The Plan Matrix window provides two fields to select a plan and the following panes:

  • The Plan pane shows the activities for the fiscal year and plan selected at the top of the window.
  • The Calendar pane compares the planned resource allocations versus what is actually available.
Note: After selecting a fiscal year and/or plan, click the  icon to display information for the year and plan.

Plan Pane Description

The upper pane of the Plan Matrix window shows the activities for the fiscal year and plan selected at the top of the window. .

Note: The system will only display records where the administrative unit of the record is the same as the administrative unit you selected when you logged on. This is always true and not dependent on the state of the Access Regulated check box found in the User Control Properties dialog box.

Columns in the Plan Pane

The following columns are available (note that depending on the approach to planning taken, some of these columns can be hidden as described here):

  • Activity: This column shows what work will be performed on the asset.
  • Activity Totals: This column shows the sum of the person-days of effort over all 12 months (that is, the annual effort).
Note: The format for this column and the month columns must be the same. AgileAssets recommends that all columns be formatted as integers. If you elect to format them as real numbers, each column must have the exact same number of digits to the right of the decimal place.
  • Administrative Unit: This column shows the administrative unit that is responsible for performing the activity.
  • Amount: This calculated column shows the quantity of activity accomplished. The value in this is column is derived by dividing the value in the Total Cost ($) column by the amount in the Rate column. The Rate column is read-only in this window, with the value being taken from the Unit Cost column of the Performance Guideline for the activity that is stored for the year of the plan line item.
Note: If the activity's Performance Guideline does not include a value for the Unit Cost column, the value for the Amount column cannot be calculated and so the column will be blank. You cannot enter a value for the Amount column and have it saved by the system. Instead, to derive a value for the Amount column, you must add a value for the Unit Cost column to the activity's Performance Guideline, save the new value, and then run the Save Quantity Guidelines system job.
  • Approved: The check box in this column indicates whether the activity is "approved": that is, that work orders can be created for the activity.
  • Asset Name: Optionally, this column shows the inventory item that is the subject of the work activity.
  • Asset Type: This column shows the type of asset for which the activity will be performed.
  • Backlog Days: This column shows the difference between the annual person-days of effort required (as given in the Activity Totals column) and the available amount of labor (as given in the Person Days from Cost column).
  • Calendar: A 1 in this column indicates that there is an entry in the Performance Guidelines window for the activity. When you click the 1, the system displays the activity calendar for the activity in a popup window.
  • Cost Man Days: This columns shows the annual cost based upon the person-days in the Activity Totals column and rates from the activity's stored Performance Guideline.
  • Equipment Schedule Exists?: An equipment schedule determines when a piece of equipment that is required to perform an activity is being used by a particular administrative unit. This is created in the Equipment Scheduling window in the Resources module. (The equipment-activity mapping is configured in the Activity Equipment Setup window that is also found in this module.) When an equipment schedule exists that affects the activity of the record, the word Yes appears in this column. The word is a hyperlink, which you can click to view the equipment's schedule.
  • Month columns (12): These columns typically show the person-days of effort for a particular month for the current year. The values in these fields can be entered directly or can be calculated using a right-click command described below.
Note: The format for these columns and the Total Person Day column must be the same. AgileAssets recommends that all columns be formatted as integers. If you elect to format them as real numbers, each column must have the exact same number of digits to the right of the decimal place.
Note: The measurement unit may be person-hours or FTEs instead of person-days. This is configured at implementation by the setting of the WINDOW_PARAMS value for the Plan Matrix window (1 = FTEs; 2 = Person-hours; 3 = Person-days [default]).
  • Per[son] Days from Cost: This column shows the person-days of effort used to expend the value in the Total Cost ($) column.
  • Priority: The value in this column is only used when you execute one of the "leveling" right-click commands. When you execute one of these commands and this column is null, then the system will use all months of the year when leveling effort. On the other hand, if several instances of an activity are in the table, with each assigned a different inventory element in the Asset Name column, then the Priority column can be used to rank the order in which the activities should be done. The ranking is an integer value between 1 and the number of the same activity assigned different inventory elements. The effect of this ranking is to cause the system to assign effort to the activity ranked first until the value in the Activity Totals column is reached. The system then begins assigning effort to the activity ranked second until the available person-days are exhausted, and so on.
Note: Assigning an integer value to this column necessarily causes the value in the Activity Totals column to be fixed. The value will not be altered during the leveling process. Hence, if the total number of person-days for activities assigned a priority value is greater than the total number of available person-days for the entire year, then the system will display an error message saying, "Required activities cannot be performed within available men days." You must either increase the total number of available person-days or remove priority values from some activities to recover from this error.
  • Rate ($): The value in this read-only column is taken from the activity's stored Performance Guideline for the current activity and administrative unit.
  • Total Cost ($): This column shows the annual budget for the activity. It can be edited and, provided a value is given in the Rate column, the system will re-calculate the value in the Amount column.
Note: Provided a value is given in the Rate column, you can calculate a value for this column by entering a value in the Amount column.
  • Unit Duration: The value in this column is taken from the activity's stored Performance Guideline for the current activity and administrative unit.

