4Configure a Routing Plan
Overview of Routing Plan Configuration
Routing plans provide the rules to use when deciding how to route activities to resources. After you add or clone a routing plan, you must configure it. This includes defining the run schedule and creating filters that prioritize activities based on a variety of conditions and situational factors. When you configure a routing plan, your choices can have a significant influence on the routing process.
Configure the Routing Plan Section of a Routing Plan
You must provide general details about the routing plan including the profile on which it is based, the routing method and the number of minutes and seconds it will run.
To configure the routing plan section:
Click Routing Plan to expand that section.
Configure the Run Schedule for the Routing Plan
The run schedule identifies when you want the plan to run, how often you want to run it, and whether you want to run it over multiple days. You can also specify the day’s activities to run the plan against. The run schedule that you choose has an effect on the information you can share with your customers through notifications. For example, if you want to launch a notification the afternoon before an activity, but you don’t run routing until the evening, your notification will not include the time slot.
To configure the run schedule for the Routing Plan:
Configure one of the following routing plans:
Create a plan to start routing manually:
Select Manually from the Run routing drop-down list.
Enter a number in the Apply to activities within day interval field. The activities selected for this routing plan are executed within the number of days selected in this field, starting the selected day.
Select the duration for which the plan must run in the Time limit field.
This figure shows an example of a manual routing plan:
Create a plan that runs once a day:
Select once a day from the Run routing drop-down list.
The activities selected for this routing plan are executed within the number of days selected in the Apply to activities within day interval field, starting the selected day. The default value is 1.
The Start day for activity processing field is used in the Once a Day and Recurrently plans. New values for Start day for activity processing allow to run routing starting at 2, 3 or 4 weeks in future.
Select one of these values from the drop-down list:
yesterday
today
tomorrow
+2 days
+3 days
+4 days
+5 days
+6 days
+7 days
+8 days
+2 weeks
+3 weeks
+4 weeks
Enter the time at which the routing plan must run, in the Time of run field.
The Activity days field specifies the days on which activities are scheduled.
Select the duration for which the plan must run in the Time limit field. This time denotes the maximum number of minutes and seconds that the routing plan will run before producing a result. When the application launches a routing plan, it runs the plan over and over again until it either finds the best match or the time limit expires, whichever comes first. Three minutes is usually sufficient. The maximum time limit possible is 20 minutes.
This figure shows an example of a plan that runs once a day:
Create a plan that runs immediately:
Select Immediately from the Run routing drop-down list.
Select one of the following options:
for Urgent Activities: Activities are assigned and scheduled the same day, regardless of whether this assignment disrupts other scheduled activities. In this case, the SLA is not honored for the activity.
activities that correspond with filter: Only those activities that correspond to the selected filter are assigned immediately. Such activities can also be bundled with other activities that are scheduled for the same location and bucket in the near future.
The figure shows the Run routing field in the Add Routing Plan screen:
Use the Assignment and Bundling within __ day interval starting fields to configure bundling activities.
Use Street Level Routing (SLR) to obtain travel data in your routing plan:
This feature can be used with routing runs that run Manually, Once a Day, Recurrently and Sequentially; it is not available for Immediate routing runs. To improve the quality of the routing run with SLR, configure the plan with adequate time to gather enough SLR data. We recommend that you allocate a minimum of five (5) minutes for Once a day and Manual routing plans. This time will vary based on your business and the amount of activities to be optimized. You may increase the time if needed.
The Run schedule section shows the Use SLR to obtain travel data check box. This indicates that the time limit includes extra time for SLR data.
Select the duration in the Time limit field to adjust the time limit accordingly.
The routing run time includes both gathering SLR data and using that data to run Routing.
In some situations when there are a large number of pending activities, every point to point travel combination cannot be obtained in the allotted time period. When this occurs, routing will use SLR data and learning travel data to optimize the routes. This ensures routes are optimized quickly with the optimal combination of travel data.
The figure shows the Run schedule section in the Add Routing Plan screen:
Note: SLR in Routing requires a subscription to Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise and Oracle Field Service Standard Map Cloud Service with Google Maps or Oracle Field Service Standard Map Cloud Service with Baidu Maps.
Restriction of Activities Routed Through Immediate Routing Plan
You can now restrict activities routed through a particular Immediate Routing plan. This is useful to avoid any confusion in technicians’ routes or in case if the you want to bulk route all the activities created in late hours through a nightly routing plan.
To restrict activities routing through a particular Immediate routing plan, enter values in the Start time and End time fields as needed and save the Immediate routing plan.
After Start time and/or End time fields are filled, no activities will be routed before Start time and after End time.
If both Start time and End time fields do not show any values in the Immediate routing plan by default, there are no restrictions; activities are routed through Immediate routing plan 24 x 7.
If onlyStart time field is populated, End time is considered to be equal to midnight (or time set by Overnight settings section in the Business rules screen).
If only End time field is populated, Start time is considered to be equal to midnight (or time set by Overnight settings section in the Business rules screen).
Note: Scheduled Immediate routing plan routes those activities that were created after End time and before Start time and not routed during this period by another routing plan, after the Start time.
Segmentable Activities Assignment Using Bulk Routing
You can now route segmentable activities using Bulk Routing. Whether you route the segmentable activity from the bucket using Immediate Routing or Bulk Routing, the assignment rules are the same; the routing plan (Immediate or Bulk Routing) either assigns the whole activity to a single resource or leaves it in the bucket.
