capacity planning/dispatch

[Topahill]

We are trying to work out how to best use adjustable capacity planning(using skills) and dispatching jobs efficiently. I am running into a couple of stumbling blocks. Some of our techs have a specialized skill so if we assign jobs as we schedule them it is possible to eat up all of the capacity for that specialized skill with lower skill jobs.  The solution to that is to leave all of the jobs under unassigned until they need to be dispatched, this way the specialized skill capacity will be left open for as long as possible. This creates the need to be able to find the best job to dispatch to a tech out of a bunch of unassigned jobs quickly. The Schedule Assistant is not any help because it has the opposite workflow, for one job it finds the best tech, plus it doesn't look at capacity rules and overlooks our techs assigned a skill by rule anyway.  Maps 2.0 seems like it would be a good solution but there is no way to filter  the unassigned jobs by arrival window which makes it pretty much useless when viewing a bunch of unassigned jobs on the map.   Any ideas?

[KristinS1]

I have a few thoughts for you.  I dispatch the following way: 

1. Do you have skill levels set up on your technician and job types?  If you do not, you should start at that point,  When you have those set up, Schedule Assistant should be helpful based on what the skill levels are.
2.   For my seasoned techs I complete the following: 
   1. always set the first job for each tech in the organization based on skill sets. 
   2. I set up jobs based on equipment needed.  Any thing that needs a specialized equipment (IE Camera for sewer lines) one tech will get all of those calls. 
   3. I set up the seasoned techs with their jobs for the day
   4. I set up the sold estimate jobs
   5. Anything else I leave un assigned to fill in through out the day

Why this works for me, if I have to step away and someone is completing dispatch, anyone can see what is going on with the techs and do not have to worry about sending an unseasoned tech to a difficult job.  

All of that being said - I do have to say that I do not go by zones.  We choose to overlook drive time to make sure that we have happy customers.

I hope that this all makes sense, if it does not, ask more questions.