Description of the Right-click Shortcut Menu Commands

When you right-click a line item (or a group of selected line items), the system displays a shortcut menu. This menu contains the common commands along with the following special commands:

  • Aggregate Plan Within Scope: For the selection set, this command aggregates records by summing across inventory items (for each administrative unit and activity) from the current selection set. Quantities and cost are summed. The inventory item name of the aggregated results is left blank. So, in the case where there were three records for pothole patching in June 2008 (for example, two records with inventory items set and one record where the inventory item is blank), once aggregated there would be one record with a blank Inventory Item value and with cost and quantity set as the sum of the initial three.
  • Copy/Add from Plan/Accomplishments: This command displays a new window, which (for a given year) allows you to copy the results of another plan or actual accomplishments (constrained to the current selection set) into the plan displayed in the Plan Matrix window. When you copy you can either replace current line items ("overwrite") or add to the existing line items ("add new"). This command is not available if any records in the selection set are approved.
    • If you select "overwrite," the existing records are deleted and then new records are copied into the Plan Matrix window from the selected plan and year.
    • If you select "add new," then for new records (that is, new management unit/asset type/activity) the application copies all new records to the Plan Matrix window and for existing records it updates each of the Month columns along with the Total Man Hours and Total Cost columns, summarizing the value from old and new records. See Copy Data into a Plan for more information.
  • Copy Annual Quantities: This command is not available if any records in the selection set are approved. When available, it copies rows in the current selection set from the Inventory-based Planning (IBP) window into the Plan Matrix window for the current year and plan, replacing what was in the Plan Matrix window. In the Plan Matrix window, the values for monthly person-days and Total Cost ($) are calculated based upon the IBP window's quantities and monthly distribution of those quantities. If the activity does not have a stored Performance Guideline, then the row is inserted, but hours and cost are left blank in the Plan Matrix window. This command copies the filtered/unfiltered set of activities that will be shown in the Inventory Based Planning (IBP) window (where Annual Quantity is not null). When you copy, you will replace the whole set of current plan items with the selected set of IBP. Values for Total Cost ($), Rate ($), and Amount will be copied directly from the IBP window. The values for Total Per Days, Per Days from Cost, and Cost Man-days and the hours planned for all activities over the months in the plan will be calculated and distributed based on the IBP data and the custom calendar.
  • Copy Desired LOS Plan: This command replaces the contents of the current plan with a Desired LOS Plan. After selecting this command the system displays a dialog box so you can select the Desired LOS Plan.
  • Copy Other Plan/Year Backlog: This command is not available if any records in the selection set are approved. When available, it takes all positive values from the monthly backlog column for the selected Plan/Year and:
  1. For all records in the selected Plan/Year with a positive backlog, the difference (Total Cost minus Cost Man Days) will be entered in the Total Cost column for the current Plan/Year.
  2. Enters in the Total Per Days column of the current Plan/Year the backlog value from the source Plan/Year for all records with a positive backlog amount.
  3. Distributes the Total per Days quantity across all months according to the stored Performance Guidelines calendar.

When you execute this command, the application automatically refreshes the current Plan/Year to display all activities from the selected Plan/Year which had a positive backlog value. After reviewing the results of the move, and provided you are satisfied with the results, click the icon to keep the changes.

