Planning
Planning is where you decide which workstation makes which production order, and on which day. Every workstation is a card with its queue for the chosen day. Orders that have no workstation yet wait in a separate list called the pool. You drag an order onto a workstation, assign several orders at once, or let Complaia distribute them for you.
Where to find it: Production → Planning
When you'll use it
- New production orders have no workstation, so nobody on the floor can see them yet.
- You want to see which workstations are busy, which have a full queue and which have nothing to do.
- An order has to move to another workstation before work on it starts.
- Work planned for earlier days is not finished and you need to see what is left.
- You want to know what exactly a workstation makes today, which variant, and for which customer order.
- You want to check what a workstation finished or what was cancelled on a given day.
Key concepts
Day — the screen always shows one day. An order stands on its production day. When you assign an order on this screen, its production day becomes the day the screen shows. When you take an order off a workstation, it loses its production day and its time, and it goes back to the pool.
Queue — the open orders of a workstation for the chosen day, together with unfinished work from earlier days. One row is one production order. The card also says how many open orders stand on later days.
Queue limit — the workstation setting Most orders in the queue. It counts all open orders on the workstation, on any day. When the limit is reached, the workstation does not accept another order. A workstation without a limit accepts any number.
Order of work — Complaia sets the order of a queue. You cannot reorder it by hand. The rules are:
- Orders with a production time come first, earliest time first.
- Then come the other orders, earliest deadline first. Orders without a deadline come after them.
- When deadlines are equal, the sub-orders stand before the order they are part of. So a main order never waits at the top of a queue for its own parts.
- Orders without a production day stand at the end.
The kiosk, the mobile app and the printed workstation list show the same order.
Pool — the production orders that have no workstation and are not finished or cancelled. The earliest deadline comes first.
Distribute orders to this workstation automatically — a switch in each workstation's settings. Only workstations with this switch on receive orders from automatic distribution.
Site — a separate production location of your company, for example a second plant. The Site filter appears only if your company has several sites. A workstation belongs to a site through its production area. See Sites.
The screen
The Planning screen
At the top is one bar with these controls:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Day field | The day the screen shows. Today is chosen when you open the screen. |
| Site | Only in a company with several sites. Shows the workstations of one site, or All sites. |
| Area | Shows the workstations of one production area, or All areas. |
| Workstation state | All, Working, Idle, Queue full or Overdue. Each option shows how many workstations it covers. |
| Search box | Searches by production order number, sales order number, customer and product name. Only workstations with a matching order stay on the screen. |
| Pool button | The button at the right end of the bar shows how many orders wait in the pool. Click it to open the pool. Click it again to close it. |
The Workstation state options mean:
- Working — at least one order on the workstation is in progress.
- Idle — the workstation has nothing in its queue for the chosen day.
- Queue full — the workstation has reached its queue limit.
- Overdue — the workstation has unfinished work from earlier days.
Only active workstations are shown. Cards are sorted by urgency: workstations with a full queue first, then workstations with overdue work, and idle workstations last. The order is set when the screen loads and does not jump while you work. The screen refreshes by itself when people on the floor start or report work.
A workstation card has a dark header with:
- the workstation name, which opens the workstation panel;
- the area name, when All areas is chosen;
- how many people are logged in at the workstation right now;
- the Details button, which also opens the workstation panel;
- a bar with the number of open orders against the queue limit. The bar turns amber close to the limit and red when the queue is full. A workstation without a limit shows only the number.
Under the header is the queue. Four orders are visible and the rest scroll inside the card. A link under the queue shows all orders at once. More orders load as you scroll. At the bottom of the card:
- For later days says how many open orders stand on later days;
- Done today is a folded group with the orders finished on the chosen day.
A card with nothing to do says Nothing for this day. A card whose queue is finished says Queue done.
Each row shows:
- the product picture, its name and its variant features, for example colour or size;
- the production time, if the order has one;
- the production order number, which opens the order;
- the sales order number and the customer name, or For stock. The sales order number opens the sales order if your role can see orders;
- for a sub-order, which order it is part of;
- the quantity;
- the deadline. A deadline before the chosen day is red.