Both Immediate and Bulk Routing observe these rules for segmentable activities:
Work zones—the resource's work zone must match the work zone of the activity
Work skills—the resource's work skills must match the work skills required by the activity
Resource preference—routing should assign the activity to preferred resources or only to required resources, if specified
Service window—routing should observe the activity service window for all the segments
Access hours – routing should observe the activity access hours for all the segments
SLA start—the SLA start of the activity observed for the first segment
SLA end—the SLA end of the activity observed for the last segment
Minimum segment duration for a single day <> minutes – indicates that those segments having lesser than minimal duration are not created
Maximum segment duration for a single day <> minutes – indicates that the total daily amount of segments cannot exceed the configured value. (with the exception for the days containing the last segment of activity, which can exceed the configured amount but the remainder cannot be more than the minimum segment duration)
However, during the initial activity assignment, Immediate Routing optimizes only start/finish time of the segmentable activity. Bulk routing also tries to optimize travel time to and from each activity segment and overtime, overdue and other parameters of the segment the same way as they are optimized for single-day activities.
Control Resource Overtime Through a Routing Plan
Overtime is calculated differently by each organization. Therefore, the Oracle Field Service Cloud Routing Cloud Service module does not calculate overtime as an absolute dollar value, but instead calculates it as time beyond a resource’s assigned work schedule that might be required to fulfill an activity.
Using the Resource overtime options within the routing plan enables you to determine how activities that might extend past the end of the resource’s shift are handled.
The following figure shows the Resource overtime settings:
Choose from the following options:
Assign activities even if the assignment causes overtime: This option provides the best chance of getting many activities assigned, though some may extend past the end of a shift.
For best results, do not use this setting if you have significantly more work than resources can complete in a regular workday. If you run routing, results will include a large amount of overtime. This setting is most useful for certain types of work where you are willing to incur the additional cost, for example VIP work.
Do not assign overtime activities and leave them in the bucket: This means that any jobs that have service windows and/or predicted durations that could push a resource into overtime are left in the bucket.
Do not assign activities with more than _____ minutes overtime: This enables you to control the amount of overtime allowed, essentially extending a shift in order to accommodate more work assignments.
Do not assign activities unlikely to be finished in ____ minutes before end of resource’s day: This also limits the possibility of overtime, but with the consideration of whether a resource needs additional time (return to depot, drive home, etc.) before the end of their shift.
Note: If you use restrictive overtime settings, fewer good matches might be found and more activities could be left in the bucket to be routed manually.
Control Travel Time Through the Routing Plan
Routing has been improved by better utilizing point-to-point SLR travel distances and timings along with travel statistics. Subscribers of Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise Cloud Service have the option to limit the travel time for a resource to reach an activity.
You can control travel time through the Routing Plan. With improved Travel time section of the routing plan settings, you can add the option to choose the optimization type and set distance limits.
To control Travel time
Open the Routing Plan. Scroll down to display the Travel time settings.
The following figure shows the Travel time settings on the Routing plan screen.
Set the SLR Time Limit
You can now choose separate time limits for Routing and SLR.
Compatibility Parameters
You can view displays those parameters that are not deprecated but not recommended to use in the Compatibility Parameters section.
These parameters are not recommended to use:
Try to schedule activities to service window start parameter is not recommended for use.
Alternatively, you can select the Override default service window reservation check box under the Compatibility Parameters section and set the Service window reservation, % value as 100%.
Use Dynamic Routing parameter is not recommended for use.
You can achieve similar results by just limiting the number of visible activities in the route for Technicians.
However, if you must set this parameter, you can enable the relevant check box under the Compatibility Parameters.
Sequential Routing Run
Oracle Field Service Routing Cloud Service allows you to configure the Routing plans that run automatically in a strict finish-to-start sequence. Such sequential assignment may be quite important in certain business environments where some activities must be assigned only after a different category of activities has been assigned.
Configuring several Routing plans to run at specified times so that the routing plans follow each other may be a solution. However, this solution is not too reliable. Depending on the number of activities in the bucket, a Routing run may take longer or shorter than estimated which may either create unproductive gaps in the Routing operation or even ruin the sequence. Sequential Routing run has become the optimal solution for this challenge. Two or more Routing plans are configured to start one after the other. The sequence is automatic, thus, any unusually long or short Routing runs will not affect it.
The Routing plan configuration window now has an additional Run Routing option – sequentially. When it is selected, the Routing Run window changes to include the field where the preceding Routing plan is to be chosen. For sequential Routing plans, the selection of a predecessor is mandatory; so, at least one Routing plan has to be created priorly.
Sequential Routing Plan Configuration
The configuration of a sequential Routing run always includes selection of a predecessor Routing plan, that is, the one to be completed before the current one starts. Any Routing plan, regardless of its schedule, can be selected as predecessor. However, any Routing plan can have only one successor, therefore, whenever a sequence has already been created, the predecessor Routing plan of such sequence can no longer be selected for other sequences. Its name is disabled in the list.
The following figure shows the settings for a sequential routing plan:
A Routing plan belonging to a sequence cannot be deleted unless detached from the sequence. On an attempt to delete such Routing plan, the action is rejected with the [Routing_plan_name] is already in use and cannot be deleted error message. To detach a Routing plan, change the schedule from sequentially to any other, starting from the last plan in the sequence. This restriction applies to all plans in a sequence regardless of their position. The system prevents creation of Routing plan chains forming closed loops in which the first plan is to be started after the completion of the last one. If the first Routing plan in the sequence is changed to the sequential schedule to start after the completion of the last plan in the same sequence, the modification is rejected with the Routing plan {plan_name} cannot be processed error message.
