Analyzing the Schedule of Resources

You can get a good grasp of the resource workload from the sequence of operations on each resource. In addition, you can display the execution status of the operations. It shows which operations are under way, and which operations are complete already, for example.

1. From the Main View Settings section of the action bar (or Secondary View Settings, if the chart is in the lower half of the widget window), click Work Order Color.
2. From the list, select Operation Execution Status.

In the Gantt chart, operations change color to reflect the execution stage they are at. By default, an operation is:

• Light gray (hex color: #e0e0e0) when the production plan has scheduled it, but the operation has not reached production yet.
• Dark blue if it is ready for execution; hex color: #005686. The workshop / teams know they can start working on the operation, but there is no further information on execution.
• Light blue if it is in progress; hex color: #42a2da. The workshop / teams have started performing the operation. Execution is under way.
• Orange if it is on hold; hex color: #e87b00. The workshop / teams have notified they cannot perform the operation, or that they must stop working on it. If they have given the reason why, it appears in the tooltip and in the Details panel for the operation.
• Green if it is complete; hex color: #57b847. The workshop / teams have finished working on the operation. Execution is complete.
• Dark gray if the execution status of the operation is unknown; hex color: #77797c. This is an anomaly. You may want to report it to the persons in charge of the schedule, or of the manufacturing execution system.

Tip: You can customize this color scheme. For more information, see Dialog Box for Editing Colors.

You can choose a different color scheme at any time. If you select Advance / Delay, remember that the colors on the chart reflect the advance / delay of the work orders, not of the individual operations.

Whatever the color scheme, specific hatch patterns always identify the operations that are in progress or complete:

• Black and yellow hatches at the bottom of an operation indicate that the operation execution is under way. The start date of the operation in the plan is the date when execution began. The end date is the scheduled end date.
• A white mesh pattern on an operation identifies the part of the operation that is complete so far. This goes from the execution start date to the current date.
• When execution is complete, the white mesh pattern covers the entire operation bar. The hatches at the bottom disappear. The dates of the operation in the plan are the start and end dates of its execution.
• In some cases, an operation can appear as both in progress (hatches) and finished (white mesh on the whole bar). This happens when the app has not received an execution end date for the operation yet, and the scheduled end date is before the current date. Because the operation is entirely in the past, the app considers that it is complete. Yet, until there is an execution end date to confirm this information, the operation retains its in progress status.

Important: The chart background reflects the work calendars of the resources. The lighter shade is for working periods, and the darker shade is for nonworking periods. They show the standard working hours of the resources, and any exception to those. For example, there can be additional nonworking periods because of a machine breakdown, or because someone is on sick leave. Conversely, there can be extra working periods because a resource needs to work overtime. Exceptions appear as an overlay, with a description, and vertical lines to mark the beginning and the end of the period when they apply. If you do not see any nonworking period on the chart, it likely means that the planner chose to ignore calendars when last saving the plan.

For clarifications on the current schedule, you can use the highlighting feature described below to display the links between operations.

You can highlight all the operations of a specific work order and see the links between them. This is useful to find out which resources these operations are using and how they constrain one another. This can also clarify the reasons for idle times in the schedule of resources.

1. From the standard area of the action bar, click Highlight Work Order.
2. In the bar chart, click an operation of the work order to highlight.

The operation you clicked and those that belong to the same work order appear in color, with their links. All other operations in the chart are gray. The links show the order in which the highlighted operations take place, and the dependencies between them. The links these operations have with operations of other work orders, if any, appear as well. The colors of the links reflect their type:

• Light green is for precedence links, with or without an overlap or minimum lead time (delay) between the two operations.
• Cyan is for start-start synchronization links.
• Yellow is for end-start synchronization links.
• Dark red is for end-end synchronization links.
• Dark green is for synchronization links with a maximum lead time (delay) between the two operations.
• Red is for synchronization links that constrain the two operations to take place one after the other, using the same resource.
• Dotted lines are for disabled links. Their color reflects the type of the original link.

The number of operations in the work order appears in the search result bar at the bottom of the chart area. On using the filter feature of the search bar to drill down the view, see Search and Filters on Gantt Charts.

To highlight a different work order, click an operation of that work order. To highlight multiple work orders, Ctrl + click operations.

When you no longer need that feature, click a blank space to cancel the current selection, and then from the action bar, click the feature icon to disable it. If the chart previously highlighted 3DSearch or 6WTags results, then it highlights them again. This is true also for dependency links between work orders.

You can use the Details panel of the chart to view the characteristics of resources.

