Routing

Overview

This document will guide you through the daily steps required to efficiently run the SmartWare Routing feature

• This document assumes you have already gone through the initial setup procedures required to use the Routing feature. (i.e. postal code/zone assignment, employee setup and technician availability setup) If you have not, you will need to do so before proceeding

Navigate to Routing  

You can access the Routing page by navigating to the following location:

• From the main menu on left side of the screen, select Dispatch and then ‘Routing’
  
  Main Menu – Dispatch

Routing– Procedures:

To help insure your office is effectively using the Routing feature, there are certain procedures you should perform every day in the proper sequence

• Below is a list of each procedure you should be performing daily:
  • Daily Schedule
  • Run Route
  • Review Route
  • Accept Route

Daily Schedule

The Router utilizes information found in the Daily Schedule when determining how many jobs to route to a technician.  For this reason, it is important to verify the Daily Schedule for each technician is accurate for the date you are running the router

• Navigate to Dispatch | Routing Setup. The Daily Schedule panel will load on the right side of the page
  • Depending on how you have the Daily Schedule setup, will determine what information the Router will used when determining technician availability

See below for an explanation of the different methods available:

Method	Functionality
Route based off AM and PM availability	If End Time is left blank (null) on the Daily Schedule record, then the Router will look at the AM and PM availability entered to determine an effective End Time (i.e. Technician Daily Schedule record shows 2 AM and 3 PM availability. The technician has a Start Time of 8 AM and no End Time. The router will schedule AM jobs until 11 AM (8 AM + 2 hours of availability + 1 hour cushion) and PM jobs until 3:30 (12 PM start + half hour lunch break + 3 hours of availability)) Employees who are setup in multiple Zones for the same day will need to utilize the ‘Route based off Start & End Time’ method and should have an ‘End Time’ entered for each Daily Availability record for the Router to work appropriately
Route based off Start and End Time availability	If an End Time is entered on the Technician’s Daily Schedule record for a Zone, then the Router will ignore Daily Schedule AM/PM availability when determining what work orders to route to a technician. Instead, the Router will use the Start Time and End Time entered on the Daily Schedule (i.e. Technician Daily Schedule record shows 2 AM and 3 PM availability. However, technician has a Start Time: 7:00 AM and End Time: 6:00 PM. Bucket Scheduler will still utilize the 2 AM and 3 PM when determining work order availability counts for the Zone. However, Router will begin trying to route jobs in the zone at 7AM and will continue routing jobs in the zone until 6:00 pm for the selected technician)

• On the Daily Schedule, verify the availability you have entered for each technician. If you need to modify a Technician’s availability for the day you may do so now
  • At any time, you may modify an entry on the Daily Schedule to account for fluctuation in availability or temporary changes to technician’s schedule
• Please reference the Technician Availability Setup (User Guide) for additional details over Daily Schedule

Use caution when overlapping zone availability for a technician on the Daily Scheduler as this can limit router capability.

Run Route

Once you have verified each technician’s availability for the following day, you are now ready to begin routing your next day work orders

• From the Routing panel, select the date you would like to run the Routing feature for
  • You may select a date by clicking on the  (calendar) button or using the   arrows to select a date

Below is a brief explanation of the different Date section options

Item	Functionality
	Indicates the date that is currently being displayed on the Routing panel
	Allows you to view a different calendar date by moving  forward or  backward by one day at a time
	Opens a calendar picker allowing you to select a specific date to view
	Refresh information displayed on the Routing panel

• Verify the correct date appears in the  date display field
• Next, verify all work orders are selected that you would like to try routing
  • By default, work orders will automatically appear  checked to route unless they have an open purchase order associated with them.  At any time, you may uncheck/check a work order to be included in the routing process

Checking a work order that has an ‘Open’ PO associated with it could result in work orders being scheduled for the following day when parts required for the job have not been received yet.

• Next, under the Routing section, click the  (Calc Route Exact Miles) button 
• The progress bar at the top of the page will inform you the routing process is being run
  • During this process, information will be sent out to Google maps to determine the exact mileage to the customer’s location
    • The router will attempt to assign jobs based off preferred technician listed on the work order when possible
    • Work orders that were scheduled through the Simple Scheduler and have a primary technician listed will be included in the route for the selected technician based off time frame selected. The router will attempt to route other work orders around these ‘set in stone’ jobs.

Use caution when forcing work orders to specific technicians and time slots as this can severely limit the routers capability when routing jobs.

• Once the route has finished, the routing results will be displayed under the Jobs Routed section for you to review
  • At this point, the route has not been accepted. You will still need to review the routing results and if satisfied, you will need to Accept the route. 