Sequential Routing Plan Execution
A sequence of Routing plans is started with the start of the first Routing plan. The first plan is started according to its schedule settings – automatically (timed), manually or immediately after a certain activity appears in the bucket. After its completion the second Routing plan starts automatically followed by the subsequent Routing plans, if any.
The Routing widget on the Activities screen shows the first Routing plan in the sequence with an icon appropriate to its schedule. The subsequent Routing plans are marked with the 'chain' icon meaning that the plan is part of a sequence. When the first Routing plan in the sequence is started, the user if offered two options – to run only the current Routing plan or the entire sequence. If the user chooses to run only the current Routing plan, it will be executed as any other Routing plan. If the user chooses to run the whole sequence, the completion of the first Routing plan will automatically trigger the second plan, and so on. Sequential Routing plan runs are identified on the Routing screen by the 'chain' icon in the Initiated column and the runs after [predecessor_Routing_plan_name] note in the Routing Plan column.
Any Routing plan belonging to a sequence can be rolled back without influencing other plans in the same sequence. Activities assigned or not assigned as the result of other plans in the sequence will remain in their places. A deactivated Routing plan is skipped in the sequential Routing run. Other plans in the sequence start according to their settings.
Immediate Activity Assignment
The Routing module can now prioritize activities and assign urgent ones to technicians immediately, even if it is at the cost of other activities. If the priority of the new activity is high enough, Routing can rearrange technicians' routes and insert urgent activities in front of other activities. This rearrangement happens even when the technician is already on the way to an activity or in the middle of an activity.
Oracle Field Service Cloud Routing Cloud Service automatically assigns activities created in the bucket to resources matching the requirements of such activities. Depending on your company requirements, you can select a routing schedule that is the most suitable for a particular bucket. Routing can be started manually or once a day or recurrently with the specified interval. These options covered most of the operational patterns used by different companies. If the company preferred to distribute the workload the day before and provide its technicians with complete routes at the beginning of their working day, then once-a-day Routing is the best option. If the company has to respond quickly to new tasks received during the day, then recurrent Routing running several times a day is the solution.
The demand for a solution designed to handle urgent activities has called for a further enhancement of the Routing schedule options. The Routing module is now able to assign activities meeting certain criteria immediately after they are created in or moved to the bucket. This way, the time between the activity creation and its assignment is minimal. Routing now has one more schedule option, immediate. Depending on the schedule settings, Routing either assigns urgent activities identified by the activity priority or assigns certain activities from the bucket keeping the time till assignment to the minimum.
Urgent and immediate activities with SLA end that have a preferred resource are assigned to preferred resources. If a preferred resource has the work day start after SLA end time and other resources are available to execute this activity, then the activity is assigned to the other resource. Further, if a preferred resource is not available for an urgent activity assignment, the activity will be assigned to another resource with the matching work skills (and work zone based on the routing plan configuration).
Urgent routing doesn't assign activities to those technicians who just have on-call working calendars but their route is not activated. Urgent routing assigns activities to those technicians who have on-call working calendars and their route is activated.
Basic Principles of Immediate Activity Assignment
Assignment of activities with the minimum ETA possible. The activities to be assigned are determined by the Activity Priority settings.
Assignment of activities within the configured interval. The activities to be assigned are determined by applying a filter.
Support segmentable activity assignment when the Activity Type = segmentable activity flag is set.
Note: Segmentable activities are not supported by urgent routing plans.Segmentable activities are available for Immediate Routing when you create them and when you move them to the bucket.
Immediate routing of segmentable activities will use the required work skill ratio and not the preferred work skill ratio. This is different from regular activities.
Immediate Routing may not route those activities that are linked with hard constraints if they are assigned to the Bucket and linked before Immediate Routing triggers and starts the processing of such new Activities. Activities linked with other constraints will be routed via Immediate routing without any issues.
Start-start and finish-finish are considered hard constraints as one linked activity is assigned to a resource while another linked activity is in the bucket; this violates the constraint for an assigned activity.
Activities linked to A are assigned to the field resource
Activity A is assigned in such a way that its links will not be violated (apart from other Routing's conditions) .
Note: Assigning simultaneous links is not supported via Immediate Routing; such activities are skipped and left unassigned.
Resource Filters in Immediate and Urgent Routing
Immediate and urgent routing plans contain resource filters similar to Bulk Routing plans. The Filters section is similar to the Bulk Routing with the following exceptions.
To set resource filters:
Navigate to the Routing screen.
In the row for the Immediate or urgent routing plan, click the Properties icon and select Modify.
In the Edit Routing Plan screen for Urgent and Immediate routing plan, expand the Filters section, set the filters as needed. The Filters section is similar to the Bulk Routing with the following exceptions:
Only one predefined filter is available for non-scheduled activities in the routing bucket
You cannot add other filters or delete existing filters
You cannot add/modify/delete activity filters
Activity Priority
Activity priority used by Routing to assign urgent activities is defined for the whole company as one of the Business Rules settings.
By setting the activity priority the company defines the activity property and its values which will make the activity urgent. For example, the company must always perform repairs as soon as possible to reduce service disruptions to the minimum. In this case the company may select Activity Type as the property and Repair as its value to consider an activity urgent. Only one activity property can be used to identify urgent activities. Several values of the same property can be used as criteria of activity urgency. In this case the values must be separated by commas or carriage returns (new lines) in the Urgent activities have the following values of the property field. Values in the Normal activities have the following values of the property field define the values for the Activity Type field, to consider an activity as normal.
