Prioritising what to schedule

Markers
Visual APS allows you to define multiple markers to help prioritise and categorise your orders.

Save filter to file
You can save your filters and share the xml file that is saved with other users. 

Save filter to menu
Saving filters to the workflow menu is a relatively new feature in Visual APS.  You can now save your filters so they appear just for yourself or they can be saved and used globally by other users.

Filtering Columns
Columns can be quickly filtered by clicking on the arrow to the right of the column name.

Advanced Filtering
Right click on the column heading and select Filter Settings to perform more complex filtering.  From the Edit Filters windows you can save the filter to file or save the filter so that it appears on the workflow tab.

Grouping Tasks
Drag the column to the area above the column heading to group tasks by column value

Multiple groups
You can group on more than one column heading.

Groups Resetting
Groups are reset when data is refreshed or when the application is closed

Understanding how production should be prioritised is an important consideration for any manufacturer. All manufacturers have at least job orders, some of which are urgent, others of which are less so. Hence the need to prioritise how job orders are scheduled. The priorities that are set, will ultimately drive the schedule and is a main factor for how scheduled dates are calculated.

To help prioritise job orders, Visual APS provides different features to help you:

• Markers
• Basic and Advanced Filters
• Workflow Filters
• Grouping

Markers

• Markers appear as user defined visual indicators that can be set against job orders on the task panel window. Markers can be colour coded and used for sorting and filtering purposes.

To create a new marker

1. Click on the manage menu.
2. Click on markers
3. Click on the marker1 tab
4. Enter i.e. critical in the value field.
5. Click on add.
6. Click on the circle to the right critical.
7. Click on i.e. red from the colour palette.
8. Click on OK.
9. Click on OK.

To set a marker against a job order

1. From the Task Panel select the couple of job orders that are critical
2. Right click and select Markers
3. Click Marker1
4. Click i.e. Critical

You can also sort job orders in the task panel. In the default view, the task panel displays job orders by ascending job order number. In order to change the presentation of the job orders, any column can be selected as the primary sort. Select on a column header to sort the data according to that criteria.  Select the column header again to sort in the reverse job order. The arrow next to the column header indicates the job order of the sort.  Select a third time to remove the sort.

Basic and advanced filters

The application provides two types of filters:

• Basic filters are created from column headings and allow you to manage which job orders are visible based on the chosen criteria.

• Complex filters are used for multiple criteria selections and then the filter can be saved and/or shared with other users or attached to the workflow menu .

The use of filters allows you to prioritise job orders ready for scheduling.

To create a filter in the task panel

1. Right click on any column heading in the Task Panel
2. Click Filter Settings
3. Click AND
4. Click Add Criterion field
5. Select a column in the first field
6. Select an operator in the second field
7. Enter a condition in the value field
8. Click OK

To save a filter to file

1. Right click on any column heading in the Task Panel
2. Click Filter Settings
3. Click AND
4. Click Add Criterion field
5. Select a column in the first field
6. Select an operator in the second field
7. Enter a condition in the value field
8. Click Save to File
9. Enter a file name and location
10. Click Save
11. Click OK

When creating filters you can save the filter as a workflow item.

To create a workflow filter

1. Right click on any column heading in the Task Panel
2. Click Filter Settings
3. Click AND
4. Click Add Criterion field
5. Select a column in the first field
6. Select an operator in the second field
7. Enter a condition in the value field
8. Click Save to Menu
9. Select Who the Workflow will apply to
10. Click Add New
11. Enter a Name for the Workflow
12. Click OK
13. Click OK
14. The filter will now be available on the Workflow Menu

Grouping can be used when scheduling job orders based on a particular characteristic. For example, you may want to minimise change overs by scheduling all job orders for the same product together..

To group job orders in the task panel

1. Drag the column heading to the top of the task panel

The data will be grouped by column dragged. Use the + and - icons to the left of each grouping to expand or collapse the contents of the group. Sub groups can be added by dragging additional column headings to the top of the task panel.


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