Visual Planner

The Visual Planner is an interactive, calendar-based scheduling tool used to plan, review, and manage Events and Work Orders. It provides a clear visual view of when work will occur and when Assets will be unavailable, supporting effective maintenance planning and coordination.

The Visual Planner is designed for planners, schedulers, and schedulers who need to balance workload, downtime, and resource availability.

What the Visual Planner is

The Visual Planner displays maintenance work in a Gantt-style timeline. Events (Advanced assets) or Work Orders (Basic and Standard assets) are represented by scheduling bars, with the length of the scheduling bar proportional to the duration of the Event / Work Order.

The Visual Planner can be used as a tool to visualise:

• Events as scheduling containers for downtime
• Work Orders either inside Events or unscheduled
• Asset downtime and availability over time
• Planned and forecast downtime

This allows users to quickly understand what work is planned, what is unscheduled, and where conflicts may occur.

How the Visual Planner works

The Visual Planner combines scheduling, rescheduling, and visibility in a single view.

Key behaviours for Advanced Assets include:

• Event scheduling bars define downtime windows
• Unscheduled Work Orders are scheduled by being added to Events through drag-and-drop

Key behaviours for Basic and Standard Assets include:

• Work Order scheduling bars define downtime windows
• Unscheduled Work Orders are scheduled by drag-and-drop onto the calendar

Shared key behaviours include:

• Drag-and-drop interactions to allow fast rescheduling
• Changes update scheduling logic immediately

The Visual Planner respects system rules such as:

• Asset availability
• Business hours
• Technician shifts
• Event constraints (if enabled)

Understanding the Visual Planner layout

The Visual Planner is divided into clear areas:

• Calendar Timeline area
  Displays Events and Work Orders as coloured scheduling bars.
• Swimlanes
  Organise the view by:
  • Asset
  • Team
  • Technician
  • Site
• Panels
  • Left Panel: Unscheduled Work Orders
    • List of Work Orders that are not yet scheduled. These can be dragged-and-dropped onto the timeline area or into the middle panel (Advanced assets).
  • Middle Panel: Event Work Orders (Advanced Assets)
    • List of Work Orders within the selected Event scheduling bar.
  • Right Panel: Delays (Advanced Assets)
    • List of delays recorded on the selected Event.

Viewing by Day, Week, Month, or Year

The Visual Planner supports multiple time horizons.

Users can switch between:

• Day view for detailed, short-term planning
• Week view for operational scheduling
• Month view for medium-term planning
• Year view for high-level forecasting

In Day and Week views:

• Event and Work Order titles are displayed directly on the scheduling bars

In Month and Year views:

• The focus is on duration and overlap rather than detail

Shift start time behaviour

The start time of the calendar is controlled by the Shift Start Time setting.

To change this:

1. Navigate to App Settings
2. Update the Shift Start Time

This affects:

• Where the day begins in the Visual Planner
• How Events and Work Orders align visually
• Planning accuracy for shift-based operations

Adding Events in the Visual Planner

Events can be created directly within the Visual Planner.

To add an Event:

1. Open the Visual Planner.
2. Select + Add Event.
3. Enter the Event details.
4. Click + Assign Work Orders to add any applicable work orders.
5. Save the Event.

The Event immediately appears on the timeline if within the time horizon currently being viewed.

Adding Unscheduled Work Orders to an Event

Unscheduled Work Orders can be planned directly in the Visual Planner.

To add an Unscheduled Work Order to an Event:

1. Click on an Event scheduling bar. This will highlight the bar and update the panels.
2. Locate the Work Order in the Unassigned Work panel (bottom left).
3. Drag and drop the Work Order into the Event panel (bottom middle).

Drag-and-drop rescheduling

The Visual Planner supports drag-and-drop scheduling.

This allows users to:

• Move Events to new dates
• Extend or shorten Event durations
• Reschedule Work Orders within Events

Important behaviour:

• Rescheduling an Event automatically reschedules all Work Orders inside it proportionally
• Constraints are enforced based on system settings
• Conflicts may raise warnings or block saving

Colour coding and visual interpretation

Scheduling bars use colour coding to improve clarity.

Colours can be configured based on:

• Event Type
  Reference Tables → Event Tables → Event Type
• Event Status
  Reference Tables → Event Tables → Event Status
• Asset Class
  Reference Tables → Models & Groups → Class

Colour coding helps users quickly identify:

• Type of downtime
• Current Event state
• Equipment category impact

Only one colour-coding mode is active at a time.

How conflicts are handled

The Visual Planner actively checks for conflicts.

Depending on configuration:

• Conflicts may display warnings
• Conflicts may prevent saving
• Examples include:
  • Technician overbooking
  • Overlapping Events
  • Scheduling outside allowed hours

This ensures realistic and achievable schedules.

Pre-requisites

Before using the Visual Planner:

• Assets must be correctly configured (Basic, Standard, Advanced)
• Events and Event Types must exist
• Users must have scheduling permissions
• Shift times should be configured in App Settings
• Reference data for colours should be defined

Example of using the Visual Planner

A planner needs to schedule maintenance on an Advanced Asset.

The planner:

• Opens the Visual Planner in Week view
• Creates a new Event using + Add Event
• Drags three Unscheduled Work Orders into the Event
• Adjusts the Event duration to fit a single downtime window
• Confirms there are no conflicts

The Asset now shows planned downtime, and all work is grouped efficiently.

Important considerations and best practices

• Use Events to minimise repeated downtime for Advanced Assets
• Keep Event durations realistic
• Use colour coding consistently across the organisation
• Review Unscheduled Work Orders regularly
• Use Day and Week views for operational an day-to-day planning
• Use Month and Year views for long-term forecasting
• Avoid manual rescheduling outside agreed constraints
• Treat warnings as planning signals, not system errors

The Visual Planner provides a clear, interactive, and reliable way to schedule maintenance, manage downtime, and align maintenance work with operational needs.