Planning board

The planning board (also known as the resource planning board) is the central tool for dispatchers to plan and visualize technician assignments. Historically, the planning board was a large wall board with magnetic strips or cards, but today it has been digitized in FSM software.

How does the planning board work? Typically, the Y-axis contains a list of resources grouped by teams or locations, and the X-axis contains a timeline (days, weeks). A planned assignment then appears as an assignment bar in the row of the respective technician from start to end time. This allows the dispatcher to see all assignments in their temporal context. Overlaps (a technician being assigned twice) become visible and can be avoided.

The digital planning board offers enormous advantages over the analog version: drag-and-drop planning, filter options (e.g., show only certain teams or only certain order types), zoom levels (daily, weekly, monthly view), legends for colors/categories, and integrated info windows.

Instead of displaying information by person, you can also display it by machine, customer, or project to answer other planning questions.

Interactivity: A dispatcher can create new assignments directly on the board (e.g., by double-clicking on a free slot), move existing ones with the mouse, or extend them. The software checks rules such as availability, overbookings, skills, and many more in the background and updates linked data in real time. Changes to the planning board can in turn be automatically reported to the technician (via the technician app) so that they are aware of their new schedule.

Color coding and legends: Each planning board works with visual markings. There are also special symbols for absences. FSM systems also allow color coding of the bars so that you can distinguish between vacation and orders at a glance. The progress of an assignment can also be displayed, for example, by hatching or a small percentage bar.

Interaction with other modules: The planning board accesses a wide range of data: order data (from the ticket/project module), resource data (availability, skills), maintenance contracts (scheduled appointments), etc. Changes on the board can trigger automatic processes, such as automatically informing customers by email if their appointment has been rescheduled. Conversely, feedback from technicians (e.g., work started/completed) flows back and can appear on the board.

The planning board is to the dispatcher what the cockpit is to the pilot. Without it, navigation is virtually impossible. This is where everything comes together, so it must be user-friendly and high-performance, even when hundreds of assignments are displayed.

A practical advantage: a glance at the planning board in the morning tells the dispatcher everything: who is on the road today, who is still available? Which orders are still unplanned? Thanks to the planning board, appointments can also be coordinated and rescheduled. For example, if a technician is unavailable, their assignments can be assigned to a colleague and you can immediately see what their day looks like.

Last but not least, the planning board also promotes communication: many service managers use it in team meetings to discuss weekly planning because it provides a clear overview. The digital planning board can often be displayed on a large screen or shared via the web so that everyone involved—dispatch, service management, perhaps sales and support—has the same information.