Review Route

After selecting and running a Route, you will need to review the proposed route and verify that you are satisfied with the results.  At any time, you may modify work order information or employee availability and rerun the route 

Routing

• The Routing Results screen will be divided into two portions: Jobs Routed and Jobs Not Routed
  • Jobs Routed: Displays all jobs were the job was successfully routed to a technician and time slot for the selected date
  • Jobs Not Routed: Display a list of all scheduled jobs that the router was unable to route
    • Any work orders appearing in the Jobs Not Routed panel will remain unassigned and will need to be scheduled manually

Below is a brief explanation of each column on the Jobs Routed/Jobs Not Routed (grids):

Column	Functionality
Options	Displays a list of work order options (edit WO):  Will open the work order allowing you to view information about the work order and make changes if needed
Work Order	Displays ticket # for the selected work order
Technician	Displays the name of each technician that the router selected to assign to the work order based off Daily Schedule availability and technician job skill
To: Miles	Estimated Miles to the customer address based off Google Map results
To: Times	Estimated Time to the customer address based off Google Map results
Job Start	Expected start time for the work order  If Immovable column = checked: then this is the start time that was selected when the job was scheduled through the Simple Scheduler If Immovable column = unchecked:  then this is the proposed start time for the work order based off the router assignment
Job End	Expected time the job should be completed by   End time for the selected work order is based off the proposed Start Time determined by the router (or Simple Scheduler) and Job Length entered on the work order
Zone	Displays Zone information from work order
Job Skill	Display Job Skill selected on work order
Customer	Displays customer name as listed on the work order
Address	Displays customer address that is associated with the work order
City	Displays customer city that is associated with the work order
Postal Code	Displays customer postal code that is associated with the work order
Time Slot	Displays Time Slot that was selected on the work order
# Techs	Displays the number of technicians that are listed in the ‘Technician’ field on the work order This is different than the preferred technician listed on the work order
Immovable	Indicates if the work order is forced to a specific time frame and technician Checked:  Work order is considered immovable (indicating that the work order was forced to a specific technician and time frame using the simple scheduler).   The router had to work around this job when trying to schedule other work orders Unchecked:  Work order is considered movable (indicating that the work order was scheduled through the Bucket Scheduler
Accepted	Indicates if the work order has been accepted on the route yet Checked:  Work order proposed route was accepted Unchecked:  Work order proposed route has not been accepted yet
Message	Displays additional notes about the work order and routing process

Reset Route

Resetting the route allows for flexibility for modifying work order information and technician availability prior to accepting a proposed route

• To reset the route, click the  (Reset Route) button from the Router panel
  • All previously routed work orders will be moved back to the pre-routed state allowing you to make changes to work order and/or technician availability. Once you have finished making all necessary changes, you can rerun the route again. 
  • You can reset the route as many times as needed until you are satisfied with the results

Accept Route

Once you have reviewed and confirmed the Routing results for the selected day, you are now ready to Accept the Route. Accepting the Route will automatically assign the technician, start time, and end time on the work orders based off the Job Route results

• From the Routing panel, click the  (Accept Route) button
  • All work orders appearing in Buckets on the Dispatch Calendar for the selected route/date will now appear on the Dispatch Calendar for the routed technician and time slot
  • Any work orders appearing in the Jobs Not Routed panel will remain unassigned in Buckets on the Dispatch Calendar and will need to be scheduled manually

Additional Items:

What triggers work orders to appear on Routing panel to Route?

Work Orders will only appear on the Routing panel if all the following criteria are true:

• Work Order has Status of ‘Ready to Schedule’ or ‘Scheduled’
• Work Order has a Job Date equal to the date you selected on the Routing screen

How to tell if a Route was Accepted?

You can tell if a route has been accepted for a specific date by navigating to Dispatch | Routing, selecting the date you want to see if has been routed and then looking to the left of the Router date. 

• (Accepted) Means the route has already been accepted for the selected date
  
  Router – Accepted Route

• No (Accepted) wording at the end of the ‘Route For……….’ indicates that the route has not been accepted for the selected date

How does the Router determine which jobs and the number of jobs to route to a technician?

The Router looks at a combination of items to determine which jobs to route to a technician and the number of jobs to route.  Below is a list of items used when assigning work orders to technicians.