- Overdue since with a date, for work from an earlier day that is not yet past its deadline.
The state of an order is shown at the left edge of the row and next to the quantity:
| State | How it looks |
|---|---|
| To do | No mark. |
| In progress | A green bar, a pulsing dot and the progress, for example 12/20. |
| Waiting for components | The row is greyed out. A frame says how many sub-orders are ready and links to Production order details. The order cannot start until its sub-orders are done. |
| Waiting for material | The same frame. It appears only for orders that reserve their material, when part of the material is missing in the warehouse. |
| Done | The order is in the Done today group, greyed out with a tick. |
The More menu (⋯) in the page header has Refresh and Create workstation.
📷 Screenshot to add: the Planning screen with one card with a full queue (red bar), one idle card, a row waiting for components and the pool open
The pool
The pool lists the orders without a workstation. It is closed when you open the screen. On a wide screen it opens next to the workstations. On a narrow screen it opens above them.
The orders are grouped by deadline: Past deadline, Today and tomorrow, Rest of the week, Later and No deadline. Each group shows how many orders it holds and can be folded. An order that already has a production day shows that day.
At the top of the pool:
- Distribute automatically opens the automatic distribution window;
- Create opens the form for a new production order;
- Search the pool searches only the pool.
The workstation panel
Details on a card, or a click on the workstation name, opens a panel at the side of the screen. The header shows the workstation, the people logged in and the queue bar. It has these buttons:
- Workstation card — opens the workstation's settings page, see Workstations;
- Produce — opens the workstation's floor screen, where work is started and reported, see Shop-floor execution;
- Assign order — lists the pool, so you can assign an order without dragging.
The panel has two tabs:
- Planned — the whole open queue of the workstation, in sections: In progress, Overdue, Queue and Later days. Next to each order that has not started there are two icon buttons: arrows to move the order to another workstation, and × to take it off the workstation.
- History — the orders finished or cancelled on the chosen day, newest first, with the time they closed. A cancelled order shows its reason. A finished order with product labels has a download icon that prints its labels again.
Each tab has its own search box.
Common tasks
Assign an order to a workstation
- Go to Production → Planning and choose the day when the work should be done.
- Open the pool with the button at the right end of the bar.
- Drag the order onto the workstation's card. While you drag, the card turns green when it will take the order and red when it will not.
Without dragging, for example on a touch screen:
- Click Details on the workstation's card.
- Click Assign order.
- Find the order and click Assign.
The order goes to that workstation, and its production day becomes the day the screen shows. You see a message such as Production order PO-1042 on workstation …. Its place in the queue follows the order of work.
The workstation refuses the order when its queue is full, or when the item is not on its list of allowed items. The message says which, and the order stays where it was.
Companies with several sites
An order goes to the site of its workstation. If you put a sub-order on a workstation of another site than its main order, Complaia asks you to confirm. After you confirm with Yes, move it, the output of the sub-order is not set aside for the main order. Your warehouse team moves it to the other site with a regular stock transfer.
Assign several orders at once
- In the pool, tick the orders. To tick a whole group, unfold it and click Select all.
- Click Assign to… at the bottom of the pool and choose a workstation. For each workstation, the list says how many of the ticked orders will fit and how many free places it has.
You can also drag one of the ticked orders onto a card. All ticked orders go with it.
The orders are assigned one by one. When the queue fills up, the rest stay in the pool. The message says how many orders were assigned and why the others stayed in the pool.
Take an order off a workstation
You have two ways:
- Drag the order from the card back into the pool. There is no confirmation.
- Open the workstation's Details, click × next to the order and confirm Remove the order from this workstation?
The order goes back to the pool without a production day and without a time. You can assign it again later.
An order that has started cannot be taken off or moved. An order also counts as started when material was already taken for it, or when its material or output is lying at the workstation.