The following figure shows the Activity priority section of the Business Rules screen:
Priority activity ETA does not include SLA, it includes the service window. This may result in SLA violation. In priority activities, such SLA violations are considered to be expected behavior. However, SLA is included for all rest activities.
Routing Plan Settings
To assign urgent activities, you must create a special Routing plan.
ETA calculation for priority and normal activities include:
On applying of routing output application moves activities to corresponding resources in accordance with order which is returned in the output.
Priority activity ETA calculation takes into account service window (as it is the time agreed with final customer), but not SLA. This can result in SLA violation. In case of priority activities such SLA violation is expected behavior. At the same time, SLA is taken into account for the rest activities.
The Run schedule field now has the immediately option, which is used to assign the activities meeting the defined criteria as they appear in the bucket.
for Urgent Activities (Routing will assign the activities matching the 'property+value' combination defined in the Activity Priority field)
for activities that correspond with {filter_name} filter (Routing will assign the activities matching the selected activity filter)
The option assigning activities matching a filter can be useful when certain categories of activities have to be assigned as soon as possible, so that the time between the customer's order and the assignment confirmation is reduced to a minimum. Also, it may be necessary to quickly estimate the remaining available time in a bucket. The main goal is to assign all activities, even if such assignment results in sub-optimal routes. Routes can be reoptimized in subsequent Routing runs. All activities not matching the defined criteria will remain in the bucket until the next Routing run is scheduled according to a different Routing plan.
Urgent activities must be assigned as soon as possible, therefore, other factors, such as resource overtime, cost of assignment or non-assignment, route optimization and reoptimization, etc. are ignored. When immediately is selected as the Routing mode, sections containing other settings (Assignment Parameters, Filters, Reoptmization, Resource Overtime, and Travel Time) are hidden as irrelevant.
Assignment of Urgent Activities
When the routing plan is set to Urgent activities, Routing refers to the Business Rules settings defining the urgent activity properties.
Work zone—the resource's work zone must match that of the activity.
Work skills—the resource's work skills must match the work skills required by the activity.
Resource preference—the activity may be assigned only to those resources that meet the required or preferred resource preferences, if specified.
Service window—the activity service window must be observed.
SLA end—the SLA end of the activity must be observed. Activities with expired SLA will not be routed using Immediate Routing.
Working Calendar: the resource must have a working calendar to be considered for assignment.
Selection of Resource for Urgent Activity Assignment
At the beginning of the route
After a started or completed activity
After a pending activity
The urgent activity is to be placed at the beginning of the route:
If the resource has GPS coordinates newer than 20 minutes ago, the GPS coordinates are used.
If no GPS coordinates are available or if GPS coordinates are older than 20 minutes, the resource's Start Location is used.
If no GPS coordinates are available or if GPS coordinates are older than 20 minutes and no Start Location is assigned to the resource able to ensure the minimum ETA from among those matching the activity requirements, the resource's location is undefined, thus such a position is not suitable for urgent activity assignment.
The urgent activity is to be placed after a started or completed activity:
If the resource's GPS coordinates are newer than the address of the started or completed activity, the GPS coordinates are used.
If no GPS coordinates are available or if GPS coordinates are older than the address of the started or completed activity, the address of the started or completed activity is used.
The urgent activity is to be placed after a pending activity:
The address of the pending activity is used.
Urgent activities may be assigned to a resource already traveling to a different activity or even in the process of performing a different activity. In this case the urgent activity still has priority, and the resource either has to change direction or interrupt another activity. Any activities for which a different property value is set are not considered urgent and will be assigned in the usual manner.
Assignment of Non-Urgent Activities
When choosing the for activities that correspond with {filter} option, you must select that filter based on which Routing will identify activities to assign immediately.
The drop-down list contains all activity filters applicable for routing which have been created on the Filters screen. When you create an activity matching the selected filter in the bucket, Routing immediately assigns it to an appropriate resource. However, unlike urgent activities, Routing assigns a non-urgent activity to an available time slot (no constraints of other activities will be violated) and only when it causes no overtime to the resource. A Routing profile may contain several routing plans designed to assign non-urgent activities immediately. Such plans may be based on different activity filters, so that activities meeting the criteria of several filters are assigned immediately after creation.
If the All option is selected from the filter list, all activities appearing in the bucket will be assigned immediately.
Work zone—the resource's work zone must match that of the activity.
Work skills—the resource's work skills must match the work skills required by the activity.
Resource preference—the activity may be assigned only to required or preferred resources, if specified.
Service window—the activity service window should be observed. Note that schedule date is not observed thus, activity may be scheduled to any date up to 14 days from now.
SLA start—the SLA start of the activity should be observed.
SLA end—the SLA end of the activity should be observed.
Required inventory - the activity may be assigned only to those resources that have enough inventory to handle the activity, if specified.
When Routing is set to assign non-urgent activities, it does not perform route optimization. The goal is to assign all activities as soon as possible. The next scheduled routing run may reoptimize the routes created as the result of immediate assignment according to its settings.
Bundling of Activities
You can bundle activities (in immediate or bulk routing) with other activities that are scheduled for the same location and bucket in the near future.
Bundling of Activities in Immediate Routing
Immediate activity assignment may result in certain additional costs related to the violation of other activity SLA or the resource's travel to a different location. To compensate for such additional costs, sometimes it is reasonable to combine the urgent activity with other activities that are located in the same place. Another situation is when the urgent activity requires admission to a restricted area. In this case, the company may assign other activities in the same facility to the same resource and request access only once. Such assignment type is called bundling.
