This chapter covers the following topics:
OA schedules is only available at this time if you are using Oracle HRMS.
One of the core attributes of a resource is its availability. If any of the eBusiness Suite modules does anything that affects a resource's availability, then the rest of the eBusiness Suite should be aware of it. The schedule repository provides a central place to define a resource’s schedule.
The following case study is presented in order to help visualize setting up and using the schedule repository.
Bugs Inc. is a small pest control company. Within the company there are two departments:
The call center department, that takes customer calls and creates appointments. The call center is staffed around the clock Monday through Friday, utilizing three shifts.
The service department. These are the people who visit the customers and take care of their pests. The service department’s regular work hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00. The company has a deal with the local authorities to respond to serious cases like poisonous snakes, alligators, and bears. This is a 24x7x365 deal for which the service department operates an emergency pager schedule.
The company is closed on:
New Year's Day Wednesday, January 1
Memorial Day Monday, May 26
Independence Day Friday, July 4
Labor Day Monday, September 1
Thanksgiving, Thursday & Friday, November 27 & 28
Christmas, Thursday, December 25
Questions to be answered:
A customer calls in on January 2nd at 05:00 with a termite problem:
Who will be around to take the call?
What is the soonest that the call center can create an appointment?
The fire department calls in an emergency on January 1st. Who in the service department will be on pager duty?
Create shifts and schedule patterns. You can create patterns based on duration, a calendar week, or number of days.
Preview the schedule pattern and make changes as needed.
Define schedules and assign exceptions and resources to the schedules.
Create shift detail types.
Flexible start time, flexible lunch, core working hours, flexible end time
Create a day based schedule pattern using your created shifts.
Preview the schedule pattern and make changes as needed.
Define schedules and assign exceptions and resources to the schedules.
You define common schedule patterns that can then be used as templates to define schedules assigned to resources. Categories set up by your administrator are assigned to define whether a resource is available or not available. There are three ways to define patterns:
Duration based pattern: The pattern is composed of durations, such as 8 hours available followed by 16 hours not available. Each duration is a shift you create and name while creating the pattern. See Creating a Duration Based Schedule Pattern.
Calendar based pattern: The pattern is defined using the days of the week, start times, and number of hours. The day is the shift name. See Creating a Calendar Based Schedule Pattern.
Day based pattern: The pattern is created by combining previously defined shifts. See Creating Shifts. The pattern has a specified length in number of days after which the pattern repeats. See Creating a Day Based Schedule Pattern.
Service department calendar based example
The service department works Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00. A calendar based pattern named Service Work Week can be created as follows:
| Shift Name (Day) | Start Time | Duration | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 09:00 | 8 hours | Available |
| Tuesday | 09:00 | 8 hours | Available |
| Wednesday | 09:00 | 8 hours | Available |
| Thursday | 09:00 | 8 hours | Available |
| Friday | 09:00 | 8 hours | Available |
Emergency pager duration based example
The company has a deal with the local authorities to respond to serious cases like poisonous snakes, alligators, and bears. This is a 24x7x365 deal for which the service department operates an emergency pager schedule.
The service department has 4 emergency response teams that are on call once every four weeks. Since it is 24 hours a day service there is no need to define a workday. Instead we create a pattern with the shift name Emergency Week with a duration of 7 days and a category of Available. And a second pattern called Emergency Unavailable with a duration of 7 days and the category Unavailable.
A pattern can include other patterns within its sequence. We now create a duration-based pattern called Emergency Monthly. It consists of the following:
| Sequence | Shift Name | Duration | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emergency Week | 7 days | Available |
| 2 | Emergency Unavailable | 7 days | Unavailable |
| 3 | Emergency Unavailable | 7 days | Unavailable |
| 4 | Emergency Unavailable | 7 days | Unavailable |
When a schedule based on this pattern is later assigned to resources, different resources are scheduled to start the pattern at different points in the pattern: week 1, week 2, and so on.
Call center day based example
The call center is staffed around the clock Monday through Friday. To achieve this they operate 3 shifts. These shifts are defined using Create Shift.
Morning Call Center: Monday to Friday 06:00 to 14:00
Day Call Center: Monday to Friday 14:00 to 22:00
Night Call Center: Monday to Friday 22:00 to 06:00
Employees rotate by working the morning shift one week, then the day shift the next week, and the night shift the third week, creating a total 21 day pattern. We create a day based pattern with a length of 21 days, called Call Center Rotation, as follows:
| Sequence | Shift Name | Day Start | Day Stop |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Morning Call Center | 1 | 5 |
| 2 | Day Call Center | 8 | 12 |
| 3 | Night Call Center | 15 | 19 |
Days 6-7, 13-14, and 20-21 are non-working days.
A duration based schedule pattern is defined using number of days, minutes, hours, or weeks. You can define a sequence of available and not available time. The sequence forms a pattern that repeats.
One week available followed by three weeks not available is a repeating pattern that is assigned to Joe to start on February 1, Pete to start on February 8, Sally to start on February 15, and Jane to start on February 22.
Notes
Add Details: Create your pattern definition for one step in a sequence, such as 8 hours unavailable or 1 week available, and click Add to Pattern Detail. You provide a shift name for each sequence. Days and weeks are assumed to start at midnight.
You need to define available and unavailable time unless your pattern is intended to be used within another pattern.
If you define only 8 hours available for your pattern, then the resource assigned to this pattern is shown available 24 hours a day because the 8 hour available pattern continues to repeat.
Short Code: When you review the defined pattern, the short code displays to help you identify each shift.
Pattern Details: You can change the sequence in your pattern or remove any of the sequences already created. You can also search for other existing duration based patterns and include them in your sequences.
A calendar based pattern is defined using the days of the week, start times, and number of hours. The day of the week is the shift name.
