Availability and Planning

Introduction

Resource Planning is important because you want to improve availability of your production equipment and ensure optimum use of your maintenance resources at the same time. When you manage a list of Work Orders to be completed, you want to ensure that you use your maintenance resources in the most efficient way.

Prerequisite

Asset Technicians are set up as resources in D365BC and users in EAM-BC.
Items are set up in D365BC.
Assets are set up.
Work Order Plans and Work Orders are created.

Audience

Maintenance Manager, Maintenance Planner

Set Up Resource Allocation

Use Resource Allocation to define which resources (Asset Technicians) are responsible for working on which maintenance jobs. The setup can be very specific, like allocating a resource to an Asset, or it can be more generic, like allocating a resource to work on jobs with a specific Asset Category or Work Type.

One location, category, work type, resource, and so on can be used on multiple lines in the Resource Allocation setup. Create as many Resource Allocation combinations as you require.

1. On your role center, select Resources > Resource Allocation.
2. Select New.
3. Select the required combination.
   1. The following fields are available: Asset Location - Asset Category - Asset No. - Work Type - Work Order Plan No. - Start Date - End Date - Resource No.
   2. You can select a few fields or several fields for a Resource, depending on location or skills or other factors used in your company for managing maintenance resource planning.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 to create more Resource Allocation lines.
5. You can also open the Resource Allocations list
   1. on the Asset Card > Related > Resource Allocations.
   2. on the Work Order Plan > Process > Resource Allocations.

The Resource Allocation setup is used when you work with resource planning and work order simulation, described in the sections below.

Maintenance Availability

Use the Maintenance Availability list to get an overview of capacity and availability for a resource. For the selected period you are able to see if the resource has available capacity, or if the resource is overbooked, based on resource allocation on open Work Orders and Round Orders, and released Work Order Plans and Round Plans.

The period for which Work Orders and Work Order Plans are shown in different lists is defined by your selection in Asset Management Setup > the Work Order Look Ahead field.

The Maintenance Availability overview uses the frequencies "Calendar", "Counter", and "One-off" on Work Order Plans. "Measurement" frequencies from Work Order Plans are not included.

1. On your role center, select Resources > Resources to open the Resources list.
2. Select the resource you want to see availability for.
3. Select Related > Planning > Maintenance Availability.
4. Select a period in the View by field (Day, Week, Month).
5. The screenshot below shows an example of a resource for which too many hours are planned on October 15 (based on active Work Orders as well as expected, but not yet created, Work Orders from Work Order Plans).
6. Select a link in the Qty on Work Orders column to open the Simulated Order Lines view of the open Work Orders and Round Orders the resource is planned to work on.
   1. Select Open Plan to open the Work Order Plan related to a selected line.
   2. Select Open Work Order to open the Work Order related to a selected line.
7. Select a link in the Planned Allocation column to open the Simulated Order Lines view of the active Work Order Plans the resource is expected to work on.
   1. In this view you can only select Open Plan because you can only have one active Work Order per Work Order plan at a time.

Resource Allocated per Work Order Plan

Get an overview of which released Work Order Plans a resource is allocated to.

1. On your role center, select Resources > Resources to open the Resources list.
2. Select the resource you want to see resource allocation for.
3. Select Related > Planning > Resource Allocated per Work Order Plan.
4. In the Resource Allocated per Plan window, select the resource in the Resource Filter.
5. Select a period in the View by field.
6. Select Show Matrix. All released Work Order Plans are shown in the list and allocation of the resource is shown in the Day/Week/Month columns.

Below is a screenshot showing an example of a week overview for a selected resource.

Unassigned Maintenance Work

Use Unassigned Maintenance Work to get an overview of Work Orders and future Work Orders from Work Order Plans, which have not been allocated to a resource.

If you find unassigned Work Orders, it is because you have not allocated a specific resource on the Work Order Plan or because no lines in your Resource Allocation setup match a resource line setup in the Work Order Plan.

1. Select "Alt+Q" on your keyboard to open the search field.
2. Enter "unassign" in the search field.
3. Select Unassigned Maintenance Work.
4. In the Unassigned Maintenance Work list, select a period in the View by field. If you have Work Orders or planned work from Work Order Plans that are not allocated to a resource, you will see number of hours in the Qty. on Work Orders and Planned Allocation fields.
5. Select a link in the Qty. on Work Orders column to see a list of the related Work Orders and Work Order Plans.
   1. Select Open Plan to open the Work Order Plan related to a selected line.
   2. Select Open Work Order to open the Work Order related to a selected line.
6. Select a link in the Planned Allocation column to see a list of the related Work Order Plans.
   1. Select Open Plan to open the Work Order Plan related to a selected line.

