Production Planning - Board Tutorial

How to Understand the Planning Board

ℹ️ Schedules, Durations, and Progress information are collapsed by default and not displayed in Compact View. 

Click the arrows next to the titles to expand the views.

1. Navigate to Production Planning > Menu (button) > Board.

2. The top row, below the buttons displays the following information:

   • Name of the Stage.

   • How many Items must be produced.

   • How long it will take to produce those items.

3. Each job is summarised in a block and displays the following information:

   • Header (colour-coded according to the status):

     1. Job Number.

     2. Rep (if the job is not Internal).

     3. Customer Name or Internal (in this example Internal is the name of a customer account we created for internal jobs).

   • Schedule:

     1. The heading displays one of these options:

        •  TTS (Time to Start): If the job is due to start soon (blue text).

        • NOW: If the job has to start now. (white text on a blue background).

        • BUSY: If the job is currently in production (white text on a green background).

        • LATE and the number of hours: If the job is overdue (white text on a red background).

     2. Start (Est): The estimated start date and time.

     3. Start (Act): The actual start date and time.

   • Duration:

     1. Estimated: The estimated duration.

     2. Actual: The actual duration or zero if the job is still pending.

   • Progress:

     1. Required Qty: The quantity that is required.

     2. Complete Qty: The quantity that is completed or zero if the job is still pending.

4. The sequence of the information blocks depends on the order selected. For example:

   • The Jobs below a Stage are sorted by the jobs that must be done next.

   • The Stages are sorted based on which stage must first be completed before the next stage can start.

How to Reset the Planning Board

1. From the Board, click Actions (button) > Reset Planning Board.

2. Confirm that the following actions will be taken:

   1. Job Due Dates will be set to Required Dates: The internal due dates are changed to match the dates by which customers want the goods. However, due to production constraints, some due dates will be adjusted and may be later than the required dates. Those dates are displayed in red.

   2. Task Start Dates will be set from Job Due Dates: The start dates are set in accordance with the new due dates.

   3. Task Start Dates will be aligned from Now in each Stage: Tasks that are first in the queue are set to start now. Other tasks are adjusted accordingly.

   4. Task Start Dates will be adjusted to avoid Task dependency conflicts: The start dates are adjusted to match the completion date of prior stages that affect the task.

Filters and Adjustments

How to Change the Column Sizes

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Click the arrows on the side of the block that shows 300 to increase or decrease the width of the columns.

How to Filter by Stages

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Click Stages (button) and check the stages you want to display and uncheck the stages you want to hide.

   • You can also use the options on the list to show All the stages or All (Not Empty).

   • You can also select Groups if they are created.

How to Filter by Rep

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Click Rep (button) and check the reps you want to display and uncheck the reps you want to hide.

Dates

How to Adjust the Dates Based on Time

ℹ️ When a job has finished ahead of schedule, this process will change the start date of the next job so that it is immediately started and adjust all the start and end dates in that Stage to reflect this change.

- This action is also available from the context (right-click) menu.

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Click Actions (button) > Set Start / Finish from Now (Stages).

3. Confirm the change on the popup.

How to Adjust the Dates Based on Dependencies

ℹ️ This process adjusts the dates based on the tasks that must first be completed (i.e. the dependency).

3. Navigate to the Board.

4. Click Actions (button) > Set Start/Finish by Dependency (Stages). 

5. Confirm the change on the popup.

How to Order all Stages by Start Date

ℹ️ The jobs are ordered by their start dates, regardless of their statuses.

- This action is also available from the context (right-click) menu.

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Click Actions (button) > Order All Stages by Start Date. 

3. Confirm the change on the popup.

How to Order all Stages by Status and Start Date

ℹ️ The jobs are first ordered by their statuses and then by their start dates.

- This action is also available from the context (right-click) menu.

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Click Actions (button) > Order All Stages by Status and Start Date. 

3. Confirm the change on the popup.

How to Edit Job Statuses

ℹ️ From the Board, right-click an entry and select View Status Key from the context menu to see the hierarchy of Statuses.

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry you want to change and select one of these options from the context menu under Task Actions:

   • Next Status: Changes the status to the next stage in the hierarchy.

   • Previous Status: Changes the status to the previous stage in the hierarchy.

   • Set to Ready: Changes the status to ready (all the materials are there, the task can begin).

   • Set to Complete: Everything has been made. The job is complete.

Viewing Detailed Information

How to View/Edit Jobs

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry and select View/Edit Job from the context menu.

3. See Jobs Tutorial for more information on this feature.

How to View/Edit Notes

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry and select View/Edit Note from the context menu.

3. If a note exists, it is displayed and can be edited, otherwise enter a note in the block provided.

How to Highlight a Job

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry and select Highlight from the context menu. 

3. The job is highlighted in black across all the stages.

How to View a Kanban Board

ℹ️ The Kanban Board shows only the selected stage with columns for each of the statuses. Tasks can be dragged from one Status column to the next.

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry and select Open Kanban Board from the context menu. 

How to View Linked Transactions

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry and select Open Transaction from the context menu. The source transaction (e.g. Work Order) is opened.

How to View the Job's Variances (Cost of Sales)

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry and select Open Cost of Sales from the context menu.

3. You are switched to Cost of Sales with a filter applied that only shows materials for the job you clicked on.

1. • Note: The columns Variance and Var % show any variances.

How to View a Customer Summary

1. Navigate to the Board.

2. Right-click an entry and select Open Customer Summary from the context menu. 

3. The summary is opened on the right panel.

Related Topics

• Reference: Dashboard

• Reference: Jobs

• Reference: Tasks

• Reference: Materials

• Reference: Outwork

• Reference: Board

• Reference: Gantt

• Reference: Timekeeping

• Reference: Planning Stages

• Reference: Production Planning and Tracker Settings

• Reference: Kanban Board

• Tutorial: Dashboard

• Tutorial: Jobs

• Tutorial: Tasks

• Tutorial: Materials

• Tutorial: Outwork

• Tutorial: Gantt

• Tutorial: Timekeeping

• Tutorial: Edit Stages

• Setup Tutorial: Production and Tracking