A regular work week pattern consists of a sequence, Monday through Friday, each day starting at 9:00 am with a duration of 8 hours. You only need to define the available hours. The system will allocate the remaining hours in the day, and the remaining days in the week, as unavailable.
Notes
Short Code: When you review the defined pattern, the short code displays to help you identify each shift.
Pattern Details: You can change the sequence in your pattern or remove any of the sequences already created. You can also search for other existing calendar based patterns and include them in your sequences.
A day based schedule pattern defines a repeating pattern built around a specified number of days. You define shifts separately using Create Shift, and assemble them in sequence.
For example, employees rotate on a 21 day rotation starting with a morning shift for one week, then the day shift for one week, then the night shift for one week.
Notes
Add Details: Search for a shift and specify what day the shift starts and stops. Days and hours in the pattern that are not included in a shift are assumed to be unavailable time. You can also search for an existing day based pattern to include it in the sequence.
In the 21 day example, you would specify:
Morning Shift days 1 through 5
Day Shift days 8 through 12
Night Shift days 15 through 19
Create detailed shifts which are then placed in a sequence to create a day based schedule pattern that repeats after a specified number of days.
The call center department has three shifts:
Morning Call Center: Monday to Friday 06:00 to 14:00
Day Call Center: Monday to Friday 14:00 to 22:00
Night Call Center: Monday to Friday 22:00 to 06:00
Create Shift Notes
Category: If the selected category was set up with Shift Details set to yes, then the Shift Details region appears. Shift details are used to define flexible work hours.
Start Time: You can specify a combination of start time, end time, and duration of minutes, hours, day, or weeks.
Start Time and Duration Examples
If a period is a regular 9 am to 5 pm shift, then choose 09 am as start time, 05 pm as end time, and leave Duration blank
If a period is an 8 am to 6 pm shift and the actual work duration is 8 hours, then choose 08 am as start time, 06 pm as end time, and 8 hours as duration
If a period is a floating 8 hours shift, then choose 8 hours as duration, and leave Start Time and End Time blank
If a period is 36 hours shift starting at 9 am then choose 09 am as start time, 36 hours as duration, and leave End Time blank
Short Code: When you review the defined pattern, the short code displays to help you identify each shift.
Shift Details Notes
Prerequisite: Shift Detail Types must be set up by your administrator.
Core: Select Core to specify mandatory work times.
Min. Break: You can specify the minimum and maximum time that can be taken for a break during a flexible time period.
Flex Time Example
In this example employees work a flexible eight hours within 7 am to 6 pm.
| Start | End | Core | Min Break | Max Break | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 am | 9 am | No | Flexible Start | ||
| 9 am | 11 am | Yes | Core Work | ||
| 11 am | 1:30 pm | No | 30 | 60 | Flexible Lunch |
| 1:30 pm | 3:30 pm | Yes | Core Work | ||
| 3:30 pm | 6 pm | Flexible End |
When you create or modify a schedule pattern or a schedule you can review it in three possible formats:
Weekly format: This format displays seven days at a time in columns, with rows for times of the day. You specify the time increment. Color coding of each cell shows available and not available times.
List format: This format lists each shift, giving start and end dates and times, category (such as available) and duration. There is no color coding.
Continuous format: This format displays a column for each day of the week and a row for each week. Color coding displays a day as available if any hours during that day are designated as available in the pattern. The date (day of the month) is shown in each cell.
Notes
Time increment: Specify the time increment for each row in the weekly format.
Preview For: You can specify a date range for your preview, or select Relative Date and provide the start date and the number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks to display.
A schedule details the availability and unavailability of assigned resources for a specified period of time. You create a schedule using the following steps:
Choose a schedule pattern and assign effective dates.
Add exceptions to the schedule.
An exception is an override of the existing schedule pattern. A holiday is an exception changing a normal work day to a not available day. An exception can also change a normal non-work day, such as Saturday, to an available day.
Company holidays can be set up as global exceptions that can be incorporated into any schedule. Exceptions that apply only to a particular schedule can be created during the schedule creation process.
Add resources
Define Schedule Notes
Pattern: The pattern selected determines the schedule details for the resources assigned to the schedule.
Effective Dates: When you save the schedule, the application generates and saves the schedule details based on a repeat of the selected pattern throughout the time period designated by your effective dates.
Create Exceptions Notes
Name: You can create an exception that applies just to this schedule.
You have a rush order and you need a modified normal work week schedule. You add Saturday to the schedule as an exception that shows Available.
Whole Day: If you select Whole Day, then the exception applies to 24 hours for the selected dates. If you deselect Whole Day, then you enter start and end dates and times.
Exception Type: Global exception types are defined by your administrator, such as company holidays. You can find values for Calendar Event or Calendar Event Type only if you are using the Oracle HR holiday model.
Existing Exception Name: You can select existing global exceptions that are valid for the date range of your schedule. Global exceptions such as company holidays do not apply to your schedule unless you add each one to the exception table.
Add Resources Notes
Resource Type: Examples of resource types are employee or conference room.
Name: Choose from the list of active resources with the same type as the type you selected.
Effective Dates: When you add the resource to the table, the effective dates default to the schedule's effective dates.
Start Details Icon: By default the resource starts at the beginning of the pattern on the resource's effective start date. Click this icon to view a hierarchy of the pattern and select the point in the pattern where the resource begins.
An employee is starting the emergency pager pattern, which starts with one week on call followed by 3 weeks unavailable. You can select to start the employee at week 3.
Publish Schedule: Select to indicate that this is the primary schedule published throughout the eBusiness Suite. A resource can be assigned to multiple schedules for the same period of time. For example, a work shift schedule and a pager schedule for an employee. The published schedule is the primary schedule to use to determine availability of a resource.