Simulate Work Orders

Run a Work Order simulation to see calculations of the resources and items expected to be consumed on Work Orders, based on the contents of Work Order Plans.

The simulation includes Work Order Plan frequencies of type "Calendar", "Counter", and "One-off", and it is performed on open and released Work Order Plans.

1. On your role center, select Simulate Work Orders.
2. When the simulation is completed, open a Work Order Plans list, for example Released Plans.
3. Open a Work Order Plan from the list.
4. On the Work Order Plan, select Related > Simulation > Simulated Instances to see a list of simulated Work Orders, based on the setup of the Work Order Plan.
5. On the Work Order Plan, select Related > Simulation > Simulated Consumption to see a list of expected consumption registrations, based on the setup of the Work Order Plan.

The simulation described in the procedure above is done manually.

If you want to set up an automatic process for Work Order simulation, that can be done by setting up a Job Queue, which is described in the procedure below. Job Queue setup is part of standard D365BC functionality.

1. Select "Alt+Q" on your keyboard to open the search field.
2. Enter "job que" in the search field.
3. Select Job Queue Entries.
4. Select New.
5. On the Job Queue Entry Card, select Object Type "Report".
6. Enter Object ID "70479531", which is the report for simulating Work Orders.
7. Activate the Report Request Page toggle button if you want to set up a journal for work order simulation.
8. In the Recurrence section, you can specify how often you want the simulation job to run.

For more information on how to set up the job queue for automatic creation of Work Order simulation, refer to Microsoft D365BC documentation: Use Job Queues to Schedule Tasks.

Item Availability

It is important to ensure that you have the items required for the completing the maintenance jobs planned on your production equipment.

In EAM-BC, you can set up items as Maintenance Items. The general item setup is part of standard D365BC functionality.

In the articles below, we present a few examples of item lists that provide valuable information for Item Planning on your Work Orders.

Item Availability by Event

1. On an Item Card, select Related > Availability > Item Availability by > Event.
2. In the Item Availability by Event list, you see an overview of all tasks related to the item, for example purchase orders, Work Orders created with item registrations, and Simulated Work Order lines.
   1. The Type field in the list refers to item availability types, which is part of standard D365BC setup. We have added the item availability type "Maintenance", which is automatically used when you work with Work Orders and Work Order Simulation in EAM-BC.
   2. If you select an item line with Source "Work Order" and select the Show Document button, the related Work Order is shown.
   3. If you select an item line with Source "Simulated Work Order" and select the Show Document button, the related Work Order Plan is shown.
3. Close the Item Availability by Event list.

The period shown in the Item Availability by Event list is defined by the period set up in Asset Management Setup > the Work Order Look Ahead field.

Item Availability by Period

1. On an Item Card, select Related > Availability > Item Availability by > Period.
2. In the Item Availability by Periods list, you see a condensed list, compared to the one described above. Here you get an overview of item requirements for the selected item, for example, by week or by month.
3. In the Gross Requirement column, select the link in a field.
   1. If you have selected "Month" as the period view, you see an overview of how many items are required for Work Orders - Simulated Work Orders - Purchase Orders - Sales Orders per month. Select a link in the Quantity column to see more details.

Refer to Microsoft documentation to learn more about Item Availability in D365BC.

Item Purchase Planning

Learn how to get an overview of Item Requirements when you plan maintenance work orders by using the Requisition Worksheet. Item Requisitions and Purchase Orders are part of standard D365BC functionality. You can create a purchase order from an Item Requisition line.

1. Go to Requisition Worksheets (press "Alt+Q" and enter "req work" in the search field).
   1. The list contains all item requirements, based on active Work Orders and open or released Work Order Plans. Each requisition line shows you how many items you need and when.
2. Select Process > Calculate Plan to open Calculate Plan window.
3. In the Calculate Plan window, make your selections for Start / End date period, Item Filters, etc. Select OK.
4. When the calculation is completed, select a requisition line and select Line > Order Tracking to see a list of which Work Orders and Work Order Plans are included in the requisition, and what quantity is required for each Work Order and Work Order Plan.
   1. In the Order Tracking window, select a line and select Show to open the related Work Order or Work Order Plan.
5. Select Close to return to Requisition Worksheets. You can create a purchase order from a requisition line.
6. Make sure that a checkmark is shown in the Accept Action Message box for the requisition lines you want to create purchase orders for.
7. Select Process > Calculate Plan.
8. In the Calculate Plan window, select Starting Date and Ending Date, and fill out other fields, if required.
9. Select OK. A purchase order is created.
10. To see the purchase order, select "Alt+Q" on your keyboard to open the search field.
11. Enter "purch" in the search field.
12. Select Purchase Orders to open the Purchase Orders list.

Refer to the Purchasing section for more information about Purchase Orders and Requisition Worksheets in D365BC and EAM-BC.