Deployment bar

An deployment bar is the graphical representation of an assignment (service appointment) on the planning board. In traditional planning boards, deployments are visualized as bars on a timeline to show the start, duration, and end of the assignment for a resource (Gantt chart). The Innosoft software makes extensive use of this concept in its graphical resource planning: “In the graphical planning board, appointments are displayed as resource bars, with the color indicating the type of activity.”

This means that every order or appointment planned by the dispatcher appears as a colored block in the timeline of the respective resource (e.g., technician). The length of the bar corresponds to the planned duration. The color or shading can represent different order types or statuses, such as blue for maintenance, red for fault calls, gray for absence (vacation/sickness), etc. This allows you to see at a glance what type of deployment a resource has at any given time. In addition, abbreviations or symbols (the assignment identifiers) are often visible on the bar, e.g., a “W” for maintenance or a tool symbol for commissioning.

Clicking on an deployment bar opens the assignment info window, where all details of the deployment can be viewed and edited. Here, the dispatcher can see, for example, the exact task description, the customer, the required skills, or linked items. The deployment bar itself can be moved by drag and drop or adjusted in length to reschedule the appointment. This makes planning very intuitive, similar to appointments in a calendar.

The bar display also allows you to check capacity utilization. If there are many bars parallel to each other, you can see that several resources are tied up at the same time. Innosoft offers the option of overlaying bars for groups or teams to identify free vs. occupied time.

In addition to the actual deployment bar, some systems offer additional bar types, such as travel time bars (for arrival and departure) or processing time bars. These can be visualized differently (e.g., as dashed lines). This allows travel times to be distinguished from pure working time.

All in all, the deployment bar is the central graphical element of resource planning. It visually links time, resources, and orders. It is much easier for dispatchers to plan with bars than with tables alone, as shifts and overlaps are immediately visible. This makes it clear that without assignment bars, digital resource planning would hardly be as clear and effective.