the base value is set to zero, work tasks
defined with the work type will not be scheduled in the Scheduling Engine.
- Buffer Time Hours/Percentage: A default buffer time
in hours and/or as a percentage. The default buffer time is added to the
execution time when calculating the available time window. Buffer time
can be used to create a buffer towards the end time of the activity’s
scheduling window. If the primary scheduling window ends at 3pm/15.00
and the activity duration is 1 hour, the activity can be planned to
start at 2pm/14.00 to meet the SLA. However, when adding a buffer of 1
hour, PSO will no longer plan the activity at 2pm/14.00 as a buffer was
added and the activity must be planned latest at 1pm/13.00 to make sure
that there is a buffer to meet the SLA. The default buffer time is added
to the execution time when calculating the available time window, for
work tasks for which a latest finish, SLA latest finish or planned
finish date is specified. The buffer is calculated as buffer time or the
buffer percentage multiplied by the work task duration, whichever is
higher
- Scheduling SLA Type (Primary/Secondary) Duration Hours:
The duration in hours for the Default Primary Scheduling SLA Type and/or
Default Secondary Scheduling SLA Type for Work Tasks with this Work Type. If
a Work Task is missing the Primary or Secondary Scheduling SLA Type, the
Default Primary or Secondary Scheduling SLA Type is assigned from the
Dataset settings.
- Appointment Template ID: The default Appointment
Template used when booking appointments of this Activity Type.
- Maximum Displaceable Priority: When appointment
booking for Work Tasks of this type, the Appointment Booking Engine
(ABE) will attempt to displace any other activities of this priority or
less. Displacement means that the appointment booking engine effectively
ignores certain activities when making appointment offers. This is done
based on the priority of the work task, and on the Maximum Displaceable
Priority. The default value sent for this parameter is -1, which means
that no work tasks will be removed before appointment booking is
attempted. Setting it to a different value (e.g. 2) will mean that work
tasks of priority 1 and 2 will be removed before the ABE tries to
suggest appointments.
- Allow Multiple Visits: The default setting for the Allow Multiple Visits field will be
used on the Work Task for the defined Activity Type. If this checkbox
is selected, the Activities with this Activity type should be allowed to
be split into multiple visits. If the activity spans over a longer duration
it can be split up between break-type activities and shifts in the resource
schedule.
- Min. Visit Duration (Hours): Related to Allow
Multiple Visits. This parameter specifies the minimum duration for a
visit. No visit in a multiple visit chain will be scheduled to a shorter
duration than this value. The value is entered by default on new work
tasks with this activity type.
- Scheduling Cost of Split: Defines the cost incurred
each time a work task activity of this type is split into additional
visits. Each time the activity is split this value is added to the cost.
This can be used to avoid unnecessary splitting of activities. E.g. if
it is split into 3 segments the cost is applied twice.
- Split Min Priority: Any splittable Work Task can be
assigned a minimum split priority. It will then only be split into a
later shift, if the split priority of the shift is at least the minimum
priority. The split priority on the shift is set using a shift attribute
called SPLIT_PRIORITY. Let's assume that Monday shifts can all be
assigned a split priority of 1, while the other weekday shifts have a
split priority of 2. Work Tasks that must be completed within a single
week are then given a minimum split priority of 2, which means that they
cannot be split over the weekend and into the Monday shift. Meanwhile
the other splittable Work Tasks have a split priority of 1, so can be
split over the weekend. Similarly Work Tasks which are allowed to
interrupt can be given an interrupt priority, and will only be allowed
to interrupt a split Work Task, if the interrupt priority at least
matches the minimum required split priority.
- Adjust Duration: The option Adjust Duration enables
an archiving service to automatically adjust the duration based on
historical average durations. The archiving service calculate durations
from completed tasks of the same dataset, activity type and location.
The calculated duration is then used when the Adjust Duration option is
enabled on tasks of the same dataset, location and work type. The Adjust
Duration option is found in Work Task pages. The duration field is found
on tasks in the Scheduling Information/Allocations tab. The value Yes or
No in the field Adjusted Duration, in Scheduling Information/Allocations
indicates if the value has been adjusted or not.
- Interrupt: Defines whether Work Tasks or a breaks
of this type are allowed to be used to split an work task, where Allow
Multiple Visits is set to Yes. When Allow Multiple Visits is set to Yes
against a Work Task, the scheduling is free to split the work task over
consecutive shifts, or around activities marked as interruptible.
- Interrupt Priority: Specifies the priority of a
work task of this type when considering whether to use it to interrupt a
splittable work task. This only applies if Interrupt is set to Yes.
- Interrupt Multiplier: It is possible to exercise
finer control on the cost that is applied when an Work Task is
interrupted by another Work Task. This is achieved using a multiplier on
the cost of split which depends on the interrupting Work Task. The value
defaults to 1, but can be set to any value greater than or equal to 0.
For example, if we apply a Scheduling Cost of Split of 100, but we do
not wish to apply any penalty if the Work Task is interrupted by a
break. We can set the split multiplier on the break to 0 to achieve
this, meaning that the split cost would be 0. Suppose we also have an
appointment which is allowed to interrupt the schedule, but we only want
to do this if there is no other alternative. We can therefore set the
split multiplier on the appointment Work Task to perhaps 2.5 and a cost
of 250 will be applied if the appointment Work Task is scheduled to
interrupt.
- Priority: Defines the priority of work tasks of
this type and is used in the appointment booking process, when
displacing activities. The greater the number the greater the priority.
- Do in Locality Incentive: Do in Locality Incentive
determines how work at the same locality should be scheduled. The value
can be set to -1 or anything between 1 and 2.
- Do on Location Incentive: Do on Location Incentive
determines how work at the same location should be scheduled. The value
can be set to -1 or anything between 1 and 2.
- Ignore Old Days: Used to control whether or not to
schedule work tasks that are older than this number of days, calculated
from the Work Task creation date.
- Reactive: Used together with the Schedule
Distribution Service to indicate if Work Tasks of this types are
Reactive.
- Display Color: The Display Color setting is used to set specific colors for different
activity types and to be able to distinguish the different activity types
in the Scheduling Workbench by color. To use this
it is required to select the option Colour activities by.. Activity
type in the Scheduling Workbench - Workspace.
Prerequisites
- The company must have been set up in IFS/Enterprise.
-
Work types must have been defined in the Request Work Task
Basic Data/Work Types page.
-
Activity types must have been defined in the Request Work
Task Basic Data/Activity Types page.
System Effects
As a result of this activity, the activity types which are to be scheduled
are defined.