Reducing Job Operation Duration with Pre-Assigned Resources

ERP 10
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#1

I have a job operation that I have two specific resources with open capacity that I pre-assigned to work on this op in Job Entry. The Job Operation is set to ‘2’ Scheduling Blocks, and the Resources in Resource Group Entry are set to “Split Operations” = True. No other jobs are scheduled in this Epicor environment.

When I run scheduling, the total duration does not reduce. Both resource in the Resource Scheduling board show an estimated resource time, but it does not reduce the total duration time of the Operation.
However, if in Job Entry I change the OP to only add the Resource Group and not call out specific resources on the operation; then during scheduling Epicor automatically assigns the same two resources AND reduces the job operation duration on the schedule.

Why does the scheduling blocks only work when Epicor assigns the resources and not when I manually assign which resources I want?

#2

I have only used this feature with the resource group level assignment. I believe that if you assign the resources manually then the system is assuming that both resources are needed to complete the operation at the cycle time you specify.

Brad

1 Like
#3

My understanding is that if you specify a resource group AND a resource, you are telling Epicor to schedule the op on the specific resource in the group. If you only have one resource in the group, it’s not relevant, but if you have more than one, it will only schedule on the resource specified.

#4

We actually have two resource groups called out on the Op. They are the same resource Group, but the Resource listed is Tyler and Floyd. And the OP is set to Schedule Block 2 with a Crewsize of 1.

But for some reason the Epicor scheduling Engine is doubling it. You can see that each resource below has two sets of 20 hour blocks. Im not sure why there is a first 20 hours on 10/13 to 10/15, and then a second 20 hour block from 10/15 to 10/19 scheduled for each resource.

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#5

So when you’re calling out the two resource groups/resources on the operation, you’re adding too much detail. You’re telling the scheduling engine that I need to schedule Resource A and Resource B in order to successfully complete the operation.

This is preventing the scheduling blocks from coming into play.

Delete one of the scheduling requirements, and set the one just to the resource group (no resource). This should then schedule the two resources in the group and split the time evenly between them.

*If you call out a specific resource on the scheduling requirements scheduling blocks will not work.

#6

There are 22 Resources in this Group. 3/4 of then have open capacity. The planner wants to be able to specifically call out which two Resources within the resource group will be scheduled for the operation.

#7

Keep in mind that the length of the bars do not represent working hours, they represent time. If there are non-working hours in that period, the bar will cross over them, making the run time look longer than the actual working hours.

#8

In that case you’ll probably need to explore capabilities. This would allow you to assign certain capabilities to resources within a group. That, or move the two resources to their own group.

If they are always going to pick the specific resources in the job, you could leave the current setup, ditch the scheduling blocks, and just double the production standard.

#9

That’s the odd part. The total production time is 40 hours. The schedule bars are broke into 2 sets of 20 hour increments for one resource. But if you click on the Detail for that bar, it shows “Resource Time” of only 20 hours… for each bar. Epicor is ignoring the schedule blocks if you manually select the resources.

#10

That is interesting. I’ve worked extensively with Epicor scheduling for almost 20 years and have never noticed that if a production planner manually selects two or more open resources on the Job OP and updates the scheduling blocks on the Job Op accordingly, then the Epicor scheduling engine will totally ignore the reduction in production time that the scheduling blocks should be impacting.
However, IF we allow the Epicor scheduling engine to pick out those same resources then it works as desired and the total schedule time is divided by the scheduling blocks. So the functionality is there, but it inly works one way and not the other. That sounds like a design flaw. It shouldn’t matter who picks the open resources, if there are schedule blocks there and both resources have open capacity it should work the same.

You did give me a great idea as a work around that might work. I could write a BPM that simply cuts the production standard in half when they select more than one resource on the job OP. But if I do that, will I need to also increase the crew size to balance out the estimated labor cost with the reduced production hours?

#11

Is there a possibility that Epicor only shares resources under conditions of overload? If that were the case, and you’re scheduling infinitely, there’s your answer right there.