Differences between Shift and Dynamic Dispatching - HxGN EAM - 12.2 - Feature Briefs - Hexagon

The goal of both dispatching processes is the same, which is to dispatch the optimal crew/employee to each WO activity. Therefore, the output of both dispatching processes is to create a dispatch record for each WO activity, specifying the crew/employee that should perform the work and the order (sequence) in which they should be performed.

The main differences between ‘shift’ dispatching and ‘dynamic’ dispatching are the following:

1. Dynamic dispatching is intended to dispatch WO activities that become available between shift dispatching process runs. Assuming shift dispatching is complete before the shift start, dynamic dispatching could run immediate after shift dispatching but prior to the shift start and during any shift defined on the Optimized Scheduler Setup record specified in the dynamic dispatching organization option.

2. The system will attempt to dispatch WO activities dynamically, in near real-time, after they become available for dispatching (i.e., every 5 minutes, providing a shift or dynamic dispatching process is not already running).

3. Dynamic dispatching considers the current location of crews/employees versus the location of the depot. The table R5MOBILELBSDATA will be used for location and is populated by the mobile application.

4. When the dynamic dispatching process runs, although data on the relevant Optimized Scheduler Setup record is used (i.e., see the Optimized Scheduler Setup record(s) specified in the DDOSSR organization option value for the WO organization), it is NOT updated with a Status change as is the case when shift dispatching runs. The dynamic dispatch status of these work orders is maintained on each of the processed WO activities.

5. For dynamic dispatching, crew/employee availability sent to the Optimized Scheduler will be the availability remaining in the shift at the time of the dynamic dispatching request and will be based on the current date/time (i.e., only 4 hours of availability will be considered if 1/2 of the 8-hour shift is complete when the request is made). If the request is made prior to the shift, then all shift availability will be used.

   1. EAM cannot send the CO the individual crew/employee remaining availability in a shift by examining the Hours Remaining for any WO activity(s) they have currently started and subtracting that from the number of hours remaining in the shift based on the current date/time. These are hours that the crew/employee are committed to completing and ideally, we would ‘reserve’ those hours and not count them as available for additional work. However, we cannot do this because there is a Constraint Optimizer limitation that prohibits EAM from sending crew/employee specific availability. The CO only accepts availability at the shift level, so sending a different availability for 1 crew/employee on the shift is NOT possible currently.

6. If a WO activity is NOT successfully dynamically dispatched, the system will NOT attempt to dynamically dispatch it again during the same shift (i.e., in subsequent dynamic dispatching runs during the same shift). We do not want server performance to be negatively impacted while continually trying to dynamically dispatch the same work order every 5 minutes when it is likely to continue to fail for the same reason during that shift. The dynamic process will attempt the dispatch the WO activity again during subsequent shifts defined on the Optimized Scheduler Setup record, or the shift dispatching process will pick it up the next time it runs, whichever comes first.

7. Technical Implementation: EAM will make a minimum of 2 calls (vs. 1 for shift dispatching) to the Optimized Scheduler when dynamically dispatching. This is to reduce the load on the Optimized Scheduler because dynamic dispatching has the potential to run every 5 minutes. In the first call, EAM passes in the maximum number of WO activities specified in dynamic dispatching organization option DDMAXWO, to determine which crew/employee is optimal for each WO activity. In the second call, EAM passes the single, optimal crew/employee, their currently dispatched WO activities, and the newly dispatched WO activity(s). In the second call, the Optimized Scheduler analyzes all the crew’s/employee’s currently dispatched WO activities to determine which ones can be completed and in which sequence. In this step, EAM will make a separate call for each crew/employee dispatched in step 1 to reduce server load and improve performance.