Routing determines which activities may be bundled together by the same criteria that are used in creation of visits. For example, if activity asset (which, depends on activity type, may be translated to activity address or equipment id or area code) is used as a visit bundling key then the activity asset will also be considered in the assignment of urgent activities, and, should any activities be found on the same asset as the urgent one, such activities will be bundled that is, assigned together to the same resource, same day and one immediately after the other.
Bundling of Activities in Bulk Routing
Bulk routing also uses visits bundling key and address (i.e. address, city, state, zip/post code and country) to determine which activities can be performed as a bundle. This provides improved optimization due to time saved on travel and other operations.
Enable moving activities between providers to bundle activities from different routes
Enable moving activities from one day to another during routing plan period to bundle activities scheduled to different days.
Bundling in Bulk Routing is a soft rule enforced with each routing run. If a lesser cost-fit method is available or if it is more optimal to perform two or more activities by two or more resources, you can assign multiple resources instead of creating a bundle; the Enable moving activities between resources routes check box is enabled.
Bundling Conditions
The application uses these conditions to determine the activities which activities can be bundled together:
activities must be in the Pending status
activities must have the same bundling key (for Immediate Routing)
activities must have the same bundling key or the same address (for Bulk Routing)
activities must be within the defined interval of dates (for Immediate Routing, see below)
non-scheduled activities must have an empty SLA start value or a SLA start value within the defined interval of dates (for Immediate Routing, see below)
work zones—the resource's work zone must match that of the activity
work skills—the resource's work skills must match the work skills required by the activity
Resource preference—the activity may be assigned only to required or preferred resources, if specified
Service window—the activity service window should be observed
Access hours – the activity access hours should be observed
SLA start—the SLA start of the activity should be observed
SLA end—the SLA end of the activity should be observed
Maximum duration if a single bundle— 8 hours
Order of Activities in Bundles
When a bundle is formed, the sequence of activities within is determined according to thes constraints:
activity link constraints
activity priority
service window end
service window start
SLA end
SLA start
activity ID
All bundled activities are analyzed for constraints in the order stated previously. If no activities belong to any links, the activity priority, if any, determines the sequence. If no priorities are set for the bundled activities, the activities with the earliest service window end will be placed first, and so on.
Bundling Urgent Activities
When activities are bundled to an urgent activity (the one with the priority defined in the Business Rules screen), the urgent activity is assigned first. When the destination route has been found for the urgent activity, other activities are analyzed to find whether the route can be joined with the urgent activity. While creating a Routing plan for immediate activity assignment, the user can define the period within which Routing has to search for activities to bundle with the urgent one. For that purpose, the Run schedule settings include the Bundling within [ ] day interval field.
The Bundling within [ ] day interval field defines the period within which Routing has to search for activities to bundle with the urgent one. The interval can be set in the range between 1 and 99 days. If no activities matching the bundling criteria are found within the bundling range, no bundles are created.
Bundling Non-urgent Activities
When non-urgent activities are to be assigned immediately, the system checks if any activities in the already existing routes have the same bundling keys. Upon finding such routes, the system checks other assignment constraints and assigns a non-urgent activity only if all assignment constraints are satisfied. A non-urgent activity will be assigned to the route containing the largest number of activities with the same bundling key or to the route with the earliest date. If no such route has been found, the non-urgent activity is assigned to the first acceptable route with no bundling. The bundling date range is defined as part of the Routing plan settings.
The following assignment and bundling settings can be made:
Assignment and Bundling within [ ] day interval starting [ ] – the start and duration of the period within which the application has to assign scheduled activities and create bundles with the already assigned ones. The bundling interval can be set in the range between 1 and 99 days. Assignment and bundling of activities will start on the selected day and continue for the defined duration of the interval. For example, if the following settings have been made: Assignment and Bundling within 10 day interval starting Today +2, the application searches for activities matching the visit bundling keys two days from today and continue for 10 days. Non-urgent activities will be assigned to form bundles with the found activities within the same period. If no bundles can be formed, non-urgent activities will be assigned to routes within the same period
Immediate Routing Plan Execution
Immediate Routing Plan is triggered by the creation of an urgent activity or an activity matching the filter in the bucket. If activity is not routed immediately after it is placed in the bucket (due to lack of resources or not matching the filter), Immediate Routing Plan may be re-triggered periodically and also by any activity property change. Immediate Routing plans can never be started manually and, therefore, have no Run link in the list of Routing plans for a bucket.
If the plan was set to assign Urgent Activities:
Assigned activities – the number of successfully assigned urgent activities
Bundled activities – the number of other activities joint with the urgent ones
If the plan was set to assign non-urgent activities matching the selected filter:
Assigned activities – the number of activities assigned without creating bundles
Assigned with bundling activities – the number of activities matching the selected filter assigned in bundles
Bundled activities – the number of activities from the bucket or non-scheduled pool joined with the filtered activities to create bundles
Assignment and Fallback Options for Activity Broadcasting
The Assignment and Fallback section is displayed when you create a routing profile with the option, immediately from the Run routing drop-down list.
To trigger activity broadcasting to multiple users, use one of the following options:
Automatic: Assigns activity directly to matching resources in the bucket.
via Collaboration: Triggers activity broadcasting to users in collaboration.
Note: The Bundling option is not available when you assign activities using the via collaboration option.Enter the time in minutes in the Activity should be assigned in _ minutes field to set the time out period for broadcasting. If no user accepts the activity within the defined period, broadcasting is timed out. Limit is set to 99 minutes.
