We are using work centers for employee’s to schedule our work. We have created workcenter groups and then setup human resources and we assign employee numbers to the resources. The problem I am having is as we change the number of work centers required over time, I end up with extra work centers and I don’t have a way to make them inactive. Ideally, I would turn them off or on as needed. Does anyone know how to do this? What method does most use?
Set it with a calendar that is closed and cannot be scheduled, then set a task group to point it at alternate work centres. Only issue is if you define specific work centres in the route can not groups.
Let me make sure I am following you. In my case, I have work center groups WLD-LA and inside the WLD-LA, I have specific workcenters named WLD-LA01, WLD-LA02, etc. To disable the workcenter, I should create a task group called WLD-LA and ,assign the work center to this task group. In addition, I should assign the work center I want to deactivate to a calendar that is not used, in my case a calendar called “NoTime”. When scheduling see’s the notime calendar and it can’t schedule the workcenter, it will roll to the task group WLD-LA to find another alternative. Correct?..if that is correct, the only issue I see is that the task group includes the disabled work center. It seems like this would cause a loop for the masterplan. …and I have never assigned work center groups to a task group. Does this work the same as assigning work centers to a task group?
or should I create my task group named WLD-LA then populate the work centers with all the active work centers. The only issue I see is I have to also delete the work center from the task group when deactivating future work centers.
The issue you have is that you have an “inactive” work centre, what you do depends upon the circumstances of the inactivity. If they have left why not delete it? I presume because you want to reassign. I presume you are finite because otherwise it would not matter. The task group would need to contain real alternatives however you structure it, it would mean as well as assigning a calendar you would need to remove it from the task group you assign to the work centre - depends upon the requirements really.
Deleting it was my first choice, but AX will not allow deleting a work center that has had transactions against it. So are you saying I can create a task group without alternatives, the masterplan will not have issues with it?
Ultimately if you have a closed work centre with addidional work centres in the group it must schedule against the work centres with availability within the planning horizon. However if you are infinite and it is the first WC you may need to verify this.
wouldn’t a better solution be to set up task groups with all my work centers in it that are active and then set the work center group to the task group? …I can always delete work centers from the task group…I just tried this but it appears that masterplan ignored the task group and used the work centers. Any ideas?
That is one solution, although the correct answer depends upon the setup and requirements. Basically if it works for you it works.
If the master plan ignored the task group and planned work for a work centre then that work centre has capacity by definition.
Can you define a “closed Calendar”? I have set it up with my definition of a closed calendar and a task group but I am still having some issues. I have been tweaking it each day and seeing the results of the masterplan. I believe you have me on the right track.
Each work centre has a calendar. Create one that has working times but has the control set to closed, or no time defined, basically ensure there is no capacity. If you go to the work centre and the select Inquiries and Capacity Load the capacity should always be 0
Thanks for your help. Using the tips you gave me, I have successfully got the work centers working properly