The Advanced tab

The advanced tab allows control of less commonly used advanced options.

Calendar settings

Respect resource calendar

If “Yes” is selected (the default) the duration of the operation will be calculated with respect to open and closed periods. If “No” is selected then the duration of the operation is planned as if the resource has a 24×7 open calendar. This option can be used to over rule the shift calendar – as an example place an operation in a weekend even though the shift calendar is normally closed on weekends.

Attached calendar entry

This option is only enabled if “Respect resource calendar” is set to “No”. If “Open” is selected for this field the shift calendar is automatically opened during the duration of this operation – and vice versa if “Closed” is selected. The shift calendar entry can be seen in the list of Resource specific calendar of the resource.

A normal use case for these settings will be to create a template operation called “Preventive maintenance”. On this operation set “Respect resource calendar=_No_” and “Attached calendar entry=_Closed_”. On this template operation assign alternative resources – typically all machines of your production. Next use the Express order option to create a PM job on a specific machine that will automatically close the shift calendar for the duration of the PM job – use the mouse to adjust the length of the PM job and see that this change will affect the shift calendar of the machine.

Unburden resource

An operation with “Unburden=yes” will not occupy capacity on the resource where it is placed. I.e. scheduling rules will plan on-top of the operation and it will not contribute with hours on the workload or man-power graphs.

Display type

Common for the display type options, are that the scheduling rules will still respect the operation, no matter what the setting of the display type is. I.e. the display type will only affect the appearance of the operation. The following table shows the appearance of the operation in the Gantt chart, depending on the display type setting selected

Secondary resources

Use this option to specify that the e.g. the setup job for this operation follows the shift calendar of a different resource than the resource assigned to this operation. This is typically used if the setup time is carried out in different calendar periods than that of the processing time.

Other settings

Show broken constraint as flag

Will show a “C” flag on the operation in the Gantt chart if it has a broken routing constraint. Notice that the menu option “View->Milestones flags->Broken constraints” must be enabled to show the constraint warning flag.

Check if route should change when the resource changes

For further info on this option see the Alternate route chapter

Block resource change during scheduling

If enabled then scheduling rules will never try to search for an alternative resource for this operation

Allow start in closed period

Setting applicable only for sub-operations. If the option is enabled, then during scheduling an operation may be scheduled to start in a closed period when the primary operation is able to start earlier. Use this feature to e.g. occupy a tank (primary operation with 24×7 open calendar) until it has been approved by lab-personnel (the sub-operation) working in shifts.

Operation step handler

The operation step handlers can modify the behavior of setup, workload, switchover jobs of the operation and how they are calculated.

By default only the normal handler and the “No idle time chain” handlers can be chosen. The “No idle time chain” will have the effect that during re-planning of the operation the operation may only span across a closed calendar period of max 15 minutes (the actual minutes can be further adjusted using the GanttSetup.properties”). If the operation spans a longer closed calendar period a new start date will be searched for the operation. This is useful if as an example a Lab operation is not allowed to span across the closed calendar period of the evening but is still allowed to cross a minor coffee break. I.e. once a lab analysis-sample is started it must be completed before the personnel goes home.

Sequencer options
For further info on these options refer to the Sequencer chapter.