This chapter describes how to manage field service technician trips.
This chapter covers the following topics:
You must assign each field service technician to a primary calendar. Calendars have assigned shifts and Field Service trips are created from the shift patterns created within a shift. A trip marks the start time and end time in the day of a technician. Advanced Scheduler schedules tasks within the technician trip. Technician trips are generated by the Generate Field Service Trips concurrent program. They can also be created and managed from the Dispatch Center. Oracle Field Service allows flexibility with regards to start and end times and also provides the ability to specify shift start and end locations in order to support technicians who may begin or end work from different locations.
For more information on creating trips from existing shift patterns refer to the Running the Generate Field Service Trips Concurrent Program.
Note: Before you can schedule trips for technicians you must run the Generate Field Service Trips program.
This chapter covers the following topics:
Creating Trips from Existing Shift Patterns within the Dispatch Center
Creating Trips within the Dispatch Center when No Shift Patterns Exist
Creating Trips with Different Departure and Arrival Addresses
You can create trips within the Dispatch Center from the existing shift patterns for the day.
Steps
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Click on the Gantt icon or the Planboard icon.
Right-click on a technician name.
Select Create Trip.
Click Yes in response to the message, “Resource has a shift pattern on this day. Do you want to create Trips from shift patterns?”
Departure and Arrival shift tasks appear in the Planboard and the scheduling chart. A trip will not be created if:
It has already been created from the shift pattern.
A trip that overlaps with the shift pattern already exists.
You can create trips within the Dispatch Center even when no shift patterns exist for the day.
Steps
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Click on the Gantt icon or the Planboard icon.
Right click on a technician name.
Select Create Trip.
Click No in response to the message, “Resource has a shift pattern on this day. Do you want to create Trips from shift patterns?”
The Create Trip window appears.
Modify the values (as needed). You can change the trip timings, trip type (Regular and Standby), and the trip start and end locations.
Click OK.
Departure and Arrival shift tasks appear in the Planboard and the scheduling chart.
The trip will not be created if a trip that overlaps with the timings entered in the Create Trip user interface already exists.
You can update trips (created using the Generate Field Service Trips concurrent program or Create Trip user interface) from within the Dispatch Center.
Steps
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Click on the Gantt icon or the Planboard icon.
Right-click on the departure or arrival task of a technician trip.
Select Update Trip. The Update Trip window appears.
Modify the values (as needed). You can change the trip timings, trip type (Regular and Standby), and the trip start and end locations.
Click OK.
Departure and arrival shift tasks are updated and displayed in the Planboard and the scheduling chart accordingly. When tasks exist within a trip:
The trip type can be updated but with a warning.
New trip timings also should encompass the existing tasks.
New trip timings do not overlap with existing trips (This is applicable for a trip without tasks too).
You can create trips with different departure and arrival addresses.
Note: You can invoke the Generate Field Service Trips concurrent program with the option to enter a default start location for each technician. The default address is based on the profile CSF: Shift Task Address Source.
Steps
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Click on the Gantt icon or the Planboard icon.
Right click on a technician name.
Select Create Trip.
Click No in response to the message, “Resource has a shift pattern on this day. Do you want to create Trips from shift patterns?”
The Create Trip window appears.
To change the start location, choose a different location from the Source list within the Trip Start Location block.
To change the end location, choose a different location from the Source list within the Trip End Location block.
Note: You can enter a new address by selecting One-Time Address from the Source list and then you must enter the address details.
Click OK.
You can delete a trip within the Dispatch Center.
Steps
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Click on the Gantt icon or the Planboard icon.
Right click on the departure or arrival task of a technician trip.
Select Delete Trip.
The selected trip is deleted. This is possible only when no tasks are scheduled within the selected trip.
In thre event that one or more field technicians unexpectedly become unavailable, dispatchers can use Schedule Management functionality to unschedule tasks, and then temporarily block technician trips to prevent the Advanced Scheduler from automatically scheduling further tasks to those technicians. Alternatively, dispatchers can drag and drop assigned tasks in the Scheduling Chart to reschedule them to other technicians and recalculate trips. For more information on rescheduling tasks directly from the Dispatch Center, see Rescheduling a Scheduled Task from the Gantt View.
Dispatchers can also create personal tasks for technicians directly from the Dispatch Center for the period in which they are unavailable. For more information, see Steps to Create a Personal Task from the Dispatch Center.
Plus, dispatchers can use the Schedule Management functionality to optimize the trips among the technicians in their selected territories. Dispatchers will be able to pick and choose the technicians and the date range for which they want to achieve optimized trips. The dispatcher can also choose Optimize functionality to reschedule tasks from blocked trips to unblocked trips. For more information, see the Oracle Advanced Scheduler User Guide.
Schedule Management functions include:
Note: For information on unscheduling tasks from the Schedule Management window, see Unscheduling Tasks.
