Schedule Requests

This facility allows you to request authorisation actions to be taken on one or more schedules for which you do not have sufficient authority.

An example of this is that you wish to factory a schedule into a day that has been production locked and you do not have authority to override it.

A prompt will appear asking if you wish to create a request for the action. Doing so will allow users that do have access to the function to complete the request on your behalf.

While this is all done automatically and in a way that should not require follow up, it may be advisable to make sure the request is completed by relevant people in a timely manner.

Example usage

We have three schedules due for delivery on the 30th of July. This date has already been closed by production and the current user cannot override this limitation.

Selecting the schedules then using the mouse right click function, a menu appears with several items including one to factory the schedules:

Selecting this option produces a response displaying why any of the schedules cannot be sent through to factory that the user can correct.

In this case, the schedules have not been marked as completed which is a requirement with this site.

Using the same mouse right button click, there is an option to mark a selection of schedules as completed. Use this to mark the schedules as completed:

This should now allow the system to begin sending the schedules to factory. In this case, an error will appear stating that the production day is locked and should the system raise a schedule request. Each schedule that cannot be factoried will be given its own error message which may be different to the others.

In some instances a schedule may require multiple permissions to factory the schedule. In this case a request for each permission will be generated.

If a schedule has not been marked as completed and it is a requirement of the site to be done, if there are no other restrictions on the schedule preventing it from being processed the schedule will be automatically marked as completed.

An authoriser may approve both requests, or just the one they are more responsible for and leave the other request to be approved by someone in the appropriate department.

The last request to be approved will factory the schedule.

If the action cannot be completed by the user a tick will appear in the request colmn for the selected schedule. In this case you are required to comment against the request line as to why the schedules need to be factoried to a closed production day.

Enter a comment in the cell and move the cursor down to update the record. IF the next records comment is blank, the previously typed comment will be entered automatically for you:

Click OK once all schedules have a comment and the request will be raised.

Authorisers are not assigned to the request immediately as finding them can be a time consuming process. This process is done by a background job that runs periodically and should assign your request authorisers within one or two minutes. (Usually much less than this)

On the authorisers scheduler session, outstanding requests can be easily monitored by checking the Requests button on the scheduler.

If there is a number next to the word requests and a purple shadow around the button, there are requests that are within his authority to action. This number will update with 30 seconds of the request being raised:

Clicking the button will produce an overview of the schedule requests for his attention.

Schedules for action can be selected one by one, or all schedules can be selected using the mouse right click menu option.

The authoriser can select one of three actions. Approve, Decline or ignore.

Approve will approve the request for the permissions that he has access to. If all permissions have been fulfilled, the request is closed and a result returned to the origination requester. (Indicated by numbers on the Requests Button and a purple shading around the button)

Decline will decline and close the request and return a result to the requestor. The request will also be automatically removed from any other users who have been alerted to this request.

Ignore will remove the request from the current users view, but leave the request visible on other authorisers views. If multiple authorisers have been notified and choose to ignore the request, the last authoriser will be unable to ignore the request and must either approve or decline the request.

In this case, selecting all the schedules and choosing the Approve option will factory the schedules and complete the request.

Once all requests have been processed, the request button will return to a normal non-action state:

On the requesting users scheduler session, the Requests button will now show that 3 requests are to be actioned:

The requesting user has the option of acknowledging an approve or decline outcome, or withdrawing an outstanding request.

Double clicking a request will open that schedule in the scheduler screen and close the requests dialog.

Select the requests to be acknowledged using the right click mouse option, then click the acknowledge button and press Process to accept.

Once all requests have been processed, the request button will return to a normal non-action state:

All requests contained in system can be viewed using the request browser form. Click the "All Requests" tab and enter any part of the request including job number, schedule number, section description etc in the find box and press enter to retrieve a list of all schedule requests containing that text:

By default only requests issued in the last week will be displayed. Either adjust the start and end dates to find a request in a certain period and press go to re-search that date range.

The All dates option will retrieve any requests in the last 12 months and is provided as a quick method of searching a large date range. If you want to search prior to one year ago you will need to set the from date to the required one manually.

View Request Authorisers

Right click the request in any of the 3 views in the request screen and select "View Request Authorisers"

This will produce a list of the authorisers assigned to the request and what action they have taken in regards to this request.

View user request reason

The authorisers view provides brief details of the request to be authorised. If further information of the request is required a view of the original request grid can displayed via a right click option.

In any of the request view screens a right click option has been provided labelled "Check Request". It can be applied to a single request within the grid with a pending status