| # Group planning data set-up The purpose of Group Planning functionality is to assign a service engineer to a service order or a service department to a work order/planned activity. Group planning prepares groups that are containers of work, that can be assigned to a resource. Within a group, service activities and activity sets level are present. For example: If group is the tray containing sheets of paper, the activity set is the paper clip grouping multiple sheets of paper and the activity is the sheet of paper Group Planning can be time based and route based. Route calculation requires extended calculations since every 'to be planned 'activity has to be fitted into the correct node of the existing route. The prerequisite being, GPS coordinates are known for the installation address. Time based calculations are much faster, but these time based calculations do not result in travel times and therefore give a more optimistic view. Overview When activities are grouped into activity sets and groups, a service engineer or a service department can be assigned to a group. Infor LN plans sets of activities where grouping is based on service characteristics. Grouping characteristics can be, for Example, service areas, skill, service type, project, item, contract, installation number, and so on. Infor LN always plans the set of activities in a sequence. The sequence determines which activity is planned first and influences the fact whether time windows (time constraints) are exceeded. Therefore, the sorting configuration is important. Steps to generate plan: Group activities in Groups and Activity Set (depending on configuration) Sort the activities Plan forward of the sorted activities taking the time windows into account The groups, groups and activities for group planning are created when a group planning is generated using the Generate Plan (tsspc3200m000) session. Activities can be added to existing groups or new groups. New orders can be added to the group plan using the service order and work order session. For a group, the activities can have the following Group Planning Activity Status. Group Planning can be broadly classified into following three process steps: Generate group planning (tsspc3200m000) : Service order activities, work order activities, or planned activities are read. These activities are used to generate the group planning groups, group planning activity sets and group planning activities . The generated entities are stored in the database. During the generation of the group planning, the start and end dates of the order activities are updated. For service orders, the travel start and end dates of the order activities are also be updated. View and update group planning (tsspc3100m000, tsspc3110m000, tsspc3120m000) : The generated group planning can be viewed and modified. The date/time fields of the group planning activities can changed. For service orders, travelling can be taken into account. For work orders and planned activities, travel time calculations are not applicable. Release group planning (tsspc3240m000) : When the group planning process is complete, the original service order activities, work order activities, and planned activities can be modified. The updated date/time fields of the group planning activities are copied to the original service order activities, work order activities, and planned activities. For service orders the updated travel date/time fields are also copied to the original service order activities. Group planning concepts The entities defined for the group planning functionality: Service planning parameters For the group planning functionality, the parameters are defined in the General Service Parameters (tsmdm0100m000) session and in the Service Planning and Concepts Parameters (tsspc0100m000) session. The parameters can be classified into three groups: parameters for the planning of service order activities, parameters for the planning of work order activities, and parameters for the planning of planned activities. Note Route planning is only applicable for service orders and planned activities. Route planning cannot be applied to work orders. Group sequence Group sequence defines the sequence of a group attribute. The groups must be sequenced, because a number of group attributes can be used to group activities into groups and activity sets. Group attribute Group attribute defines the attribute of an activity or related order header or related master data (for example, item group). All activities with the same value for a given group attribute are grouped into the same group or activity set. For Example when the service area is used as group attribute, all activities with the same service area are grouped into a group or activity set. Group attributes are defined in the Planning Attributes (tsspc0110m000) session. For each attribute, you can define the planning sequences. Group method Group method is used to indicate if the group attribute is used to group the service order activities into groups or activity sets. Group Method Parallel indicates that the service order activities are grouped into separate groups. Groups are created parallel in time and independent of other groups. Planning is for a group. Example the planning of the activities in group GRP000111 is independent from the planning of the activities in group GRP000112. Group Method Sequential indicates that the service order activities are grouped into separate activity sets within the same group (sequentially in time). Activity sets are created sequentially in the same group. Activity set sequence The sequence of the activity sets with the specified attribute values within a group. Planning attribute values Specific attribute values are defined for each planning attribute to be used to group the related service order activities, work order activities, or planned activities. Reference point configuration A reference point configuration determines which reference point(s) apply to which group of attributes / value pairs. Infor LN determines dynamically the reference point that is closest to the activity location address. Activity - preferred resource A preferred resource can be the preferred engineer for service orders or the preferred department for work orders or planned activities. Infor LN assigns these preferred resources to groups. Group Planning Group When a group planning is generated, group planning activities are created from service order activities, work order activities or planned activities. The group planning activities are grouped into group planning activity sets. Attribute values for a group The attribute values that are used when a Group Planning Group was created. Two or more attribute values can be linked to one group. Resources for a group planning group The resources are assigned to a group planning group. Resources cannot be assigned to an activity set or separate activities. Two kinds of resources can be used for group planning: engineers and departments. Two or more engineers can be assigned to one group planning group. Only one department can be assigned to one group planning group. Note A single service department can be assigned to a work order or a planned activity. Therefore a single service department can be assigned to a group planning activity that is derived from a work order or a planned activity. One or more service engineers can be assigned to a service order. Therefore, one or more service engineers can be assigned to a group planning activity that is derived from a service order. The limitations and restrictions of service orders, work orders, and planned activities are applicable to the group planning. Groups for activity/activity sets The group planning activities are created from service order activities, work order activities, or planned activities that are grouped into activity sets. The activity sets are grouped into group planning groups. Attribute value for a group planning activity set The attribute values that are used when a Group Planning Activity Set is created. Group planning activities When a group planning is generated, group planning activities are created from service order activities, work order activities or planned activities that are grouped into group planning activity sets. Two or more attribute values can be linked to one activity set. Note Groups for service orders, work orders, and planned activities are separate groups that are planned and released separately. Related topics Resource allocation for group planning Group planning process Group planning data set-up Territory planning process Route-based planning process |