Deprecated Allocate Resource and Resource Monitoring Gantt in 25R2

Is anybody from IFS able to give us some valid respond to our (PARTNER) question?

Hi, regarding the following functions (Allocate Resource and Resource Monitoring Gantt) that will be deprecated in 25r2, do you know if IFS will provide other features/page to replace them? 

Hi Thilini, 

In this case, what about allocating tools/equipment? Since we cannot use the Dispatch Console for that. 

Thank you, 

-Manusha  

Hi ​@Manusha 

Yes that’s true. As a workaround, please try below.

Use Resource Management / Crew concepts, where tools can exist as part of a crew.

How it works:

• Create a Crew
• Add:
  • Persons
  • Tools / equipment as crew members
• Dispatch Console allocates the crew, not individual tools

Best Regards,

Thilini

Hi ​@Manusha 

Yes that’s true. As a workaround, please try below.

Use Resource Management / Crew concepts, where tools can exist as part of a crew.

How it works:

• Create a Crew
• Add:
  • Persons
  • Tools / equipment as crew members
• Dispatch Console allocates the crew, not individual tools

 

Best Regards,

Thilini

Hi Thilini, 

Thank you however, this doesn’t seem like the best approach because the tools/equipment aren’t always going to be with the same crew. 

For example, our customer will be using the tool/equipment functionality to record their in-house cranes they will be allocating for work. These cranes will have different engineers assigned from job to job. 

In this case, they will need to keep changing these crew members after every job if they were to use the Crew option. Which can be a cumbersome task because we had discussed Crew options and they already do not have a wish to use it. 

Can we not have a functionality similar to ‘Allocate Resource’ or what we get in Dispatch Console for Tools/equipment? 

The visibility also should be there to see the tools/equipment availability similar to what we had in the Resource Monitoring Gantt or the Allocate Resource if these 2 functionalities are going to be deprecated. 

Thank you,

-Manusha 

Hi ​@Manusha 

Please let me direct this to our Product Development (RnD) team to check whether this is in the road map or any other better alternate approaches, etc.

​@vinklk , ​@Wasu May we kindly have your input on above concern please ? Is there any plans to implement this ? Thank you.

Best Regards,

Thilini

Appreciate it Thilini, thank you very much! 

-Manusha 

Hi ​ ​@Thilini Kumarasinghe 

You were correct. Dispatch Console does not support scheduling and monitoring of Tools/equipment as in Allocate Resources and unfortunately I don’t see any alternative solution either. 

Appreciate if we could receive more details about the customer and their specific business use case in this scenario. ​@jaroslav.runstuk  ​@Manusha 

Hi ​@Wasu ,

This is a company that provides services for construction companies by providing cranes, and riggers etc. And they have their in-house riggers, and cranes who will be assigned for different jobs. We are implementing IFS Cloud for them. 

The solution we had recommended was to set these cranes and riggers as resources and allocate for jobs as required, using Tool/Equipment for Cranes which are also set as FAs in the system for depreciation, and persons for Riggers.  

These cranes and riggers are not set as teams, because they will need different crane types based on weight for each job along with different riggers for each job. Everything is based on availability of the resources.

Using the Dispatch Console can be done for Riggers. Though we demonstrated Dispatch Console, they preferred Allocate Resource functionality due to simplicity. But we can bring Dispatch Console again, no problem. 

However, for crane availability, they will not have a solution in place from 25R2. Can there be something to address tools/equipment availability and allocation in the roadmap? 

Thank you,

-Manusha 

Hi, regarding (Allocate Resource and Resource Monitoring Gantt) that is deprecated in 25r2,and the suggestion to use Dispatch Console.

The customer has 10% of work tasks linked to Service and 90% linked to internal Maintenance, what is the solution to handle Work Tasks allocations? (after Allocate Resource and Resource Monitoring Gantt now is deprecated in 25r2)
-Including Tools/Equipment. 
-Customer does not have PSO.

Hi ​@Wasu , 

Following up to see if there’s any information you could provide on this? 

Thank you, 

-Manusha 

Hi,

Unfortunately there’s no roadmap item planned in near future to include Scheduling of Tools/Equipment. 

Resource allocations for Work Tasks (Service and Maintenance) can be done using Dispatch Console. 
For Tools/Equipment allocations can be made via “Assign Work” Assistance on the Task. 

Regards,

Wasundara

Hi, a follow-up question..what Components is required to run Dispatch Console? 
 

Hi ​@Thilini Kumarasinghe 
Our customer has been using the Resource Monitoring Gantt to view a larger planning window for forecasting, and the Dispatch Console for assignments and operational planning.
However, I am unable to use the Dispatch Console for long-term planning due to performance issues.

Is there an alternative way to display a larger planning window covering more months?

BR
Botan

Hi ​@pafose 

The key component required to run the Dispatch Console is the Service Scheduling component (SVCSCH). However,  some other components might be required to ensure proper functionality. 

Best Regards,

Thilini

Hi ​@FLEBOTANS 

Not that I'm aware of, but may be you can try the following to see if any performance improvement can be noticed.

Configure following scheduled jobs:

1. Clear Obsolete Records from the dispatch console (Can be scheduled to run daily at off peak / minimum user activity times, with default parameters to remove outdated records and reduce system load. (SVCSCH_DISPATCH_CONSOLE_API.CLEAR_OBSOLETE_RECORDS)
2. Refresh Dispatch Console Materialized Views –
Full refresh (C) is scheduled daily.
Fast refresh (F) is scheduled every 15 minutes.

In addition, some performance improvements has been done from framework side via 25R1 SU10.
Some more fixes related to performance has been provided from 25R1 SU9, 25R2 SU3 etc
Further changes are planned for 26R1 (additional architectural and performance-related improvements).

Best Regards,

Thilini

Hi ​@Thilini Kumarasinghe 
thank you for your response.
The scheduled jobs you mentioned have already been created and are running, but they haven't resolved the issue for larger planning windows, such as six months.

The customer requires a larger visual planning window, so they can easily see at a glance that, for example, two resources from the Gantt chart are available for planning and no other tasks have been scheduled yet.

BR
Botan

Hi ​@FLEBOTANS 

Yeah, I understand, but I think Dispatch console is optimized for short-term planning.  However, due to the validity of your requirement, I feel it is good to add this requirement as an “Idea” in the community. Then the Product Management team will review this and will provide suggestions or will check the feasibility for future improvements.