Enable Work Orders Scheduling and Resources Assignment

Work Orders are automatically scheduled after creation using the unconstrained scheduling engine. After creation, you can then manually adjust work order start dates based on your available capacity. If you use assignments, then you must search and assign resource instances at the individual operation resource level on each work order. These are time-consuming process that aren’t scalable for large organizations or volumes of work orders.

You can optionally use these capabilities for work orders scheduling and assignment:

Oracle Production Scheduling application.
Schedule maintenance work orders using a scheduled process.
Assign users to maintenance work orders using a scheduled process.
Advanced scheduling and assignment using Fusion Field Service.

Schedule Work Orders Using Oracle Production Scheduling

You can get the license and implement Oracle Production Scheduling for your users.

The application provides the ability to create a schedule name, define parameters and schedule options, and gather your work orders for a near-term horizon in days. Your users can then solve, analyze, and adjust the schedule results. When ready, they can release the schedule back to maintenance to update the work order dates. This can help smooth your maintenance schedule in the near-term horizon, avoiding peaks and valleys, and helping you absorb unplanned maintenance while producing a rough-cut schedule. Otherwise, you will need to use manual rescheduling to smooth the demand during peak periods. See the Using Production Scheduling guide to know how to use the application.

See the Oracle Production Scheduling Implementation guide to learn how to set up this application. If you don’t use Oracle Production scheduling, you can still manually adjust your work order schedule.

Schedule Work Orders Using a Scheduled Process

Use the Schedule and Assign Resources to Maintenance Work Orders process to create a new or update an existing work order schedule using Production Scheduling. To enable this capability, you must set the Use Production Scheduler to Schedule and Assign Work Orders asset maintenance parameter to Yes. After you enable the parameter, select these options on the process page:

Field	Description
Organization	Select an organization where your users can schedule work orders.
Work Order Scheduling	Schedule work orders: Use Production Scheduling (default). If selected, you must define the remaining options below. Don’t schedule work orders: This option denotes that you don't want to schedule work orders using Production Scheduling. If selected, the remaining options are disabled and aren't applicable.
Schedule Name	Optional. Select an existing schedule from Oracle Production Scheduling. If left blank, a new schedule name is automatically created.
Horizon in Days	This relates to the number of days into the future to consider work orders. The value defaults from the asset maintenance parameter, but you can edit the value before submission.
Item Catalog	Required to control which work orders are considered by evaluating the work order asset’s source item and item catalog setup.
Asset Item Category	Required to control which work orders are considered by evaluating the work order asset’s source item and item category setup.
Material Item Category	Required to control which work orders are considered by evaluating the work order asset’s source item and item category setup.

Assign Users to Work Orders Using a Scheduled Process

After you're done with your near-term work order schedule, or after a new or updated schedule is generated, you can consider assigning resources automatically. Set the Work Order Scheduling parameter to the Don’t schedule work orders option to turn on this feature.

When creating new assignments, the application evaluates each work order in the schedule window, identifies resources that don't have assignments, and finds available resources. Resources must have a resource instance defined for the resource and must not already be assigned during the same day and time. Additionally, they must not exceed the daily scheduled percentage asset maintenance parameter, which is defaulted to 80%.

It's important to note that this assignment capability doesn't consider a user’s work schedule or unavailable time, nor skills beyond resource definition, but does provide a basic automatic assignment capability.

On the process page, set these values for the fields:

Field	Description
Organization	Select your organization where you wish to schedule work orders.
Resource Assignment	Select an one of these options: Null or blank: No assignment action is taken. Create new assignments: Select this to consider all work orders in the schedule window for assignment (default). It's recommended to use this option if there are either no existing assignments or if you want to only address ad hoc or preventative maintenance work orders that have been added to an existing schedule period. Don’t create new assignments: Use this option if you don't want to consider assignments during the schedule of work orders. Refresh existing assignments: Use this option to delete and recreate assignments across all work orders in the schedule window for assignment. This option is helpful if you have updated a schedule, either manually or programmatically, and want to refresh all assignments during the period. Remove existing assignments: Use this option to delete all the assignments during the schedule of work orders. You may find this helpful to remove all the assignments over a schedule period, then schedule and create new assignments.
Work Centers	You can select only a single work center to perform assignment actions.

Advanced Scheduling and Assignment Using Fusion Field Service

If you require a constrained work order scheduling process, based on person-level availability, use advanced scheduling for an organization. Advanced scheduling leverages Fusion Field Service to assign and schedule work orders based on actual resource availability in the near-term scheduling window, up to 30 days into the future. Only work orders in organizations enabled for advanced Scheduling can utilize this solution.

Note: Advanced scheduling is only currently available for maintenance organizations, not supporting organizations that allow for both maintenance and manufacturing.

After a work order is created, and initial scheduled by the unconstrained engine, you can release and schedule them for assignment over an upcoming time horizon for an organization. The application schedules each person down to the operation resource level, updating the operation and work order dates. You can view the results in the Maintenance Supervision and My Maintenance Technician pages.

Note: If you've already licensed Field Service, then you can only use this new capability for scheduling and assigning to work orders in different organizations that those being used by Field Service. The setup tasks covered in this section are simplified for the maintenance-only organizations using advanced scheduling only.

Setting up Field Service

You must license Fusion Field Service by enabling the offering, as detailed in the Getting Started with Oracle Fusion Field Service in Fusion Applications guide.

After it's enabled, you must provision one or more administrative users with these privileges:

Field Service Administrator (ORA_FFS_FIELD_SERVICE_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB): Individual responsible for the duty of configuring the Oracle Fusion Field Service application.
Field Service Manager (ORA_FFS_FIELD_SERVICE_MANAGER_JOB): Individual responsible for the duty of managing Oracle Fusion Field Service workers.

After the application is provisioned and administrative users have access, you must follow these steps to further configure and use advanced scheduling.

Subject	User	Task
Enable opt-in for maintenance	Field Service Administrator	Use the Fusion Setup and Administration (FSA) task, within the Field Service offering, to enable the Support of Maintenance Resources opt in. To access the page, go to the Navigator Menu > My Enterprise > Offering Setup. Alternatively, you can configure directly in the Fusion Field Service application. After it's enabled, maintenance users who have the Dispatch Technician privilege are automatically synchronized as a maintenance resource in Field Service. Note: If you have already licensed and implemented Field Service, existing resources in those organizations are managed as Field Technician resources.
Organization	Field Service Administrator	By default, company organization is automatically provisioned, and all users are assigned to it. Optionally you can create child organizations for calendar defaulting. As of this uptake, this setup can only be accomplished directly the Fusion Field Service application. To view and manage Organizations, go to the Field Service application, navigate to the Configuration page, then in the Users, Security, Integrations section, you can see the Organizations option.
Resource Type	Field Service Administrator	There's a predefined type of maintenance resource. There's no need to create any additional types.
Time Slots	Field Service Administrator	A time slot is a fixed time interval specified in the activity management to perform activities. You must define time slots before defining activity types. Time slot of an activity type denotes its starting time. Time slots assigned to a bucket in the capacity management defines the time frame to assign quota and calculate capacity. Time slots are managed in the Fusion Field Service application, under the Resources, Activities, and Inventories section in the Configuration menu.
Activity Type	Field Service Administrator	Define at least one activity type to create and manage unavailable time. Examples are lunch, meetings, appointments, training, etc. Use the Fusion Setup and Maintenance (FSM) task, within the Field Service offering, to manage activity types. To access the page, go to the Navigator Menu > My Enterprise > Setup and Maintenance. Alternatively, you can configure directly in the Fusion Field Service application. Activity Types must be defined with only these options: Label Name Default duration (Ex: 60 mins) Active checkbox = Yes Pick a color Don't select any other checkbox option. Additionally, when defining the calendars, define one or more activity types for lunch periods. This activity will use a time slots and service windows.
Shifts and Schedules	Field Service Administrator	Define resource calendars in the Scheduling and Dispatch setup option. When defining shifts, you can select the appropriate lunch time activity as well. Use the Fusion Setup and Maintenance (FSM) task, within the Field Service offering, to manage shifts and schedules. To access the page, go to the Navigator Menu > My Enterprise > Setup and Maintenance. Alternatively, you can configure directly in the Fusion Field Service application. Note: You can optionally set the default calendar for each organization.
Field Resources	Field Service Manager	Search and confirm all maintenance users who have the Dispatch Technician privilege were automatically synchronized as maintenance resources. Use the Fusion Setup and Maintenance (FSM) task, within the Field Service offering, to manage field resources. To access the page, go to the Navigator Menu > My Enterprise > Setup and Maintenance. Alternatively, you can configure directly in the Fusion Field Service application. For each user, use this page to view their calendar that defaults from their organization. To change their calendar and assign a new shift, click on today or day in the future, select their new schedule, start date, and recurrence options. Note: Don't edit a user and change their resource Type from maintenance resource.

Additional details for set up and configuration are covered in the field service documentation:

Managing User Schedules in Field Service

When maintenance users are synchronized, you must configure their individual calendars and shifts. By default, they receive a common calendar based on the default company organization. If you change their organization within Field Service, then their default calendar changes accordingly.

The Field Resources Redwood page, accessible from the Field Service offering, helps you:

Display all types of field resources, except those of type Users/Dispatcher/Admin.
Configure regular working schedule and shifts for resources.
Configure nonworking time for resources.

Note: Maintenance customers should filter the list by resource type, selecting maintenance resource.

You can filter information that's shown on the screen either by entering term into the Search field at the top of the screen or you can select from the set of filters available, such as by:

Status
Resource Type
User Type
Organization
Org Unit or Bucket

You can also display or hide columns by clicking the Columns button in the top-right corner above the table.

For each user, there's an Edit and Calendar icon. For maintenance resources, since they're synced from the resource definition in maintenance, there's no need to click the Edit icon and edit their record. Don't change their resource type.

If you click on the View Resource Calendar icon, you're navigated to the user’s calendar, showing the month grid with working, on-call, and nonworking time. On this page, you can see:

The regular working time marked with blue circle and the start time for the shift.
The on-call time marked with the reddish-brown circle and the start time for shift.
The regular nonworking time shown as a bar of blue color which represents all-day event.
The on-call nonworking time shown as a bar of beige/tan color which represents all-day event.

Additionally, you can perform these tasks:

View details about a user’s schedule for a day
Add a work cchedule to a calendar
Add a shift to a calendar
Add configured working time to a calendar
Add nonworking time to a calendar

For days in the past, click the hyperlinked time value for any day, to view a read-only drawer with on the right side of the screen with details about their schedule.

For today or any date into the future, you can view and modify their schedule. Click the hyperlinked time value starting on the day in which you want for a change to begin. This shows a drawer with on the right side of the screen in edit mode. Here you can edit their schedule:

Shift Type: For maintenance resources, you only manage their regular shifts. On-call shifts are not currently supported for this resource type.
Schedule: Manage their assigned work schedules and shifts, as well as configured and nonworking time.
- Work schedule: Select a predefined work schedule and shift.
- Configured working time: Specify the time range of the working hours directly without using predefined shift.
- Nonworking time: Specify that the mobile field worker doesn't work at the specific day due to illness or vacation.
Start Date: Defaults to the date selected in the calendar. You can choose a different date if needed, but you can't set it to a past date. Changes begin on this date forward until the end date.
End Date: Defaults to the date selected in the calendar. You can choose a different date if needed, but you can't set it to a past date.
Recurrence Type: Select how often the new working time should repeat (daily, weekly, or yearly). Depending on the selected frequency, specify the number of days or the day of the week for the recurrence.
- For most Maintenance users, you'll select Repeats Weekly.
- Select which days of the week they work, such a Monday-Friday.
- This selection applies going forward from this date into the future.
Comment: Enter any comments for the change in timings.

If you select the option for configured working time, then you can also provide:

Start Time: Enter the time when the resource's work is to begin.
End Time: Enter the time when the resource's day ends.

If you select the option for nonworking time, you can provide the predefined reason from the list, in addition to using the comment field.

Use the Update action to apply your changes and close the drawer. This refreshes the user’s calendar and the latest schedule is displayed. Use Cancel on the drawer to disregard any changes.

Setting Up Maintenance

After you provision and set up the Fusion Field Service application by following the instructions outlined earlier, you must ensure your users are correctly defined in Maintenance.

Firstly, ensure that all existing technicians to be scheduled and assigned are:

Defined as resource instances in a resource in their work center.
Have a default organization using the profile.
Have the Maintenance Technician Dispatch List privilege (MNT_MANAGE_DISPATCH_LIST_PRIV). This is the same privilege that's needed to access to the My Maintenance Work page.
Optionally consider these privileges:
- The Unassign from Me button or action is only enabled if technicians have the Allow Operation Unassignment privilege (MNT_ALLOW_OP_SELF_UNASSIGN).
- Users can clock out without additional privilege, but the Clock Out with Details action is only enabled if they have the Allow Clock Out with Details privilege (MNT_ALLOW_OP_DETAIL_CLOCKOUT)

For each rechnician, ensure that each user has a party record. To do so, run the Maintain Party and Location Current Record Information scheduled process. Pass these parameters:

Party and Location
Employee

Additional details are covered in the Understanding Scheduled Processes guide.

Then, for each supervisor or maintenance manager, review these additional privileges for advanced scheduling:

To run the Request Maintenance Work Orders Advanced Scheduling and Assignments scheduled process, you must have privilege MNT_SCHEDULE_WO_USING_FFS_SCHEDULER..
To view and manage unavailable time for user in the Maintenance Supervision page, you have access using permission groups and not individual privileges:
- In this uptake, you must manually provision access by using an existing custom role, or by creating a new customer role, and then granting users these permission groups.
  - oraCxFieldService_read_TimeView_OraResource
  - oraCxFieldService_read_ActivityType_OraResource
  - oraCxFieldService_create_activity_oraResource
  - oraCxFieldService_cancel_Activity_OraResource
  - oraCxFieldService_read_Resource_OraResource
- Once provisioned you must run these scheduled processes:
  - Import User and Role Application Security Data
  - Retrieve Latest LDAP Changes
Optionally consider these privileges:
- MNT_ALLOW_OTHERS_OP_CLOCKOUT: Allows supervisors to perform operation clock out activities on behalf of technicians.
- MNT_ALLOW_OP_DETAIL_COMPLETE_FOR_OTHERS: Allows supervisors to perform detailed operation completion activities on behalf of technicians.

Note: After the permissions groups have been applied to a user, if they are not working correctly, you may need to edit the field service roles and enable permissions for each one individually.

Finally, enable each maintenance organization for advanced scheduling and assignment in the organization's plant parameters. This ensures that each user is automatically synchronized as a maintenance resource. AfWhenter a user is visible as maintenance resource, an administrator and manager in Fusion Field Service can ensure that they have the correct schedule and shifts.

Note: If you're currently using assignments for technicians, you can transition to advanced scheduling by cancelling all future assignments. Advanced scheduling utilizes time block scheduling and not just resource instance association.