Move an order to another workstation
You can move an order only before work on it starts.
- Drag it from one card onto another, or
- open Details, click the arrows next to the order and choose the workstation.
To move an order to another day, take it off the workstation, choose the new day and assign it again. You can also change the production day when you edit the order.
Distribute orders automatically
Click Distribute automatically in the pool. The same button is also at the top of Production → Production orders.
If your company has several sites, choose a Site or leave All sites.
In Production area, choose an area, or leave All workstations, not limited to an area.
If you did not choose an area, choose the Distribution mode:
- Evenly — orders go one by one to each workstation in turn, so each gets about the same number.
- Fill up, then continue — the first workstation gets orders until it reaches its daily number, then the next workstation gets orders.
If you chose an area, the area's own mode is used and this choice is hidden. The window shows which mode the area uses.
Click Distribute.
What happens:
- All orders without a workstation are distributed, sub-orders included. Orders that have already started are skipped.
- Only active workstations with Distribute orders to this workstation automatically switched on receive orders. If you chose an area, only the workstations of that area receive orders.
- In a company with several sites, an order goes only to a workstation of its own site.
- A workstation takes an order only if the item is on its list of allowed items and its queue is not full. These are the same rules as when you assign by hand.
- Orders per day from distribution on the workstation caps how many orders it holds for today. A workstation without this limit accepts any number.
- An order without a production day gets today as its production day. An order that already has a production day keeps it.
The window then shows how many orders were distributed and how many were skipped. A table lists the reasons, for example no room left on the workstations, and a second table shows how many orders each workstation received.
What is done first
Complaia sets the order of every queue. See Order of work under Key concepts.
To bring an order forward, give it a production time or an earlier deadline when you edit the order. A sub-order always stands before the order it is part of.
When it doesn't work
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Workstation … has a full queue. The production order stays where it is. | The workstation reached its Most orders in the queue. | Assign the order to another workstation, or raise the limit on the workstation. |
| Workstation … does not have this item on its list. The production order stays where it is. | The workstation accepts only chosen items. | Choose another workstation, or add the item to the workstation's allowed items. |
| The production order has started, so its workstation no longer changes. | Work on the order is under way. | Finish the order on the workstation where it started. |
| A message that the order has already started, so you cannot change its workstation or site | Material was taken for the order, or its material or output is lying at the workstation. | Leave the order on its workstation. |
| The day, time and due date set the order within a workstation… | You dropped an order on its own workstation. | Nothing to do. The queue follows the order of work. |
| A row is greyed out and waits for components | Its sub-orders are not done yet. | Click Production order details to see which sub-orders it waits for. |
| No workstations | There are no active workstations yet, or none in the chosen area or site. | Create one from More → Create workstation, or choose All areas or All sites. |
| No workstation matches the filter. | No workstation is in the chosen state. | Choose All in Workstation state. |
| The automatic distribution window says that no workstation has auto-fill orders turned on | No active workstation, or none in the chosen area or site, has Distribute orders to this workstation automatically on. | Switch it on for the workstations that should receive orders. |
| The automatic distribution window says that all unassigned orders have already started | An order that has started never changes its workstation. | Finish or cancel these orders on their order page. |
| Create workstation is missing from More | Your role may not create workstations. | See Permissions. |
Permissions
| To do this | You need |
|---|---|
| Open the screen, the pool and the workstation panel | Production: View |
| Assign, move and take off orders | Production: Edit |
| Distribute orders automatically | Production: Schedule |
| Create a production order from the pool | Production: Create |
| See Create workstation in More | Workstations: Create |
| Open the sales order from a row | Orders: View |
| Print the labels of a finished order again | Production: View |
See Roles & permissions for how to grant them.
Related
- Production orders — creating orders and changing their dates
- Shop-floor execution — what happens after an order is on a workstation
- Workstations — queue limit, orders per day, automatic distribution and allowed items
- Production areas — grouping workstations and choosing a distribution mode
- Sites — separate production locations