Resource Scheduling for Operational Excellence
What Is Resource Scheduling?
The term resource scheduling refers to the methodology used to efficiently assign an organization’s resources to a facet of their business.
Resource scheduling technologies have greatly improved over the years, becoming more powerful as organizations work to leverage their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and data to more efficiently manage assets. The basic principles of resource scheduling, in an asset maintenance or service management context (e.g., scheduling and dispatch), are:
- Select a skilled and available resource to complete a task or series of tasks
- Maximize resource utilization, both human and material
- Minimize response time between the service request and service completion
Modern scheduling technologies go far beyond basic calendaring capabilities found in most maintenance software – they perform complex computations over large data sets, enabling people across the organization to make decisions based on real-time operational insights. Many resource scheduling solutions offer value-added features that could benefit your business, such as:
- Multi-staged and multi-resourced job scheduling
- Customized scheduling automation and rules based on scheduling policies
- Real-time monitoring and early warning of potential service-level violations
- Dynamic booking windows for customers
- Planning boards and other graphical views for easier management
- Workflows based on predetermined triggers
- Simulation-based scheduling and advanced analytics
If your organization is considering implementing or upgrading a resource scheduling function, here are three key tips for achieving scheduling success.
Tip 1: Consider the Level of Change Required
The list of new business capabilities stemming from resource scheduling solutions can be long and impressive. However, there is often a difference between what you could do and what you should do.
If scheduling technologies are a new concept for your organization, you may need to consider the level of change required by your people. It might be better to start off with implementing simple scheduling techniques and gradually transitioning to more sophisticated usage. Making a big change often carries some risk, especially if you have dependent business processes that need to mature. It is most important that the resource scheduling solution enables your workforce to do their jobs better, faster and easier, so it should be seen as helpful and beneficial, not confusing and unreliable.
Let’s say that an organization only needs a relatively simple process of scheduling of resources. They can conduct their standard work order planning in SAP, then use a scheduling solution to optimize work-order task resources and date/times in bulk. Next, they could simulate a schedule using the software’s powerful algorithms, make any final adjustments and, once happy, send the optimized schedule back into SAP to update the work orders that were then released like normal. This process is relatively uncomplicated, and it greatly benefits the organization without creating too much change-impact on people.
Acquiring some knowledge on what the best resource scheduling options and practical applications are for your business will help maximize the benefit of your chosen solution. Finding an experienced consultant who is vendor-agnostic is a good place to start.
Tip 2: Have Appropriate Supporting Business Processes
Scheduling is on the front-end of a good business process. If you schedule work to someone who requires spare parts, someone else will need to ensure the parts are available - otherwise the scheduling does not go to plan. One way to illustrate the importance of this concept is to consider a fictional asset-intensive organization that may have the following five integrated business processes running over different time horizons:
Integrated Business Processes for Scheduling
From the diagram above, you can see how important supporting business processes are for effectively scheduling work. In fact, it is the integrated nature of these processes that make using a scheduling solution alongside an ERP solution so very powerful and popular. Knowing how to best schedule resources will directly impact both your budget and the levels of service you can offer stakeholders and customers. Your business is also more likely to stay ahead of the competition.
It is worth considering if your business needs a route-planning solution in addition to scheduling. If your people travel over diverse locations, this capability may be necessary to effectively manage delivery and maintenance schedules. For example, scheduling someone for five jobs in a day would be detrimental to business if the routes taken only allow them to complete three jobs. If route-planning can also reduce the amount of “windshield time”, then an enabling solution would be even more beneficial. Proper routing keeps customers happy while minimizing expenses such as gas and vehicle upkeep.
Tip 3: Always Ask - Who Has the Knowledge to Optimize?
Do not assume that resource scheduling implies some form of centralized control over the work. There are many different scheduling policies that can support either centralized or decentralized control. Ask yourself – who has the knowledge to optimize the work?
A strong form of centralized scheduling tends to be suitable for repeatable tasks like deliveries and standard services. Drivers and technicians do not have to make any key decisions to optimize the schedule. However, many scheduling issues cannot be resolved with centralized scheduling.
For example, some types of work require operators to open the equipment first to see the problem, or dig a trench to see a cable, or work outside in uncertain weather - before they can decide what is the next best thing to do. In these cases, a lot of the knowledge is local, and a scheduling policy that allows for some decentralized control is often unavoidable. This is where different scheduling policies and processes can be used for certain work types or work areas, whilst still ensuring overall work and resource optimization.
Engineering’s Advantage
While many organizations continue to manage their resources in a disorganized and disjointed way, others are turning to integrated scheduling technologies and seeing significant operational transformation and business benefits. To find the resource scheduling solution that best fits your unique business needs, look no further than the Engineering Group’s Industries eXcellence division. Dedicated to asset performance excellence for Industry 4.0, the Engineering Group is one of the few companies in the world with the business process knowledge, technical expertise and implementation experience needed to organize and optimize even the most complex operations for customers across all industrial sectors worldwide.
