Work Skills and Work Skill Conditions

Verify that the work skills, work skill levels, and the work skill conditions that you configured are correct. If you don't assign work skills to a resource, the application assumes that the resource has all the work skills at the highest level. If you add a specific temporary work skill between multiple date ranges to a resource, Routing considers it as a single work skill and not multiple work skills.

Work skills identify the expertise that a resource has and serve as the link that enables Oracle Fusion Field Service to match activities with resources.

Work skill conditions specify the skills necessary to complete each activity, ensuring that only qualified resources are assigned.

The required level setting and the preferable level settings in the work skill strongly impact routing. The required level ensures that a resource meets the minimum necessary skill level to be eligible for an activity, while the preferred level helps prioritize resources with higher skill levels. However, even when a mobile worker has a higher preferred skill level, routing doesn't guarantee that they will always be assigned to the activity. Instead, routing decisions take multiple factors into account, such as SLA compliance, travel efficiency, workload balancing, work zone distribution, and mobile worker availability, to ensure that the overall schedule is optimized. This means that a lower-skilled mobile worker might sometimes be assigned to an activity if it results in a more efficient routing outcome. The required level setting and the preferred level setting in the work skill strongly impact routing.

Routing balances work skill conditions with other assignment constraints to optimize workforce utilization holistically. It prioritizes skill levels while also considering factors such as proximity, minimizing travel time, and distributing workload efficiently across available mobile workers. If a lower-skilled resource is assigned instead of a higher-skilled one, it might be due to these other constraints, such as reducing idle time, improving route density, or ensuring timely service delivery. If the application can't match activities to resources, consider adjusting work skill levels and work skill conditions to allow for a broader set of eligible resources. However, if prioritizing skill levels is critical, fine-tuning workload balancing and routing strategy settings might be necessary to align assignments with skill preferences more effectively.

If unexpected assignments occur, reviewing the routing strategy settings and work skill level preferences can help identify whether constraints such as travel optimization, workload balancing, or scheduling efficiency are affecting the final assignment. Modifying these parameters might help ensure that higher-skilled mobile workers are prioritized when necessary. For detailed instructions on configuring work skills and work skill conditions, see the Using Capacity Guide.