Resource Planning (Beta)

Resource Planning (Beta) shows your tours as bars on a timeline. Depending on the view and grouping, each row shows a tour, a vehicle, a trailer or a driver. Dispatchers move tours in time by dragging, assign them to another resource and assign drivers, vehicles and trailers directly from a resource list. Every change is saved immediately.

Prerequisites

• Module: The Resource planning module must be activated for the tenant. It is the same module as for the existing resource planning.
• Roles: The page is available to users with the role Superadmin, Admin or Dispatcher. Only these roles can move tours on the timeline and assign resources.
• Group: The tours and resources of the group selected in the header are shown. The global switch Only current group is taken into account.

The page can be reached via the main menu under Disposition › Resource Planning (Beta), directly below the existing Resource Planning.

Page Layout

• Toolbar (top): Selection of View and Group by, filters and the controls for period and zoom.
• Assignment (left): List of the resources that you can assign to a tour by dragging.
• Timeline (centre): On the left the column with the row labels, on the right the tours as bars across the selected days. A red line marks the current time.

When opened, the page shows the Tours view for today. View, grouping, period, zoom and filters are not saved: if you leave the page and open it again, these default values apply again.

Features

View and Grouping

Under View you choose the perspective from which you plan: Tours, Vehicles, Trailers or Drivers. In every view, tours are shown as bars. The view determines the labelling of the bars, the default grouping, the resource types in the Assignment list and the available filters.

Under Group by you specify how the rows are formed:

The Assignment list always offers the resource types that are not used for grouping. By default Driver is selected; in the Drivers view it is Vehicle.

When you switch the view, the grouping, the resource type of the assignment and all filters are reset.

Rows depending on the grouping:

• Grouped by Tour: one row per tour, labelled with the tour name.
• Grouped by Vehicle, Trailer or Driver: one row per resource of the group, sorted alphabetically. Resources without tours also get an (empty) row. The last row Unassigned contains all tours that do not yet have this resource.

If several tours in the same row overlap in time, they are shown one above the other on separate lanes.

Tour Bars

All non-deleted tours of the selected group whose time window falls within the visible days are shown, regardless of the tour status.

Time window of a bar:

1. For a calculated tour: planned start and planned end.
2. For a tour that has not been calculated: the earliest tour start and the latest tour end from its calculation settings.
3. Otherwise: the pickup date (whole day).

Content of a bar:

• Label: In the Tours view, the tour name. In the Vehicles, Trailers and Drivers views, the name of the vehicle, trailer or driver (or «—» if none is assigned), followed by the tour name.
• Counters: Number of stops (pin icon) and number of shipments (parcel icon). If a value is 0, it is hidden.
• Assigned resource: The resource assigned to the tour of the type currently selected in the Assignment list, e.g. the driver if Driver is selected there.
• Colour: The tour status, in the same colours as in the Dispatch Board, e.g. yellow for Planned, blue for Released and violet for In execution.

When you move the mouse over a bar, the tour name is displayed.

Period and Zoom

• Shift days: With − and + next to the date selection you shift the visible period one day back or forward. The number of days remains the same.
• Select period: In the date selection you set any period (from–to).
• Quick selection: The 1D, 7D and 30D buttons show 1 day, 1 week and 1 month respectively, starting from the currently first visible day.
• Zoom: With the zoom buttons − and + you enlarge or reduce the timeline in seven fixed levels. At the coarsest or finest level, the respective button is deactivated.

Moving Tours and Assigning Resources

On the timeline you change tours directly with the mouse:

Each of these actions is saved immediately. There is no separate save step and no undo function. After saving, the timeline is reloaded and the confirmation Tour updated is shown. If you want to reverse a change, move or assign the tour again.

Rejected changes: In the following cases, the bar jumps back to its original position and a red message appears:

• The tour is currently locked by another user.
• The tour was not found or does not belong to the selected group (Tour not found).
• The tour status does not allow the tour to be changed. The message names the required status.
• The end is not after the start.

