On This Page:

Related Pages:

The functionality offered by ServiceOptimizer for capacity management is described in FS203

ServiceOptimizer can manage a schedule where different types of jobs have different lead times so that:

a) Some daily capacity is held back so that it’s kept available for short lead time work such as fault fixing, and

b) A limit can be applied to the daily capacity to do other types of work so that demand for it is smoothed out over time, particularly work booked well in advance such as service jobs or ‘drop-in’ (unconfirmed) work.

This section presents some guidelines on how capacity categories and capacity patterns should be set up to meet the business needs. Before setting up capacity management in ServiceOptimizer, you must analyse the predictability of demand for service. The more stable and predictable demand patterns are, the easier it becomes to set accurate values.

Optimizer

Scheduling by the optimizer obeys the same rules for capacity usage as applied when jobs are booked, so if capacity checking is on, then the optimizer will only produce solutions that do not further exceeding the capacity constraints.

Whilst the optimizer treats capacity as a constraint, it will not actively attempt to resolve situations where capacity has been exceeded and it will not deallocate jobs which have exceeded capacity limits (unless there is another reason for deallocating them).

Guidelines for Capacity Categories

The primary use for capacity categories is to provide greater control over the way in which a schedule is filled with work, balancing work that is planned well in advance against work that is highly reactive. The reactive work, as well as being the most urgent, tends to be the highest priority too. In this scenario, capacity categories should be defined that reflect the likely lead time for the work. See example opposite.

In some cases, a service operation may wish to distinguish between Fault and Repair categories such that whilst both are urgent, the higher priority ones are distinct, but as per the Guidelines below, consideration is required as to the predictability of demand.

Keep the number of capacity categories in use to a minimum. The more capacity categories that are used with reserves or limits, the more flexibility is reduced.

Keep the number of defined reserves and limits to a minimum. Typically, if 3 capacity categories are defined, there should be just 1 reserve and 1 limit. If 4 categories are defined, then there should be either 1 reserve and 2 limits, or 2 reserves and 1 limit, or 1 reserve and 1 limit. By setting 1 reserve and 1 limit, the other category is controlled through a combination of the reserve and the fact that the limit should be applied to the capacity category in which the jobs are booked earlier.

Example

Routine Maintenance and Service	typically more than 1 weeks notice
Installations	typically more than 2 days notice
Fault / Repair	ASAP (or as perSLA)

Guidelines for Setting Capacity Limits

When setting the limit(s) you need to consider the likelihood of there being sufficient other work to fill in the schedule, as well as the processes and impact of having to bring additional work into the schedule to utilize any spare capacity.

The limit(s) should be applied to jobs that are booked well in advance. This prevents the schedule being filled and then needing to be re-arranged as more urgent work is booked

Guidelines for Setting Capacity Reserves

Setting of reserve values needs to consider the likelihood of that level of work being booked, as well as the cost of re-arranging pre-booked work that the business would typically defer in order to satisfy the urgent request. In other words:

If the reserve is set too low then what is the impact (in terms of customer service and ability to re-schedule work) and cost (time and cost) of deferring, or displacing, significant amounts of pre-scheduled work?
If the reserve is set too high, then is there a surplus of “fill-in” work that can be brought into the schedule to utilize operatives’ time?

The reserve(s) should be applied to jobs that are booked at the shortest notice (e.g. urgent Repairs).

Guidelines for Capacity Checking Level

Each FRU in ServiceOptimizer can be configured to manage capacity on an FRU or Team basis. Furthermore, if managing at Team basis, the team can be configured such that each operative is managed separately.

Use of Operative level checking

Operative-level checking is not recommended where:

a) An operative does fewer than 12 jobs per day/shift (i.e. standard job duration is 30 minutes or less), or

b) There is a need to schedule long duration jobs that might exceed the time available in any capacity category, or

c) Demand is unpredictable or varies significantly over the FRU geography

Browser not supported