As the resource planner, you use the planning board to create assignments and time allocations for personnel resources and tools as a bar chart. For personnel resources, you can also enter travel times and alternative working times. The planning board can also be used to monitor progress.
You can change the layout of the planning board in Customizing for the layout of the scheduler workplace.
Prerequisites
• In Customizing for SAP Multiresource Scheduling, you have carried out the following activities under Set Up Scheduler Workplace:
o Define User Interface Profiles
You enter the graphic profile and define how the bar chart is displayed (for example, width) along with the graphical element types for
assignments and time allocations.
o Define Planning Board Profile
You enter the required user interface profile (UI profile) for the resource planning board.
• You have defined the graphical profile in Customizing for the SAP NetWeaver Application Server in the activity Define Graphic Profiles.
Features
• The planning horizon of the planning board is the period that is currently defined for the resources. The default value is taken from Customizing.
However, you can change this period when you open the workplace, or if the workplace is already open, you can extend or shorten it by choosing (Change Period).
• The planning board is a chart with rows. A row is divided into resources and the associated bars for assignments, time allocations, or confirmed times. The second area is a time axis. For example:
• As an alternative to the GANTT display, you can use table-based planning.
• You can use various icons to differentiate between the different resource types (personnel resources, teams, tools, and personnel resources of other groups).
o (External personnel resource)
Personnel resource from an external company that is commissioned by the organization and made available on a temporary basis.
o (Personnel resource)
Contracted personnel resource of an organization.
o (Team)
o (External resource)
Personnel resource that is assigned to a different organization in the planning board but that is made available temporarily for demand planning.
o (Tool)
• Times at which a resource is available or not available are displayed differently for each resource in the planning board (for example, resources' shifts or tool maintenance).
• If time recording data has been entered, you can display it if required. The times are displayed as a bar in the Time Data row below the assignment. This allows you to directly compare planning and execution. The system automatically updates the time recording data. For more information, see Progress Monitoring.
• You can change the color of the bars as you require. For example, you can assign different colors to the assignment status in Customizing. This allows you to obtain a quick overview of the planning situation.
• Below the assignment, the system also displays the rows for capacitive assignments and links.
o Capacitive assignments
o Link with a tool
• In the list of resources, you can also show the following columns: N, #C, Absolute and Relative Availability, and Status of Resource.
o N stands for note for resource: To create, edit, or delete a note for the resource, choose Additional Data from the context menu of the resource.
The "Additional Data for Resource" dialog box then appears in which you can change the text. You can determine whether a note has been entered for a resource by the checkmark in the N column. If the indicator is set, a note has been entered.
o The #C column displays the number of capacitive assignments for the respective resource.
o You can display the status of the resource in the Status column.
• If you have assigned multiple assignments to a resource in the same period or in periods that overlap, these assignments are hidden or partially hidden. If you want to see all assignments or the full assignments, you can drill down the rows by choosing .
• To obtain an overview of the utilization of individual personnel resources or teams, choose the employee whose utilization you want to view and choose Resource Utilization from the context menu.
• You can display dependencies between assignments that were created as relationships in the associated order. To do so, choose Planning Board Planning Board Element All Dependencies . You can move dependent assignments together with any selected assignments.
• You can filter the resources to clarify the overview of the data. If you filter the resources, the system displays this in the column header. If the resources are not sufficient or are overloaded, you can extend the resource list. For more
information, see Resource-List Filter and Extension.
• You can enlarge or shrink the times displayed on the planning board by zooming.
• You can scroll to the current time segment of the bar chart by choosing (Scroll to Current Time).
• You can set up different modes:
Planning Board Modes
Mode Description
(Selection Mode)
This mode is used only for selection. You can use it to select several objects in the planning board at the same time by pressing the mouse button and dragging a frame around the required objects. If you select objects in the same category, such as assignments, you can also move them at the same time. You cannot change the
assignments.
(Change Mode:
Assignments)
This mode allows you to create assignments by pressing the mouse button and dragging a frame in the row that contains the period in which the assignment is to be carried out.
This mode is defined in Customizing as the standard mode. This means that it is always started automatically once you have carried out activities in other modes. You can change this setting in the user interface profile (see the prerequisites section).
(Change Mode:
Capacitive Assignments)
In this mode, you can create capacitive assignments by using drag &
drop to move a demand to a resource name.
(Change Mode:
Time Allocations)
In this mode, you can create time allocations (for example, employee absences or maintenance times of a machine) by pressing the mouse button and dragging a frame over the period in which the resource is absent.
(Change Mode:
Links)
In this mode, you can create links between personnel resources and tools by pressing the mouse button and dragging a frame over the period in which the two resources are to be linked. The frame can be created in both the tool row and the personnel resource row.
• If errors occurred during your last action, the system displays the error messages above the bar chart. The number of errors is also stated. The error text is hidden again as soon as you carry out the next activity. The current number of alerts is shown in the toolbar above the planning board by the pushbuttons and with the quick info Alert Monitor. If you choose the pushbutton, the system displays detailed information about the alerts in a separate dialog box.
• To activate or deactivate automatic saving in the planning board after you have made changes, choose (Automatic Save).
• To recalculate assignments for a demand after you have made changes, choose (Recalculation of Splits). For more information, see Recalculation of Splits.
• To start automatic optimization, choose (Start Optimization). The system uses the optimizer during automatic assignment creation for the areas of
Customer Service, CRM Service, and Plant Maintenance. For more information, see Optimizer for Resource Planning.
• By choosing (Scaling Factor of Resource Planning Brd), you can scale the time period shown in the planning board. If you plan an assignment for a
resource using drag & drop and the scale of the planning board is set to weekly, the system places the start of the assignment automatically at the start of the day.
• To temporarily hide the bars for travel times in the planning board, choose (Hide Travel Times).
• By choosing (Display of Demand), you switch to another view that shows the demand of the order and the current planning scenario. By choosing (Display of Resources), you switch back to the resource view.
Note
The terms planning board and resource planning board are used as synonyms.
The term planning board may be used in the system documentation as a synonym for one specific area of the workplace (bar chart) and for all four areas, that is, the entire scheduler workplace.
More Information
Cross-Resource Functions
Assignment of Personnel Resources Assignment of Tools
Planning Demands in the Planning Board
Display of the Current Time
In the planning board, the current time is displayed as a dotted, vertical line.
Prerequisites
In the planning board, you have chosen Extras Settings Visible Objects and set the indicator Display Time-Now Line.
Features
Regardless of whether you display the line, you can choose (Scroll to Current Time) to scroll to the current time in the bar chart.