From the Schedule Management window, a dispatcher can block one or more trips. This action prevents new assignments for the technician, and temporarily freezes the task assignments in the blocked trip.
Use the following procedure to block a trip.
Steps
Navigate to the Schedule Management window.
Note: If you navigate to the Schedule Management window from the Plan Board or the Gantt view, only the selected resource displays.
The Schedule Management window appears.
Select the check boxes next to the resource names for technicians that you want to block trips. You can select multiple check boxes to block trips for multiple technicians. If you want to block trips for all technicians, select the Select All check box.
In the Trips section, select the Start and End dates and times for the trips you want to block.
In the Actions section of the window, select Block in the Trips field.
Click OK.
The trips for the date range you specified are blocked in the Plan Board and the Gantt views.
You can unblock trips that have previously been blocked. You can also unblock trips for a specified date range and for multiple technicians. When you unblock a trip all tasks in that trip return to a task status of Planned.
Use this procedure to unblock trips.
Steps
Navigate to the Schedule Management window.
Note: If you navigate to the Schedule Management window from the Plan Board or the Gantt view, only the selected resource displays.
The Schedule Management window appears.
To unblock a trip, select the check box located next to the resource name for the technician schedule that you want to unblock. You can select multiple check boxes to unblock trips for multiple technicians. If you want to unblock trips for all technicians, select the Select All check box.
In the Trips section, select the Start and End dates and times for the trips that you want to unblock.
In the Actions section of the window, select Unblock in the Trips field.
Click OK.
The trips for the date range you specified are unblocked and the task status changes are reflected in the Plan Board and the Gantt views. Once unblocked, the technicians that were previously blocked become available for task and trip assignments, including automatic scheduling by the Advanced Scheduler.
From the Schedule Management window you can reschedule and reassign tasks from one trip to another. You can select the technician trips that should be optimized. The source trips can include trips which are blocked or past dated but the destination trips cannot be in blocked status or within past dated trips. Select the trip action of Optimize to achieve the desired result. Upon selecting the technicians, date range and action, the tasks are optimized to the selected technicians.
A dispatcher can optimize the trips of multiple technicians spanning several days. All uncommitted tasks are considered by the optimization process. During the optimization process tasks are geographically clustered (if spatial data is available) and scheduled to the eligible technicians. Optimization tries to schedule a cluster of tasks to a single technician provided that there is free time in his or her trip to accommodate the tasks in the cluster.
For more information on the optimization across trips functionality, see Optimizing Technician Schedules Across Trips, Oracle Advanced Scheduler User Guide and Optimizing One or More Trips From the Dispatch Center.
Use the following procedure to optimize trips for multiple technicians.
Prerequisites
Optimizing Technician Trips from the Schedule Management Window
Navigate to the Schedule Management window.
Note: If you navigate to the Schedule Management window from the Plan Board or the Gantt view, only the selected resource displays.
The Schedule Management window appears.
Select the check boxes next to the resource names for technicians that you want to optimize the trips for. You can select multiple check boxes to optimize trips for multiple technicians. If you want to optimize trips for all technicians, select the Select All check box.
In the Trips section, select the Start and End dates and times for the trips you want to optimize.
In the Actions section of the window, select Optimize in the Trips field.
Click OK.
The trips for the date range and technicians you specified are optimized. The Optimization Across Trips concurrent program is launched in the background.
In addition, the Optimization Across Trips program will generate an output file. This output file contains information about the optimization process such as, tasks that were auto-rejected during the process and trips that were skipped and the reasons why they were skipped.
For more information on the output file, see Running the Optimization Across Trips Concurrent Program, Oracle Advanced Scheduler User Guide.
Overview of Optimizing One or More Trips From the Dispatch Center
From the Field Service Dispatch Center Plan Board view you can optimize a single trip for a technician or you can optimize all trips for technicians that appear in the Plan Board view.
When optimizing one trip for a technician, the Field Service Optimize Trip functionality rearranges schedulable tasks and recalculates travel time for each task in a trip for a single resource so as to minimize total costs. Tasks planned start and end date timings, priority, and cost parameters set up in Advanced Scheduler will influence the task sequence.
During single trip optimization, Advanced Scheduler unplans all tasks in the trip. It then reschedules the tasks one by one within the same trip finding the most cost effective position in a sequence. The sequence of tasks within the trip can change.
When optimizing trips for all technicians for a specific date, the optimization across trips functionality identifies all schedulable tasks within the technician trips and then schedules them optimally to the eligible technicians.
For more information on optimizing across trips, see Optimizing Technician Schedules Across Trips, Oracle Advanced Scheduler User Guide.
For more information for optimizing blocked or past dated trips, see Optimizing Technician Trips.
Use these procedures to optimize one or more trips from the Dispatch Center:
To Optimize One Trip from the Field Service Dispatch Center
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
The Dispatch Center window appears to the Task view.