• Technician Job Skill: The router will look to see if a technician with Daily Availability for a zone has also been setup with the required job skill that is listed on the work order.  If a technician does not have the required job skill listed on the work order (regardless of Daily Scheduler availability for the Zone), then the router will not route the job to the technician.
• Technician’s Daily Availability for (Zone, AM, PM, and End Time): Depending on how the Daily Scheduler record for a technician is setup will determine which jobs can be routed to a technician and when. The router will check the following items on the Technician Daily Scheduler record to determine if/when work orders can be assigned to a technician
  • Router will verify the technician has an ‘active’ Daily Scheduler record for the Zone listed on the work order
  • Router will look to see if an ‘End Time’ exist on the Daily Scheduler record
    • If End Time is left blank (null) on the Daily Schedule record, then the Router will look at the AM and PM availability entered when determining how many work orders to route to a technician
      • Employees who are setup in multiple Zones for the same day will need to utilize the ‘Route based off Start & End Time’ method and should have an ‘End Time’ entered for each Daily Availability record for the Router to work appropriately.
    • If an End Time is entered on the Technician’s Daily Schedule record for a Zone, then the Router will ignore Daily Schedule AM/PM availability when determining what work orders to route to a technician. Instead, the Router will use the Start Time and End Time entered on the Daily Schedule.
      • (i.e. Technician Daily Schedule record shows 2 AM and 3 PM availability. However, technician has a Start Time: 7:00 AM and End Time: 6:00 PM. Bucket Scheduler will still utilize the 2 AM and 3 PM when determining work order availability counts for the Zone. However, Router will begin trying to route jobs in the zone at 7AM and will continue routing jobs in the zone until 6:00 pm for the selected technician)
    • Employee Time Off entries: The router looks to see if there are any Employee Time Off entries for a selected employee and will not route jobs to that employee during the time off period (regardless of Daily Scheduler availability for the day).

At any time, users can force jobs to a technician by using the Simple Scheduler on a work order.  Use caution when forcing jobs through the simple scheduler as this locks work orders into a specific technician and timeframe.  Forcing jobs through the simple scheduler can severely limit availability the router has for job assignment and routing.  

Why was a job not routed?

There are several different reasons why a job could appear in the Jobs Not Routed section on the Dispatch | Routing panel.

Below is a list of some of the reasons SmartWare would be unable to route a job.

Message	Functionality
No employees with home or starting addresses set up - cannot route	Indicates that no technician has been setup with a home address or starting address under Administrative | Employees. Navigate to Administrative | Employees | Options | Address for each employee and setup a home and/or starting address. This will indicate to the Router where the employee will start their day from
No Time Available or No Employees for Skill/Zone	Indicates that one of the following conditions could be preventing the work order from being routed: No Time Available (see explanation for Not Time Available message) No employee is setup with an ‘active’ Daily Availability record for the Zone listed on the work order Employee has an ‘active’ Daily Schedule record for the selected date and Zone listed on the work order, however the technician does not have availability setup for the appropriate time slot (AM/PM) listed on the work order Employee has an ‘active’ Daily Schedule record for the selected date and Zone listed on the work order, however the technician is not setup to perform the Job Skill listed on the work order
No Time Available	There is no time slot available that will account for the work order job length and travel time needed. Verify you have a technician with an ‘active’ Daily Schedule record for the selected zone listed on the work order and job date selected.  Make sure to validate that the Start Time and End Time listed on the Daily Schedule record are entered appropriately for the time frame the technician should be working. If no End Time is listed for the technician, remember that an End Time is calculated based off the availability counts for the technician Check that Employee Time Off records are not affecting your daily availability for a Zone
Invalid Zone	Work Order has an invalid zone associated with it Check Setup Franchise | Setup | Zones and verify the postal code has been associated with a Zone.  If the postal code has been associated with a Zone, check the following: Was the postal code only setup for a ‘Specialty Zone’ (Zone with a dispatch code associated with it)?  If so you may need to also setup the postal code in a standard/regular Zone to cover all other dispatch codes listed on work orders
Invalid Job Skill	Work order has an invalid job skill selected on it Edit the work order and select a valid job skill
Not selected on Routing Screen	The selection box was unchecked next to the work order on the Routing panel prior to clicking ‘Calc Route Exact Miles’ button.
Not Routed – PO Status: ….	Work Order has open purchase orders associated with it and was marked as ‘unchecked’ during the routing process. You may bypass this functionality by checking the routing box next to the work order prior to running the route.  However, we recommend using caution when bypassing this feature as it can result in work orders being routed where parts have not been received yet for the job
WO with multipole techs must be scheduled before routing	Work Orders with multiple technicians listed on the job will need to be schedule manually using the ‘Simple Scheduler’
Cannot find address on Google – fix address or use Simple Scheduler	Indicates that Google Maps returned address not found based off the address listed on the work order for the customer. Verify that the address is correctly entered (i.e. no misspellings), and fix any mistakes if needed If address appears correct, then use the Simple Scheduler to book a technician and time slot for the job
No Hours Available for preferred tech…..	The Router will first attempt to route the work order to the preferred technician listed on the work order.  However, if no availability exists for the preferred technician, the Router will then attempt to route the job to any other technician with daily availability for the zone, job skill and date listed on the work order.
Multiple jobs at same address.  Verify schedule	The Router will attempt to route multiple jobs for the same customer and same date back to back, making sure to assign the same technician to all jobs.  If the Router is unable to find a timeslot large enough for a technician to take all jobs together, then the router will not route either job. Verify the technician assigned to the zone listed on the work order has a Start Time & End Time large enough to account for the time frame needed If there are several jobs scheduled for the same Zone and the router is still unable to route the jobs together you can use the Simple Scheduler to force the jobs to a technician