Schedule multiple resources and facilities
The scheduling needs of organizations implementing Dynamics 365 for Field Service and Universal Resource Scheduling (URS) might have many scenarios that influence what and how jobs are scheduled. Some organizations might only be scheduling individual resources to work on individual jobs, such as sending a home health care professional to a client's home. While other organizations have more complicated scheduling needs such as scheduling facilities, such as venues that rent out rooms for events like conferences or weddings.
Here are a few examples of different scheduling scenarios that URS can be useful for:
- An auto mechanic shop that wants to schedule service bays.
- A cleaning service that dispatches crews to different cleaning jobs.
- A central dispatch center that prebooks appointments in specific regions until the regional dispatcher can come in and provide the actual resources that will be scheduled.
- A company that provides LASIK surgery needs to book a doctor, nurse, and operation room for procedures.
In addition to providing the ability to schedule a single resource like a technician for an item such as a work order, URS provides other capabilities that organizations need, such as the ability to schedule multiple resources, provide schedule placeholders, or schedule buildings. The scenarios are supported with the following features:
- Facility scheduling
- Crew scheduling
- Resource Pools
- Multi-resource scheduling with requirement groups
Facility Scheduling
Facility resources represent physical locations where work can be performed. In past versions, it was only possible to schedule work at the customer's location. A new resource type called Facility has been introduced that can be used to schedule work to be performed at another location.
Facilities could be used in any number of scenarios such as making reservations for physical spaces:
- For events and room scheduling in the hospitality industry.
- To book rooms at a fitness center for an exercise class.
- To reserve a bay at mechanic shop.
- To reserve a boat.
- A doctor's office with related doctor and nurse.
Crew Scheduling
Crews are a type of resource used to represent a predefined group of resources such as employees, subcontractors, equipment, etc. that are scheduled together.
Crews are ideal for scenarios where:
- A group of resources work together for some time.
- A crew meets at a location in the morning, shares a vehicle, and is together all day from job to job.
- A new employee is shadowing an experienced coworker to learn new skills.
For example, a cable company might use crews to represent a group of technicians that are used to providing services to new regions. They might use them to represent each crew that digs the trenches, runs the cables, and buries the cables post install. Crews appear on the schedule board like any other resource, however when a crew is scheduled for a job, each member of the crew is also scheduled for the job as well.
Resource Pools
Resource pools enable schedulers to book requirements to a generic pool without needing to decide which resource performs the work.
Multi-Resource scheduling with Requirement Groups
Both crews and resource pools represent scenarios where the members are predefined. There are many different scenarios where multiple resources are needed, but we're unsure as to which ones. For example, a company that does medical services might have rooms where these services are done. When a patient comes in for a consultation, the appointment might require a specific room, doctor, and consultant.
Requirement groups enable you to group together multiple requirements, such as a facility and user resource requirement. Resources that fit those specific needs will be returned, and when scheduled, the requirement group updates each individual requirement associated with it.
Fulfillment preferences
In addition to enabling you to work with multiple resources, URS also provides other options for ensuring that the time windows being suggested by the schedule assistant make it as easy as possible for a dispatcher to use. Fulfillment preferences are customizable entities that let you choose how schedule assistant results are displayed, like with hourly appointments or morning and afternoon time windows.
For example, a hair salon might want to offer appointments every hour because one-hour intervals are a good time estimate for their work, which is mostly consistent and predictable. It's also easier to communicate one-hour appointments to customers when scheduling.
Another way that fulfillment preferences could be used would be, a heating and cooling company wants to group air-conditioning installations. They might want to limit scheduling windows into morning (8:00 AM to 12:00 PM) and afternoon (1:00 PM to 5:00 PM), with a one-hour break for lunch in between. Since installations are dependent on many variables, schedulers aren't comfortable committing to an exact time. They would rather communicate to customers a morning or afternoon time range when installation resources will arrive to begin working.