Warnings after saving: The saved tour is checked with the same tour validation as in the dispatch board. If problems are found, e.g. a resource that is unavailable or already occupied by another tour, missing qualifications, overtime or capacity overruns, an orange message appears with the title These are only warnings, the tour was saved: and a list of the problems. Warnings do not prevent the change and do not undo it. If the tour validation is switched off for the group, no warnings appear.

Unavailable Times

When grouped by Vehicle, Trailer or Driver, grey blocks labelled Not available show when a resource is not available:

• Vehicles and trailers: Times outside the weekly availability of the vehicle (if none is stored, the general availability of the group applies), days before the start or after the end of the validity, and the whole day of the next vehicle inspection.
• Drivers: Times outside the weekly working hours.

The blocks are for information only. You can still move a tour into this period; the warning message after saving then points this out.

Context Menu and Double-Click

A right-click opens the following actions, depending on the location:

+ buttons:

• The + button above the column of the row labels creates a new entry of the grouped type: for Tour a new tour, for Vehicle or Trailer a new vehicle or trailer, for Driver a new user.
• The + button in the Assignment list creates a new resource of the type selected there.

After a dialog has been saved, the timeline, the resource list and the unavailable times are reloaded.

Dialogs

• Edit tour / create tour: The same tour dialog as in the dispatch board. Among other things, it contains the Resources, Locations, Miscellaneous and attachments areas as well as the Reverse tour, Optimize and Calculate buttons; if the Release checkbox is visible and ticked, the tour is released after calculating or optimising. The Ignore for calculation / optimization area only appears if the corresponding setting is active (see Settings). In Resource Planning (Beta), you can calculate or optimise tours (and release them in the process) only via this dialog.
• Edit / add vehicle or trailer: The form from the master data, see Vehicles.
• Edit / add driver: The Edit user window, see Users. When opened from a grey Not available block, it starts on the Availability tab.

Filters

1. Click Filter (with + icon). A list of the filters of the current view that are not yet in use appears (see table under View and Grouping).
2. Select a filter. A filter chip labelled «‹Type›: All» is added, and a selection list with a search field opens.
3. Select the desired entries. The chip then shows the selected entries, e.g. «Driver: A, B».
4. With × (Erase filter) you remove a filter again.

Several filters are combined with each other (AND logic): a tour is only shown if it meets all filters. Within one filter, one of the selected entries is sufficient (OR logic). A tour without the filtered resource is hidden by this filter. The Tour filter lists the currently loaded tours.

Step by Step

Assigning a driver to a tour

1. Open Disposition › Resource Planning (Beta).
2. Under View, select the entry Tours.
3. Select the desired period, e.g. with 7D.
4. Make sure that the type Driver is selected in the Assignment list.
5. Drag the desired driver from the Assignment list onto the bar of the tour.
6. The assignment is saved immediately. Check any warning messages.

Rescheduling a tour to another vehicle

1. Under View, select the entry Vehicles. The rows are grouped by Vehicle.
2. Drag the bar of the tour into the row of the desired vehicle. If necessary, also drag it horizontally to adjust the time.
3. The change is saved immediately. Check any warning messages, e.g. if the vehicle is not available at this time.

Creating a new tour for a driver

1. Under View, select the entry Drivers.
2. In the driver's row, right-click on the desired day.
3. Select Add Tour. The driver and the date are already pre-filled in the tour dialog.
4. Complete the tour and save the dialog.

Settings

Resource Planning (Beta) has no settings of its own. The following existing settings have an effect:

Notes

• Beta scope: Resource Planning (Beta) plans on the basis of tours with vehicles, trailers and drivers. A view for shipments, saved views and a filter by tour status are not included. Tours cannot be selected as a resource in the Assignment list.
• No saving per user: View, grouping, period, zoom and filters only apply as long as the page is open.
• Driver absences: Holidays, illness and other absences are not shown as Not available in Resource Planning (Beta). Use the existing Resource Planning for this.
• Calculate, optimise (and release): These actions are not available in the context menu, only in the tour dialog.