For some maintenance service requests, the governing SLA specifies that the supervisor must estimate the required labor, parts, and tools for the resulting work request.
Estimating these requirements provides important information:
As a supervisor, run the Estimate and Schedule Work Requests task to receive a list of work requests for which you must estimate the labor, part, and tool type requirements.
Once you make these estimates, the work request might be routed to other parties who can review the costs and requirements and decide to reject or approve the work request. Or, if an approval of the estimate is not required, the request may be routed for scheduling or may be ready to be issued.
Choose the Estimate and Schedule Work task, and the system presents the Select tab listing all work requests that you must estimate and schedule. The Step Type column at the right of the form indicates if the request currently needs estimation or scheduling.
There are two ways to access the Estimate tab:
From the Select tab, click on the Details button in front of a pending work request whose step type reads "Estimation." The system loads the Details tab, listing all information about this work request.
You can view other requests for this equipment item, submitted by this user, or for this location by choosing the corresponding buttons.
When you have finished reviewing the request, you can move to the Estimate tab by choosing the Estimate button in the upper right corner. The system presents the Estimate tab.
From the Select tab, click on the Estimate/Schedule button in front of a pending work request whose step type reads "Estimation." The system presents the Estimate tab.
The below image shows an estimate of trades and tool types required for completing a work request, as well as the reservation of a part and an estimate of other unclassified expenses (Other Costs) estimated for this request. As you enter the required resources for the job, the system will calculate the costs of these resources and update the display in the "Work Request Estimation" section of the form.
As a supervisor estimating the resources required for this job, you should provide as much information as possible in order to produce an accurate cost estimate and provide the information needed for scheduling the resources.
Note: The trades, tool types, and parts at your site have previously been entered into the system by a business process owner or inventory manager. If you find that a resource that you require is not available as a choice, contact these roles in your organization. You can also use the Other Costs section of the form to estimate the costs of any unspecified resources.
The below steps detail how to work through the estimation procedure.
Access the Estimate tab as described above.
On the Estimate tab, the first panel shows you some basic work request data with status and estimation information. The system will update the estimation information as you work through the request.
Using the Add Trade button to access a list of trades, enter the trades and estimated hours that will be required to complete this job. If you wish to provide more details about the work that the trade will be doing, you can optionally complete the Work Type field.
From the trades you specify in this step, the scheduler will schedule a specific craftsperson of this trade to do the job.
Enter the type of tools (tool type) that you will need for this job. From this information, the scheduler can schedule specific tools of this type for the job. Taking the time to enter the required tool types will help ensure that the proper tools are available when the craftsperson begins this job.
Click the Add Tool Type button to access a dialog for specifying the type of tool and how long you will require it.
Typically, the inventory manager will have previously entered the hourly rate of using each type of tool. The system uses this information to calculate the cost of using this tool type for this job.
Many on demand jobs require parts such as ceiling tiles, light bulbs, switches, filters, and keys. By specifying the required parts at this point, you can include them in the cost estimate and also reserve them so that they are ready for the craftsperson when they go to the job.
Choose the Add Part button and the system presents a form for specifying the parts. Completes the Date Part Assigned and Time Part Assigned fields with date and time for which you want to reserve the parts.
Enter the parts that the job requires and the system checks the parts inventory and reserves the part by making the following updates:
If you foresee any other costs for this job -- costs that do not fall under the trade, tool type, or parts categories -- you can enter them in the estimated cost in the "Other Costs" section of the form. For example, if the job required a building permit which has an associated fee, you could enter the cost of this fee in this section.
Review your entries and then process the estimate by choosing the Complete Estimation button located at the top of the tab page.
The next step for this work request depends upon the SLA that governs the component service request. Some possible actions are: