Schedule Appointment: Show Options

This page is accessed via Operational Planning > Appointment Management > Dock and Yard Managers. Then select a location and run the Manage Appointments action. The Schedule Appointment - Show Options action appears in a pop-up menu when you right-click an unscheduled appointment on the Appointment Manager.

This page is also accessed via:

• Shipment Management > Shipment Management > Buy Shipments. Then select Actions > Operational Planning > Dock Scheduling > Schedule Appointment.
• Shipment Management > Shipment Management > Shipment Stops. Then select Actions > Operational Planning > Dock Scheduling > Schedule Appointment.
• Shipment Management > Shipment Management > Shipment Stops. Then select Actions > Operational Planning > Dock Scheduling > Schedule Partial Stop Appointment.

The list of Appointment Options are displayed dynamically based on the time range provided in Earliest Appointment Start Time and Latest Appointment Start Time. This list shows feasible options followed by the infeasible options. 

Previous and Next enables you to view previous or next set of appointments respectively.

Standing Appointments are configured in the Location Appointment Scheduling Preference Details.

OTM uses the following factors in a specific order to decide the priority of an appointment option:

1. Date (the date on which the appointment option falls)
2. If the appointment option is a standing appointment or not
3. Door preference level (lower preference level door is given preference)
4. Time of the appointment option
5. Group XID
6. Resource GID

The preferred option appears on top of the appointment option list. OTM checks for the next factor only if the current factor value is same for both the options. For example: consider the following two appointment options:

• Appointment 1: a standing appointment on Location Resource A with a preference level 1 on 05/30/2017 at 02:00 to 03:00 A.M.
• Appointment 2: a standing appointment on Location Resource B with a preference level 0 on 05/30/2017 at 04:00 to 05:00 A.M.

OTM checks for the date first. In the above example, both the appointments fall on the same date so OTM checks for the next factor to decide the preference. Now, OTM checks for standing appointments. In this example, both the appointments are standing appointments, so OTM checks for the preference level on the location resource. OTM considers Appointment 2 since it has a lower preference level and is listed first. Based on the order in which OTM checks various factors, Appointment 2 appears first in the list of appointment options though Appointment 1 is scheduled earlier.

The order of the appointment options are determined by the following factors:

1. Date: Appointment options are listed primarily based on dates. Lower date is given preference and is listed as the first option. For example: If an appointment A1 is on May 1st and another appointment A2 is on May 2nd, then A1 is listed as the first option as this appointment is on an earlier date.
2. Standing Appointment: This appointment is listed first among other appointments. For example, If door1 (UNGROUPED) has a standing appointment, the same location has another door2(DRY), then group pertaining to door1 is listed first because door1 has a standing appointment.
3. Door Preference Level: Doors that have lower preference level are given preference. For example, if Group Dry and Group Frozen have door preference level as 1 and 2 respectively then Group Dry appears first in the list due to the lower preference level.
4. Time: Appointment options are listed based on the start time of the appointment option. Appointments which are scheduled early are given preference. For example, there are two appointments 14:00-15:00 P.M. and 16:00 -17:00 P.M., on Group Dry and Group Frozen. Then Group Dry will appear on top of the list as the appointment for Group Dry is earlier than Group Frozen.
5. Group XID: Appointments are listed based on the alphabetical order of the location resource group XID. For example, there are two appointments. One appointment on a door in Group Dry and another appointment on a door in Group Frozen, then Group Dry appears first in the list of options.
6. Resource ID: Appointments are listed based on the alphabetical order of the Location Resource ID. For example, there are two appointments. One appointment on a door, DoorA and another appointment on a door, DoorB, then DoorA appears first in the list of options.

Appointment Options

In this section, select Location Resource Group for which you want to schedule an appointment.

Note: If too many appointments are displayed, you can limit the number by changing the glog.appointment.scheduleAppointmentShowOptions.numberOfAppointments property.

If a location resource group is attached to a location resource, then OTM first verifies if there are any seasonal rules sets on the location resource group. If seasonal rule sets exist, OTM selects only one seasonal rule set where the Start Time of the appointment option falls within the range of the effective and expiration dates of the seasonal rule set. The matched seasonal rule set is applied to the appointment option.

If no seasonal rule sets are matched, then the default rule set is applied to the appointment option. If there is no default rule set defined, then no rule sets are applied to the appointment option.

For example, a location resource group called DRY is attached to two location resources such as Door1 and Door2 and has two seasonal rule sets such as S1 and S2 and a default rule set as D1. The start time of the appointment option is at 10:00 A.M on 10th October, 2016.  

Following are the seasonal rule sets with the effective and expiration dates:

• S1: valid from 1st to 30th September, 2016
• S2: valid from 1st to 31st October, 2016

OTM first verifies which seasonal rule set is applicable. In this example, seasonal rule set S2 is applied to the appointment option. If the start time is before 1st September, 2016 or after 31st October, 2016, then the default rule set D1 is applied to the appointment option.

If there is no location resource group attached to a location resource, OTM verifies and validates the appointment rule sets on a location resource and then selects the rule set which gets applied on the appointment option.

Note: To hide End Time details, set the glog.webserver.appointment.showEndTimeColumn property to false.

An appointment option is marked as Feasible, only if all the constraints on the applied appointment rule set are met.

When the Enforce Appointment Time Window check box is selected on the Resource tab of Location Manager, the time feasibility of appointment options is determined based on the order release date constraints:

• If the shipment stop location is a pickup location, the feasibility is determined based on the order's Early Pickup Date (EPD) and Late Pickup Date (LPD).
• If the shipment stop location is a dropoff location, the feasibility is determined based on the order's Early Delivery Date (EDD) and Late Delivery Date (LDD).
• If the shipment stop location is a crossdock/pool location, the feasibility is controlled by the property glog.appointment.showOptions.xdock.useEPDandLDDValuesFromOrder.
  • If the property is set to false (default), the appointment booking at crossdock/pool locations is not affected by the order time windows.
  • If the property is set to true, the appointment booking at crossdock/pool locations is determined based on the order's EPD and LDD.

The time feasibility functionality also considers the next stop appointment time and transit time based on the properties listed below:

• glog.appointment.considerNextStopApptTime: To check the time feasibility based on the next stop appointment time, set this property to true. The time feasibility of the appointment options at the current location is determined based on the next stop appointment time, using the formula:
  
  Appointment end time <= next stop appointment time - transit time
  
  For example, if the transit time is 6 hours and the next stop appointment time is 5:00 PM, the appointment end time at the current location should be at or before 11:00 AM (5:00 PM - 6 hours). 
  If an appointment is not available at the next stop, OTM checks the time feasibility based on the order date constraints.
• glog.appointment.considerTransitTime: To check the time feasibility based on transit time, set this property to true. The time feasibility of the appointment options is determined at the current location based on the transit time, using the formula:
  • For a pickup location when the next stop is a dropoff location:
    
    Appointment end time + transit time >= Order's Early Delivery Date (EDD) AND Appointment end time + transit time <= Order's Late Delivery Date (LDD)
  • For a dropoff location when the next stop is a pickup location:
    
    Appointment end time + transit time >= Order's Early Pickup Date (EPD) AND Appointment end time + transit time <= Order's Late Pickup Date (LPD).

  Note: The EPD, LPD, EDD, and LDD values are taken from the order where the next stop's location is available. This property is added to ensure that the service provider does not reach the next stop before the order's pickup or delivery time.

Note: If both the properties are set to true, glog.appointment.considerNextStopApptTime takes precedence over glog.appointment.considerTransitTime only if an appointment is available at the next stop. Otherwise, glog.appointment.considerTransitTime is considered to find feasible appointment options.
If the order date constraints are not available, OTM does not check for any time feasibility to book an appointment.

Note: If the location resource group is not defined for the location resources, and you want to view location resources instead of ungrouped location resource groups on the Appointment Options screen, set the property, glog.appointment.showOptions.displayLocationResources, to true. When this property is true, only the Save button is displayed to book an appointment.
This property is considered if the location has only one resource type.

Note: You can hide the Save button to view and select the resource manually by clicking on View Group Resources. To hide the Save button on this screen, set the property, glog.appointment.showOptions.hideSaveBtn to true. 

When you click View Group Resources, the Appointment Options page appears. On the Appointment Options page, you can select the resource which you want and then click Save. The Appointment Option Save Result page appears with the appointment details such as ID, Location ID,  Stop Number, Appointment Start Time, Appointment End Time, etc.