Fallback option: Select the configured message scenario for the Fallback option that must run when the activity fails or when the system times out. The configured message scenario sends the failure message to the user.
Create a Message Scenario
A message scenario is a set of rules that specify how to process a message to an external application, or to customers when a launch condition occurs. A launch condition is triggered by a predefined event, for example, when a reminder notification must be sent to a customer 60 minutes prior to a resource’s estimated arrival time.
Use Assignment Parameters to Fine-Tune the Routing Plan
Set Assignment Parameters to further configure the routing process.
To set assignment parameters:
Select the following options, as necessary:
Enable Routing by Inventory: When this check box is selected, routing takes into account required inventories for all activities that are sent to routing, and assigns activities only to resources that can meet these requirements. This could result in some activities left unassigned. Activities which have no inventory requirements are not affected by this setting. They will be routed in the same way as before. Activities will be left unassigned if there are no resources which meet their inventory requirements. Such activities will be rejected with reason code: 6003 and message: no appropriate resources. Regular activity filters and resource filters, work zone, work skill restrictions apply as usual. For example if a resource which has the inventory X is not selected by filter for the activity that requires inventory X, then that activity will not be assigned to that resource.
Dynamic Routing: enables you to set limits on how long the module will run based on the number of minutes and/or the number of activities routed. The image (below) shows a different location for setting minutes/activities (described as the Dynamic Routing check box of the Add/Edit routing plan dialog):
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Limit work by points: Check the box to enable Routing to limit how many activities technicians can have in their routes. Note the following:
Overload by points may still happen if an activity was added to the route or updated after routing was performed.
Routing will not remove previously-assigned activities back to bucket nor assign to another resource if a route was already overloaded before the Routing run.
Zero points activities may be assigned to any resource, including but not limited to, resources with already overloaded routes and resources that have zero or negative points capacity.
Try to schedule activities to service window start:This option (formerly named Route Uniformity) schedules activities as close to the start of service windows as possible. As a result, routing options will typically include a broader selection of resources and the possibility of burdening some resources with many activities and under-utilizing others is minimized. Note, however, the following consequences are there:
Idle time may collect closer to the end of the service window.
Summary travel time may increase.
Summary work time may increase.
Override default service window reservation value: This check box enables modification of service window reservation. Default Service window reservation is up to 20% of the service window but no more than 60 minutes. See 'Service window reservation %' description for more details
Service window reservation %: This field determines the percentage of the service window from its end that must be reserved. Routing will try to avoid assign activities with ETA within the reserved part of their service windows by pushing the activities to an earlier ETA. Routing will try hard to push the activity to an earlier ETA as higher is the late arrival penalty for this activity. This setting applies to all the activities that are part of the routing plan.
For example, an activity has a service window from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM:If 15% is specified in the Service window reservation % field, the last 63 minutes of this 420 minutes service window are reserved.
If 50% is specified in the Service window reservation % field, 210 minutes are reserved.
Higher Service window reservation % increases the 'buffer time', which may result in degradation of the other metric.
Lower percentage may result in higher risk of resource appears to be late for the appointment.
Note: Service Window Reservation % is not applied (its effective value is 0%) in case of (a) bundling the activities on the same address or (b) having the same bundling key and assigned to same technician for activities starting from second one in the bundle.Center point home zone support: This option defines the home zone radius, that is, the number of miles in any direction from the starting point and the penalty to be applied if a resource must leave the home zone to complete an activity. The default penalty (Overstep Weight) is 4.
Automatic ordering: This option places activities without service windows on the route in the most efficient order. If cleared, the application places these activities on the route, but does not assign a time slot. In this case, resources decide when to do the work.
Automatic Ordering can help you complete more activities over the course of the day, but it also reduces the resources’ ability to use their own judgement in completing activities.
Limit work by points: This option is only necessary if you use points to estimate activities. It limits the number of activities assigned to a resource based on the maximum points allowed within a resource’s shift. You must also enable Points Support in Business Rules, enable a Points property, and send the point value for the activity through the API.
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Move activities to the bucket instead of assignment to contractor's resource: This option assigns the relevant activities to a contractor’s bucket instead of the contractor’s resource. For this option to work, you must run the plan from an In-house Organization bucket that has contractor buckets (and, possibly, in-house ones) as children. In this case activities routed to in-house technicians will be assigned to technicians, but activities routed to contractor technicians will be assigned to contractor buckets. However, if you run the plan from a contractor bucket, the activities will be assigned to the underlying contractor technicians.Note: You must assign only new activities to contractor buckets. Do not assign activities to contractor buckets when the optimization goal is selected. If you do so, all the activities that are in the existing Contractor resources' routes are assigned to the parent bucket. Move activity to the bucket instead of assignment to contractor's resource check box is available only for Manual, Once a Day, and Recurrent routing plans.
When you close Assignment Parameters, you’ll see your selections summarized on screen.
Bulk Routing (High Uniformity) Routing Profile
The routing plan in the Bulk Routing (High Uniformity) routing profile distributes activities evenly across the entire workforce while still minimizing travel and work costs where possible.
