For a quick hands-on intro the Create simple shift calendar in the “Getting started” section is recommended reading. This chapter contains the following:
- Introduction
- Creating a general calendar
- Creating a holiday calendar
- Creating a week calendar
- Creating a calendar specific calendar
- Creating a resource specific calendar
- Instructions for entering periods
Introduction
A shift calendar defines
Open hours
Resource working hours where it consequently is possible to schedule activities. Also termed available time.
Available time is marked as a white (color can be overridden) color in the Gantt chart if the function View – Available time is activated.
Example:
Daily working hours from 07.00 – 15.00.
Closed hours
Periods the resource is unavailable and where it consequently is impossible to schedule activities.
Closed periods are marked with a gray color in the Gantt chart if the function View – Available time is activated.
Example:
Lunch break between 12.00 and 12.30 from July 9-27.
Periods not stated as either “open” or “closed” is considered as non- working hours and consequently “closed hours”.
A General Calendar (or main calendar) is composed of contributions from 3 different sub-calendars.
- A holiday calendar – defines holiday periods
- A week calendar – defines open or closed periods occurring at repeating intervals, e.g. shift work hours.
- A calendar specific calendar – defines exceptions from the holiday and week calendars which apply to all resources that use this sub-calendar. This calendar type is only rarely used, so new users should ignore this.
The general calendar is assigned a name when you create it. You can create many different general calendars each with a different composition of sub-calendars. The general calendar is the calendar being assigned to the resource. Read more here about assigning the calendar to the resource.
The 3 sub-calendars can at any time be edited. Please note that many resources may share the same sub-calendar so a change in one sub-calendar may have consequences for many different general calendars and thus many different resources.
The resource itself also has a resource specific calendar. This fourth calendar type, defines periods relating only to the resource the calendar is assigned to. As an example use this for closing a single resource for e.g. preventive maintenance or similar
The contributions of the individual sub-calendars to the resulting resource calendar have different priorities. If there are overlaps between periods in two different sub-calendars, then the period which belongs to the sub-calendar with the highest priority will win.
The following priorities apply to the different calendars:
| Priority | Sub-Calendar | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | Resource specific calendar | Preventive maintenance on machine Mazak fr 1 every Tuesday between 07.00 – 10.00 |
| Medium | Calendar specific calendar | Monday meeting in workshop 1 every Monday between 10.00 and 12.00. |
| Low | Holiday calendar | Summer holiday from 9th – 27th July |
| Lowest | Week calendar | 1st shift 07.00 – 15.00 |
Both “closed” and “open” time can be created within each sub-calendar. “Closed” time has a higher priority than “Open” time. If there is an overlap between an “open” period and a “closed” period, this overlapping period is considered “closed”. As an example if open periods are specified in the week calendar on all workdays between 06.00 – 18.00 and in the holiday calendar it is stated there is holiday (a closed period) in the from 9th – 27th July. In this case all the days are considered “closed”.
Examples of contributions from sub-calendars
Example 1
The below example shows how ROB-EX interprets the contributions from the different sub-calendars.
The picture shows a general calendar consisting of a week calendar, a holiday calendar, a calendar specific calendar and a resource specific calendar. Each time two calendars are joined the result is displayed. E.g. the first Result illustrates the result from joining a Week calendar with a Holiday calendar.
The calendars are joined in the prioritized sequence listed above. So the example shows:
- that a closed period in the holiday calendar has a higher priority than an open period in the week calendar.
- that an open period in the calendar specific calendar has a higher priority than an closed period in the holiday calendar.
- that an open period in the resource specific calendar has higher priority than an closed period in the calendar specific calendar
Example 2
The resource “R1” works in workshop H1 and is served by operators who work shift S1.
- A holiday calendar named H1 has been created specifically for workshop H1 as resources in this work shop may go on summer vacation in periods that are different from other production areas.
- Furthermore a week calendar for shift S1 has been created. S1 works from Monday to Friday, 06.00 – 14.00.
- The resource R1 has its own specific resource calendar where e.g. time spent on maintenance is modeled.
The resource “R2” also works in workshop H1 but is served by operators who work shift S2. The S2 shift works Monday – Friday, 08.00 – 16.00.
- The resource R1 is thus assigned the holiday calendar H1 and the week calendar for shift S2.
- Furthermore resource R2 has its own specific resource calendar.
As the example shows a company may have several different holiday and week calendars, that are shared whenever applicable. The advantage of this is that a single change to a rule is automatically propagated to many resource. The downside however is, that you need to carefully design how to best model your shift calendar configuration.
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