  • Copy Scenario Results: This command replaces the contents of the current plan with the results from a particular scenario. After selecting this command the system displays a dialog box so you can select the scenario.
  • Delete: This command is only available for unapproved records. When available, it removes the active, selected record. (If a block of records is selected, only the record you right-clicked is deleted.)
  • Delete All: Unlike the Delete command that removes only the selected record, this command removes all records in the Plan pane. Note: This command is not available if any records are approved.
  • Delete Selected: Unlike the Delete command that removes only the active, selected record, this command removes all records in the selection set. Note: This command is not available if any records are approved.
  • Distribute Man Hours by Calendars: This command is only available for unapproved records. When available, it re-calculates the person-days for each month for all selected records based upon:
    • The total cost from the record;
    • The rate from the applicable stored Performance Guideline;
    • The monthly distribution as configured in the Activity Calendar in the Performance Guidelines window; and
    • The availability of equipment as configured in the Equipment Scheduling window.

The results of the calculation replaces the current values.
If no information is provided in the Performance Guidelines window, then distribution is uniform (1/12th per month).
If the Performance Guideline does not include a rate, then the operation fails with an error message. This rate comes from the stored Performance Guideline for the year selected at the top of the window; see the note in Plan Matrix for more information.

  • Insert Like: Like the Insert command, this command adds a new record to the window. However, rather than insert a blank record, this command inserts a record with values entered in the Administrative Unit, Asset Type, Activity, Rate, and Unit Duration columns using information from the record you right-clicked.
  • Level Labor by Existing FTE: This command uses the values in the Owner Month FTE window to derive monthly person-days of effort. See Leveling Effort for more information.
  • Level Labor Hours Within Scope: This command initiates a leveling process where the value in the Activity Totals column is held constant and the monthly effort is adjusted to meet various constraint and proportions. See Leveling Effort for more information.
  • Level Labor Resource for a Given FTE: This command displays a dialog box so you can enter the monthly FTE value for all months in the year. The system then uses the entered value to derive monthly person-days of effort. See Leveling Effort for more information.
  • Set Inventory Element: This command allows you to insert an inventory element into the current record. After selecting this command a new window is displayed. This window contains a drop-down list of all inventory elements for the record's asset type. Select the appropriate inventory element from the list and select OK to insert the inventory element into the current record.
  • Show Plan Person Hours Graph: This command displays a new window, which shows, in graph format, monthly labor hours calculated from those activities that have stored Performance Guidelines. If desired, the elements of the graph can be changed using the drop-down lists at the top of the window. All graphed results are derived from the monthly labor person-days (and their cost as derived from stored Performance Guidelines). No graphs involve the Total Cost column values.

Calendar Pane Description

The lower pane compares the planned resource allocations versus what is actually available. The Planned row shows the total planned person-days across all activities for each of the months. In this row, the columns are defined as follows:

  • The 12 month columns: Each of these columns show the sum of the corresponding month column in the top pane.
  • Total Cost ($): This column shows the sum of the Total Cost ($) column in the top pane.
  • FTE/Year: This column shows the sum of the 12 month columns in the Planned row divided by 12.
  • Backlog: This column shows the sum of the Backlog column in the top pane.

The Available row shows the converted available person-days using the FTE number set for the month in the Owner Month FTE window and the budget value set in the Owner Year Budget window. In this row, the columns are defined as follows:

  • The 12 month columns: Each of these columns show the sum of the month column in the Owner Month FTE window as filtered per the top pane for the current year.
  • Total Cost ($): This column shows the sum of the Budget ($) column in the Owner Year Budget window as filtered per the top pane for the current year.
  • FTE/Year: This columns shows the sum of the 12 month columns in the Available row divided by 12.
  • Backlog: This column is not relevant and is always set to zero.

The Difference row shows the difference between the values in the columns of the Planned row and the columns of the Available row.

Note: The format for the month columns and the FTE/Year column must be the same. AgileAssets recommends that all columns be formatted as integers. If you elect to format them as real numbers, each column must have the exact same number of digits to the right of the decimal place.
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