Set up a proof of concept for Resource Scheduling Optimization

This article guides you through the implementation of a proof of concept (POC) for the Resource Scheduling Optimization Add-in for Dynamics 365 Field Service.

Define requirements and expectations

During the discovery phase for the POC, you focus on understanding requirements and defining success criteria.

Understand requirements and business needs

No two organizations run in exactly the same way. Therefore, to ensure a successful POC, it's critical that you understand how the organization uses its data and for what business reasons.

Resource Scheduling Optimization works best for onsite service scenarios where resources work at multiple customer locations. This article focuses on this scenario. The add-in helps minimize travel time and maximize resource use. Resource Scheduling Optimization can optimize any scheduling-enabled entity because it builds on Universal Resource Scheduling, a framework that schedules resource requirements. When you schedule cases or work orders, you create a requirement record. Learn more in Universal Resource Scheduling for Field Service.

Here are a few questions that can help you gather requirements:

• How many resources are there, and of what types (people, equipment, facilities, and so on)?
• How often are resources scheduled?
• Where do resources start and end their days?
• How many territories do resources work within?
• What types of skills or characteristics are important for resources?
• How does the organization respond to unforeseen high-priority work?
• How are resource priorities defined and managed?

Define success criteria

Determine what success looks like. Although it can be tempting to declare that improved travel times or decreased overtime are successes, they aren't specific or measurable enough. Define measurable success criteria, such as reduce travel time by 10% or schedule no overtime for maintenance work, and make sure that the system provides a way to gather the related metrics.

You often get a data set from previous periods so that you can retrospectively compare the outcome of the POC with factual data. This approach is difficult because Resource Scheduling Optimization can't schedule before the current time. If you change the dates on historical data, keep in mind that a weekday in September might be a weekend in December. Therefore, adjust the data accordingly.

Organizations often use service level agreements (SLAs) or response times as success metrics. You might encounter examples such as next day before 12:00 PM for SLAs. Ensure that you map SLAs to the Time From Promised and Time To Promised fields on the work order, because these fields populate the start and end dates on a requirement.

Configure sample data

To configure the sample data and get the POC up and running, create the following records for your scenario.

Accounts

Account information helps you handle work orders because Service Account is a required field. You can typically derive the account information from the work order data if an address or longitude and latitude values are provided.

Addresses

Enable location and map settings to turn addresses into latitude and longitude values.

Territories

To work, Resource Scheduling Optimization needs at least one territory. Multiple territories provide more flexibility, letting you define more optimization schedules and run them simultaneously.

Bookable resources

Set up bookable resources for the purposes of this POC. When you work with real data, it's easier to drill into specific use cases. In addition, this approach limits the related data that is required for resources, such as work hours, resource territories, or characteristics.

Tip

A location-agnostic resource can only have bookings where the Resource Requirement is also set to location-agnostic. Resource Scheduling Optimization treats the resource as a remote worker who is only scheduled for work that doesn't involve travel. Alternatively, enable a resource to travel outside working hours to work around this constraint.

Relate resources to contacts to keep them separate from service accounts. Set the correct time zone on the resource, because the time zone affects work hours. In the bookable resource record, on the Resource Scheduling Optimization tab, set the Optimize Schedule option to Yes to enable the resource for Resource Scheduling Optimization.

Characteristics

Resource skills and characteristics can be used as filter criteria. They can also be used in the setup of goals and objectives.

Work hours

Set up work hours to have Resource Scheduling Optimization consider a resource for scheduling.

Priorities

Priorities provide filter dimensions to a Resource Scheduling Optimization run. Using high-priority requirements as a constraint provides control over those more urgent requirements.

Work orders or other transactional data

This data represents what you're trying to schedule, typically in the form of work orders. However, you can also enable other tables for scheduling. Set the Scheduling Method field on the related requirement to Optimize.

Time off

You can create time-off entries to make a resource unavailable for a specific period. Resource Scheduling Optimization treats time off like time outside of work hours. It schedules resources according to the Schedule within Work Hours and Scheduling Windows constraints.

If your requirements for time off are more complex, you can create a custom time-off entity as a schedulable entity and set the related requirement to optimize. In this way, you can create more robust time-off entries.

Run simulations

The Resource Scheduling Optimization engine schedules requirements from the current point in time and as far into the future as you specify through the Range Offset and the Range Durations values that are defined in the optimization scope.

Accommodate disruptions

To simulate a typical service organization's activity, incorporate unexpected service calls into your POC. Consider creating a separate scope to accommodate quick changes to a schedule.

Define views and schedules

Create views that Resource Scheduling Optimization uses to filter the data in the optimization scope. For example, a rural area might optimize once a week, whereas a more congested area might optimize on an hourly basis.

Define goals with specific constraints and objectives

You can define how bookings should be optimized. The goal of the Resource Scheduling Optimization engine is to process a list of resources and a list of resource requirements, together with existing bookings, to create the optimal route and list of bookings for the resources. Learn how to set constraints and objectives in Optimization goals in Resource Scheduling Optimization.

Simulations

Resource Scheduling Optimization enables you to run simulations and create soft bookings. If a simulation meets specific requirements and is deemed as the best option, the soft bookings can then be turned into hard bookings.

Review routes and booking details

A review of specific routes helps you drill into the differences that are achieved through different goals and objectives. Select a couple of resources, optimize them with different goals and constraints, and review the outcome.