Understanding the Labor Assignment Workbench

The Labor Assignment Workbench is typically used to assign technicians to tasks that have been previously scheduled to crews using the Crew Scheduling Workbench. The workbench enables you to view the availability and load of each crew member for each day of the schedule period and allocate the workload appropriately to multiple work orders and their associated tasks at one time. As you assign crew members to tasks, the Availability tab is automatically updated with these changes. In addition, you are not limited to assigning crew members to work order tasks. You can also assign technicians to non-crew related work orders, as well as assign a technician who is not assigned to a crew to a crew scheduled work order. When you save the assignments on the workbench, the system updates the labor schedule rows in the work order and updates each technician's resource calendar with the new assignments.

You are not required to use the Labor Assignment Workbench to assign technicians associated with a crew to tasks. You can also make these assignments by accessing a single work order using the Work Order component. However, the Labor Assignment Workbench streamlines the scheduling process and enables you to maximize resource utilization.

To use the Labor Assignment Workbench for non-crew scheduled work orders, you must first create labor schedules for each work order.

The Labor Assignment Workbench consists of:

A search page, which enables you to search for work order labor schedules within a schedule period.
A resource availability tab, which shows the availability and load of each crew member (crew scheduled) or shop resource (non-crew scheduled) for each day of the schedule period.
The workbench, which lists the work order labor schedule lines requiring technician assignments.

You can perform mass updates to the workbench grid by applying various actions to selected rows, or you can update the grid manually, the same way you update the labor schedules grids in the work order.

The Availability tab takes into account the employee's shift and availability and considers the schedule dates and total available hours each day based on the resource's calendar. Refreshing the tab after making changes to the labor schedule assignments updates each employee's displayed availability but does not adjust the start and end dates and times on the labor schedules. Saving the page updates each affected Resource Schedule with the assignments and adjusts the start and end dates and times as needed. Making assignments on this workbench follows the same rules and performs the same updates to the system as does making the assignments in the work order component.

The following examples show how the Availability tab changes as assignments are made. Each example is for the employee John Clark, who:

Works Monday through Friday.
Works a shift from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Labor Assignment Example 1

Based on the initial Availability tab, which indicates the number of hours not assigned to John Clark, he is free every day between 12 noon. and 6 pm.

John's supervisor assigns him to Task/Line #: WO002/1 scheduled from 1/2/06 10:00 a.m. to 1/3/06 5:00 p.m. with a duration of 10 hours.

The system creates these entries on his calendar:

1/2/06 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (2 hours)
1/2/06 01:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. (4 hours)
1/3/06 08:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)

This table shows the results of refreshing the Availability tab based on this assignment:

Action	Employee	Base Capacity	Assigned	Load%	1/2/06	1/3/06	1/4/06	1/5/06	1/6/06
Initial Display	John Clark	40.00	0.00	0	8.00	8.00	8.00	8.00	8.00
After Assignment	John Clark	40.00	10.00	25	2.00	4.00	8.00	8.00	8.00

Labor Assignment Example 2

Assumption: John Clark is assigned a task on 1/3/06 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The rest of the days in the week, he is available.

John's supervisor attempts to assign him to Task /Line #: WO002/1, which is scheduled from 1/2/06 10:00 a.m. to 1/3/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 10 hours.

However, the system issues an error message because two hours in the morning of 1/3/06 are already assigned. To correct this problem, the supervisor selects the Overbooking check box, which enables him to assign the additional two hours.

The system creates these entries on John Clark's calendar:

1/2/06 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (2 hours)
1/2/06 01:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. (4 hours)
1/3/06 08:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)

This table shows the results of refreshing the Availability tab based on this assignment:

Action	Employee	Base Capacity	Assigned	Load%	1/2/06	1/3/06	1/4/06	1/5/06	1/6/06
Initial Display	John Clark	40.00	2.00	5	8.00	6.00	8.00	8.00	8.00
After Assignment	John Clark	40.00	12.00	30	2.00	2.00	8.00	8.00	8.00

Labor Assignment Example 3

John Clark's supervisor attempts to assign him to these five tasks, which start on the same day:

Task/Line # WO002/1: scheduled from 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 1/3/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 10 hours.
Task/Line # WO002/2: scheduled from 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 1/3/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 12 hours.
Task/Line # WO002/3: scheduled from 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 1/3/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 8 hours.
Task/Line # WO002/4: scheduled from 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 1/3/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 8 hours.
Task/Line # WO002/5: scheduled from 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 1/3/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 8 hours.

The supervisor receives an error message that John has a scheduling conflict. To correct this problem, the supervisor selects the Overbooking check box, which enables him to assign John Clark to the work order task with these entries on John Clark's calendar:

Task/Line # WO002/1
- 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/2/06 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/3/06 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. (2 hours)
Task/Line # WO002/2
- 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/2/06 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/3/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. (4 hours)
Task/Line # WO002/3
- 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/2/06 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4 hours)
Task/Line # WO002/4
- 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/2/06 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4 hours)
Task/Line # WO002/5
- 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/2/06 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4 hours)

Important:

The Availability tab, like the PeopleSoft Resource Management calendar, allows overbooking up to the shift total (8 hours) each day for each task. The system does not limit the total number of overbooked hours for all tasks each day.

Refreshing the Availability tab based on this assignment:

Action	Employee	Base Capacity	Assigned	Load%	1/2/06	1/3/06	1/4/06	1/5/06	1/6/06
Initial Display	John Clark	40.00	0.00	0	8.00	8.00	8.00	8.00	8.00
After Assignment	John Clark	40.00	46.00	115	-32.00	2.00	8.00	8.00	8.00

Note:

Typically, a supervisor will not allow this much overbooking for one day. This scenario is an example of how a supervisor can move past the error by selecting overbooking. Instead, a supervisor might adjust the assignments to encompass the entire period.

Labor Assignment Example 4

John Clark is assigned two tasks spanning the entire period of one week:

Task/Line # WO002/1: scheduled from 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 1/6/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 10 hours.
Task/Line # WO002/2: scheduled from 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 1/6/06 5:00 p.m. Task duration is 12 hours.

If the scheduler does not select overbooking, then John Clark will be assigned to the tasks, and these entries will be added to his calendar:

Task/Line # WO002/1
- 1/2/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/2/06 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/3/06 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. (2 hours)
Task/Line # WO002/2
- 1/3/06 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (2 hours)
- 1/3/06 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/4/06 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (4 hours)
- 1/4/06 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (2 hours)

Refreshing the Availability tab based on this assignment:

Action	Employee	Base Capacity	Assigned	Load%	1/2/06	1/3/06	1/4/06	1/5/06	1/6/06
Initial Display	John Clark	40.00	0.00	0	8.00	8.00	8.00	8.00	8.00
After Assignment	John Clark	40.00	22.00	55	0.00	0.00	2.00	8.00	8.00