The following table describes the values you must set in the Routing plan section:
| Setting | Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Routing Plan Name | Uniform – Bulk Routing | N/A |
| Routing Profile | Bulk Routing (High Uniformity) | N/A |
| Active | Checked | The routing plan must be active before the application can use it to run routing. |
| Time Limit | 3 minutes | The amount of time that the plan runs. Three minutes is usually sufficient. In some cases, running the plan longer might produce a result that better matches your objectives. |
The following table describes the values you must set in the Routing schedule section:
| Setting | Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Run routing | N/A | N/A You can use any run schedule with this goal. Most companies that use bulk routing run the plan once a day in the evening or early morning. |
The following table describes the values you must set in the Filters section:
| Setting | Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Resources link | Activities | *Bulk Routing does not use filters. You can add filters to prioritize certain types of activities or certain resources over others. |
| Scheduled | Assignment Cost | Normal |
The following table describes the values you must set in the Filter parameters section:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Assigning Activities which are about to be late | Do not assign "overdue" activities and leave them in the bucket |
| Cost of not assigning an activity | Normal - default setting |
| Late arrival penalty | Normal - late arrival may result in rescheduling if the customer is no longer at home |
The following table describes the values you must set in the Assignment parameters section:
| Setting | Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Enable routing by inventory | Check box is cleared |
|
| Dynamic Routing | Check box is cleared | Dynamic routing enables you to control the number of activities or the amount of time that should be filled on the resources’ schedules. Routing plans that use dynamic routing are typically run recurrently throughout the day. |
| Limit work by points | Check box is cleared |
|
| Try to schedule activities to service window start | Check box is selected | This option schedules activities as close to the start of service windows as possible. As a result, the activities are divided evenly across all of the resources in the bucket. Activities are typically more evenly distributed, but routes may be less efficient. |
| Center point home zone support and Home zone radius | 4 | An optional setting that permits you to specify a radius spans a technician’s starting location. Penalties are assessed for assigning activities outside the circle of the defined radius. The further away the activity is, the higher the penalty. |
| Home zone radius overstep weight | 4 | This option defines the penalty to be applied if the resource leaves the home area to complete the activity. This option is displayed when Center point home zone support is selected. |
| Automatic Ordering | Check box is selected | This option places activities without service windows on the route in the most efficient order. Checking this option makes routes more efficient, but reduces the resources’ freedom to exercise judgement in completing activities. |
The following table describes the values you must set in the Optimization Strategy section:
| Setting | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Optimization Goal | Select the goal from the drop-down list: Reduce overdue, optimize routes, or assign high priority activities. |
| Filters | Filters compare routing results with the activities in the bucket and reassign activities based on the priorities set in the new filters. ClickAdd filters to add activities which can be optimized. Under Activities, select the filter that you want to run against the activities in the bucket. Under Destination for unassigned activities, select the status that you want to assign to activities that are not assigned to routes and are, instead, returned to the bucket. |
This table describes the values you must set in the Resource overtime section:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Assign activities even if the assignment causes overtime | Check box is cleared |
| Do not assign "overtime" activities and leave them in the bucket
Note: When you select this option, resources do not receive activities that will extend their workday past their scheduled working hours.
|
Check box is selected |
| Do not assign activities with more than __ min. overtime | Check box is cleared |
| Do not assign activities that unlikely to be finished in __ min. before end of resource's day | Check box is cleared |
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimize summary travel even if some activities require long travel times.
Note: This option produces routes with optimized travel times for the entire organization, but not necessarily for each individual resource. As a result, a few activities might require long travel times, but the amount of travel for the whole group is optimized.
|
Check box is selected |
| Avoid travel longer than __ minutes, even though some activities might not be assigned and summary travel might increase. | Check box is cleared |
Dynamic Routing Profile
The routing plan in the Dynamic Routing (2 Activity/120 min) routes activities frequently. This routing plan is useful when activities are booked shortly before the activity time or when you do not know in advance which resources will be available to accept the activities. Routing results are not as optimal as using bulk routing, but activities are routed closer to their actual activity time.
| Setting | Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Routing Plan Name | 2hr in advance - Dynamic Routing | N/A |
| Routing Profile | Dynamic Routing (2 Activity / 120 min) | N/A |
| Active | Check box is selected | The routing plan must be active before the application can use it to run routing. |
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Run routing | Recurrent |
| Apply to activities within | 1 day interval ( Range of 1 and 99 days) |
| starting | Today |
| Start time | 6:00 |
| End time | 20:00 |
| Interval between runs | 30 minutes |
| Activity days | Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri |
| Time limit | 5 minutes |
| Setting | Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Home zone radius overstep weight | 4 | This option defines the penalty to be applied if the resource leaves the home area to complete the activity. This option displays only when Center point home zone support is checked. The default value is 4. |
| Try to schedule activities to service window start | Check box is selected | This option schedules activities as close to the start of service windows as possible. As a result, the activities are divided evenly across all of the resources in the bucket. Activities are typically more evenly distributed, but routes might be less efficient. |
| Automatic Ordering | Check box is selected | This option places activities without service windows on the route in the most efficient order. Checking this option makes routes more efficient, but reduces the resources’ freedom to complete activities when they want to. |
| Center point home zone support and Home zone radius | An optional setting that enables you to specify a radius that spans a technician’s starting location. During the routing process penalties are assessed for assigning activities beyond this radius. The further away the activity is, the higher the penalty. | |
| Limit work by points | Check box is cleared | This option is only necessary if you use points to estimate activities. This option limits the number of activities assigned to a resource based on the maximum points allowed within a resource’s shift. You must send the point value for each activity through the API. This option displays only when Center point home zone support is checked. |
| Setting | Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Load Resources for | 120 minutes 2 activities |
Dynamic routing enables you to control the number of activities that should be placed on the resources’ schedules, or the amount of time that should be filled on the resources’ schedules. 120 minutes means that the routing plan fills the resource’s next 120 minutes with activities and 2 activities means that the routing plan assigns, at most, two activities to the resource. |
| Stop loading when any limit is exceeded | Check box is cleared | When checked, this option instructs the routing plan to stop adding activities to the resource’s schedule when either the activity limit or the time limit is reached. |
| Stop loading when both limits are exceeded | Check box is selected | When checked, this option instructs the routing plan to stop adding activities to the resource’s schedule when both the activity limit and the time limit is reached. |
| Assign activities even if the assignment causes overtime | Check box is selected | When you select Assign activities even if the assignment cause overtime, routes are optimized for travel time and work, but resources might need to work past their scheduled working hours. |
| Do not assign "overtime" activities and leave them in the bucket | Check box is cleared | When checked, this option instructs the routing plan to stop adding activities to the resource’s schedule when both the activity limit and the time limit are reached. |
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Do not assign activities with more than __ min. overtime | Check box is cleared |
| Do not assign activities that are unlikely to be finished in __ min. before end of resource's day | Check box is cleared |
Change the Optimization Goal
You can now select optimization goals for the routing plan and set routing plan parameters in an optimal way. When you select an Optimization Goal, routing tweaks the variable parameters (costs) and suggests changes to the routing plan parameter:
Migration
During the migration process, re-optimization goals are migrated to optimizations.