1. On the Resource Gantt Chart, locate the resource to analyze.
2. If the Details panel is open already, click any operation on that resource. If the panel is not open, you need to double-click the operation instead.
   Note: If you are displaying two Gantt charts at a time in the widget, clicking an operation in one highlights that same operation in the other as well.

In the panel, the Allocated Resource tab shows details on the selected resource. Some are generic characteristics. Others depend on the operation using the resource, and therefore change if you click another operation on that resource. Available information includes:

• The work center, and the code and name of the resource.
• A check box indicating the resource allocation type for the selected operation. If the operation is "forced" to use this resource (check box selected), only an authorized user can choose a different resource for the operation, typically in the scheduling app.
• The working mode of the resource: standard or batch, for example.
• A check box indicating if this is a finite capacity resource. If it is not, the plan considers that the resource has the capacity to handle any workload it gets. Typically, in the data model, infinite capacity resources represent subcontractors.
• The production rate of the resource for the selected operation. This is the time it takes to produce a quantity of 1.
• The tooling used for the operation, if any, and whether there is time required for tool changeover / setup before the operation can start. If there is a changeover / setup time, it is visible also on the graph. For more information, see Symbols on Operations and Work Orders.
  Note: There can be tooling in the Code field, and yet no changeover time. Typically, this happens when the current operation and the previous operation on the resource require the same tooling and setup. There is therefore no need for a changeover between the two.
• The secondary resources used for the selected operation, if any, with fields indicating how the operation contributes to their workload. If the workload of a secondary resource is a time value, and is always the same whatever the quantity of the operation, it appears in Time constant. Similarly, if the workload is a quantity that does not depend on the operation quantity, it appears in Quantity constant. Conversely, if the workload of the secondary resource varies with the operation quantity, the coefficient to calculate it appears in Time coefficient or Quantity coefficient respectively. If there is also a constant value in that case, it means that the total workload of the secondary resource is equal to the calculated value + the constant. Suppose that to produce 1 part on the current resource, you need 2 hours of the secondary resource, plus 1 hour of constant time. The quantity of the operation is 10 parts. In that case, Time constant is 1 hour, and Time coefficient is 2 hours. The workload of the secondary resource for that operation is: (Ten parts x 2 hours) + 1 hour = 21 hours.

Clicking another operation updates the Details panel accordingly. For more information, see Gantt Chart Details Panel.

You can use the Details panel of the chart to view the characteristics of operations.

1. On the Gantt chart, locate the operation on which you need further information.
2. If the Details panel is open already, click the operation. If the panel is not open, double-click the operation instead.

The panel displays information on the selected operation, including:

• Details on the work order the operation belongs to. For more information, see View Details on Work Orders.
• The operation name.
• The operation description.
• The operation phase.
• The operation quantity.
• The operation duration in the plan.
• The dates provided or calculated for the operation. The scheduled dates are the current start and end dates of the operation in the plan. When the operation is under way, its start date in the plan is the beginning of the remaining activity. Execution dates are available only when the operation is under way, or complete. They are the dates when the operation execution began and finished. The target dates are the objectives for operation execution. They are optional. The reference dates are available only if there is a reference plan. This is a schedule that the planner saved as a reference in the scheduling app. Typically, the target dates and the reference dates are useful to assess the scheduled or execution dates of the operation.
• The maturity status of the operation: scheduled or in progress, for example. Being on hold is not a maturity status. So if an operation is on hold, that mention appears at the top of the Operation tab, not in this field.
• The execution priority of the operation. The higher the value, the higher the priority.
• A check box indicating if the time it takes to perform the operation is proportional to quantity or not.
• A check box indicating if it is possible to interrupt the operation. If it is not, a typical implication is that the operation cannot start before a nonworking day and finish after that day.
• Whether there is time required before or after the operation for actions that are mandatory, but that do not use modeled equipment (time "out of machine"). For example: a drying time. If there is, this time is visible also on the graph. For more information, see Symbols on Operations and Work Orders.
• Whether the planner or the scheduling process fixed an earliest start date for the operation. This is the minimum date when the operation can begin. If the operation has both a user-defined earliest start date and an automatic earliest start date, the planning constraint is the date that is later.
• Whether there is a pin on the operation, to make it stick to its position in the plan. If there is one, the operation cannot change resource nor dates unless the planner removes the pin.
• Details on the resource the operation is using. For more information, see View Details on Resources. If the operation uses several resources, the information corresponds to the resource of the operation occurrence you selected.
  Note: If you are viewing the Details panel from the Work Order Gantt Chart, and the operation uses several resources, the Allocated Resource tab details each of them.

Clicking another operation on the chart updates the Details panel accordingly. For more information, see Gantt Chart Details Panel.