Click the Plan Board icon.
The Plan Board view appears to display technician trips and tasks.
Right-click a departure task, and then select Optimize from the right-click menu.
The optimization process for the trip is performed immediately.
To Optimize More Than One Trip from the Field Service Dispatch Center
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
The Dispatch Center window appears to the Task view.
Click the Plan Board icon.
The Plan Board view appears to display technician trips and tasks.
Select Optimize Across Trips from the Tool menu (Tools > Optimize Across Trips).
Note: The Optimize Across Trips menu option is only available in the Plan Board view of the Field Service Dispatch Center. This option is not available in the Task, Gantt, and Map views.
The Optimization Across Trips concurrent program is initiated for the technicians and selected date on the Plan Board.
In addition, the Optimization Across Trips program will generate an output file. This output file contains information about the optimization process such as, tasks that were auto-rejected during the process and trips that were skipped and the reasons why they were skipped.
For more information on the output file, see Running the Optimization Across Trips Concurrent Program, Oracle Advanced Scheduler User Guide.
Personal time for appointments, meetings, training, and vacations can be reserved to prevent task assignments during that time. Dispatchers can enter the personal time off requested by a technician if the technician does not have access to Mobile Field Service or the Field Service Technician Portal.
You can navigate to Task Management to create a personal task or you can create it using the right click technician menu in the Scheduling Chart or the Plan Board view of the Dispatch Center.
Steps to Create a Personal Task Using Task Management
Navigate to the Tasks window.
The Find Tasks window appears in the foreground of the Tasks window.
Click New.
The Find Tasks window closes.
On the Tasks window, create a task for personal time. Enter the Subject field.
Select the type of time off in the Type field. For example appointment.
Select the status of Assigned in the task Status field.
Select the Owner Type and Owner of the individual requesting the personal time.
In the Dates section, enter the planned and scheduled start date and time of the personal time.
In the Effort section, enter the planned effort and duration of the personal time.
Save the task.
The task number is automatically assigned. The status for the task is Assigned.
Click the More button.
The Task Details window appears.
Under the Assignments section, enter the type and name of the individual requesting the personal time and a status of Assigned.
Click OK and then save the task again.
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Access the Plan Board or Gantt view by clicking the Plan Board or Gantt icons.
The personal task appears on the technician's schedule.
The Advanced Scheduler will take into consideration technicians personal time off when scheduling tasks to technicians.
Note: The personal time task will not appear in the Task List section of the Dispatch Center because the personal time task is not associated to a service request.
Steps to Create a Personal Task from the Dispatch Center
Navigate to the Scheduling Chart or Plan Board view of the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Find the technician for whom you want to create the personal task.
Right click on the name of the technician and select the Create Personal Task menu option.
The Personal Task window opens with time zone and location sources, scheduled start and end dates, and other task details automatically populated. You can edit this information, if required.
Enter the name and description of the task and edit the scheduled date range of the task and the effort or time to be reserved for the task, if required.
Note: The status of the task is approved by default as technicians usually take time off within their shift timings for personal tasks with the approval of their managers.
Enter the address of the location for the personal task. You can enter a one-time address (City and Zip or both). You can also select an existing address for the location. Advanced Scheduler considers this while scheduling other consecutive tasks around this personal task and can calculate the required travel time and distance to perform the next field task.
Click OK to save your work.
Return to the Scheduling Chart or Plan Board view to see this task. Once created, you can update or cancel the task, if required, using the technician right click menu.
When a task has been added to a trip or a task has been removed from an existing trip, the dispatcher can use the recalculate trip functionality to recalculate the travel time of all tasks in that particular trip. See Recalculating All Trips.
Recalculating a trip takes into account the planned and scheduled start date and time of the tasks and travel time and duration. This feature also enables you to manually make changes to the trip without invoking Advanced Scheduler.
Use the following procedure to recalculate a service trip after task assignment, but before task commitment.
Prerequisites
Steps
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
From the Dispatch Center, click the Plan Board icon.
The Plan Board view appears to display technician trips and tasks.
Select and right-click a departure task.
The right-click menu appears.
Select Recalculate from the right-click menu.
Gaps or overlaps in the trip are removed and travel times are recalculated.
The Recalculate all trips functionality of Field Service recalculates the trips of all resources displayed on the Plan Board. Time gaps and overlaps are removed and travel times are recalculated, but the sequences of tasks within trips are not altered.
Use this procedure to recalculate all service technician trips that display on the Plan Board after task assignment, and before task commitment.
Prerequisites
Steps
Navigate to the Field Service Dispatch Center.
From the Dispatch Center, click the Plan Board icon to open the Plan Board view.
The Plan Board view appears to display technician trips and tasks.
From the Tools menu, select Recalculate All Trips.
The process is performed immediately for the selected date in the Plan Board. A window appears to report the number of updated trips, and whether errors occurred.