This table provides the re-optimization goals and new optimizations goals:
Legacy Re-optimization Goal |
New Optimization Goal |
|---|---|
Optimize routes |
Default |
Assign high priority activities |
Maximized assigned activities number |
Reduce overdue |
Reduce activities overdue |
To set optimization goal for a routing plan:
Expand the Optimization Strategy section and select an Optimization goal from the drop-down list:
This figure shows the Modify routing plan dialog with the Optimization goal options:
Add an Activity Filter to a Routing Plan
You can use filters to prioritize certain types of activities or resources over others during the routing process. Filters are an alternative to using another routing plan for prioritization.
To configure routing parameters:
Optional: Under Assignment Cost, assign a cost to this filter.
In general, the higher the cost, the less desirable the assignment. If you select Do not assign, activities of that type can never be assigned to a resource that meets this filter condition.This figure shows the Set of activities to be assigned dialog with activity priority levels for the selected activity:
Assignment Cost for Multiple Activity Filters
Do not assign work to contractors.
Assign activities to In-house resources before all others.
The Contractors filter has the assignment cost Do not assign so that activities are never assigned to contractors.
The In-House filter has a lower assignment cost than the * (Other) filter so that in-house personnel receive activities before all other resources.
Configure an Activity Filter for Routing
Once you have added a filter to a plan, you can adjust some additional settings that affect how the Oracle Field Service Cloud Routing Cloud Service module processes the filtered activities.
To configure an activity filter:
Find the filter that you want to configure and click Settings.
The following figure shows the Filter Parameters screen:
Alter Automatic Ordering for a Routing Plan
Automatic ordering option in the Add or Edit Routing Plan dialog places activities without service windows on the route in the most efficient order. If cleared, the application places these activities on the route, but does not assign a time slot. In this case, resources decide when to do the work. Automatic Ordering can help you complete more activities over the course of the day, but it also reduces the resources’ ability to use their own judgment in completing activities.
You can alter automatic ordering for the routing plan at a filter level.
Follow these steps:
Alternatively, you can set this option in the Filter Parameters dialog:
This image shows the Filter parameters dialog with Not ordered activity behavior field.
Migration from Oracle Field Service Cloud versions prior to 19D
Routing plans having Automatic ordering option set to ON after migration will have Not Ordered Activity Behavior on routing plan level set up to Order. Routing plans having Automatic ordering option set to OFF after migration will have Not Ordered Activity Behavior on routing plan level set up to Do not order, so the behavior of migrated routing plans remains unchanged after the migration.
Assign Activities to Temporary Resources
Normally routing considers activities from a given bucket and routes it down through the children in the hierarchical tree. However, there could be a situation where a resource must be temporarily assigned to work in an area, which is not part of the parent resource hierarchy. To handle such situations, routing can be configured to use resources from different parts of the resource tree.
Select the Work zone support check box on the Business Rules screen.
Assign one (or more) work zones common with the routing bucket to the resource on the Resource work zones screen. You must assign the Work Zone to the resource, and not to the parent organization unit. Work Zones assigned to the parent Organization Unit (bucket or organization) will not be used for this purpose.
On the routing plan editor, open the Filters section and check the Use resources outside the routing bucket check box.
Suppose that you have enabled the Organizations option and you have more than one organization defined. In this case, the activities are routed to the temporary resource only if the resource's organization matches with either the bucket's organization or the organization of any bucket or organization unit down the hierarchical tree. Suppose that you run a routing plan simultaneously on two (or more) buckets, which could be at different levels, but share the same resources that are either temporarily assigned or present in the tree hierarchy. The subsequent plans are paused until the previous plans finish running. This might lead to a delay in displaying the routing run results.
Enable or Disable Activation of the Route for a User Type
You can now enable or disable activation or reactivation of the route for a particular user type:
Browser:
Error Message:
Route Activation requires your location.
Action:
Enable location sharing on your device. Once enabled, refresh the browser page and “allow" location access when requested.
iOS app:
Error Message:
Route Activation requires your location.
Action:
Enable location access in your iOS settings.
To enable location services, navigate to Device Settings, Privacy, Location Services
Android app:
Error Message:
Route Activation requires your location.
Action:
Click the Enable Now button to turn on location services.