About Parts Not in Inventory
In the service industry, the parts needed to install or repair a component are not always readily available in inventory. In these cases, purchase orders are created and linked to the service request. If service work is dependent on receiving the part, often the resources are shuffled to other tasks to reduce resource downtime. With this enhancement, the service department will have visibility as to when the part has been received by purchasing. Thus the service scheduling manager can reactivate the tasks and dispatch a resource.
Process Flow
Purchase orders can be created to meet material requirements of a Planned Material Transaction. The Working Status, Priority, and To Be Scheduled check boxes can be configured to signify that Incidents and SROs are awaiting parts. Also, the scheduling board can be configured to display different colors based on Priority Code and Working Status. When the Awaiting Parts Actions alter these values, the color of the tasks on the scheduling board change.
Service Parameters
Awaiting Parts and Parts Received actions can be set up on the Service Parameters form.
When a PO is created from a Planned Material Transaction, the Awaiting Parts Actions is triggered. If the Change Working Status To field is populated, the SRO Working Status is changed. The same is true for the Change Priority Code To field. The user can also set the To Be Scheduled check box to automatically clear so that the Scheduler does not see the SRO on the scheduling board.
When the PO linked to the Planned Material Transaction is received, the Parts Received Actions is triggered. In addition to the Working Status, Priority Code, and To Be Scheduled data alteration options, the user is provided with a simple email notification solution. A static list of email substitutions is supported so that the text of the email body can present dynamic data.
Awaiting Parts Check Box
The Service Orders form, Service Order Lines form, Service Order Operations form, and Incidents form all feature the Awaiting Parts field. Use this field to indicate whether or not at least one planned material transaction linked to an non-received PO exists lower in the structure.
For example, assume a planned material transaction is linked to a non-received PO for SRO number S000000001, Line 2, Operation 30. Assuming no other planned material transactions are awaiting parts, the Awaiting Parts check box is set as follows:
| SRO S000000001 Level | Value |
|---|---|
| SRO Header | True |
| SRO Line 1 | False |
| SRO Line 2 | True |
| SRO Line 2, Oper 10 | False |
| SRO Line 2, Oper 20 | True |
| Incident of SRO | True |
Scheduling
The user can set the Awaiting Parts actions to affect the To Be Scheduled check box. As Incidents and SROs are created and set as To Be Scheduled, the system can automatically clear the To Be Scheduled check box so that the task is not displayed in the scheduling board. Leveraging this functionality prevents the Scheduler from considering tasks that are not ready to be scheduled.
For tasks that have been scheduled, the system displays a Red Hand icon to visually alert the Dispatcher that parts are on order.
Parts Received Email Notification Substitution List
For the system to dynamically display service data upon delivery of the notification email, the user must configure the email body with programmatic substitutions. This format must be used: #Alias.ColumnName#. The list of supported tables and their aliases are as follows:
| Table | Alias |
|---|---|
| SRO (fs_sro) | fs_sro |
| Incident (fs_incident) | fs_incident |
| SRO Lead Partner / Incident Owner (fs_partner) | Owner |
Examples
#fs_incident.inc_num#
#owner.name#
#fs_sro.description#