Loading Board

Overview

The Loading Board and Summary Loading Board display key metrics sourced from the plans created within the selected workgroup to allow for insight into planning assumptions made during the planning process and the outcomes each plan is looking to drive. These boards can then be used to support discussions and decision making during the Loading Meeting,

The Loading Board is designed for use by workgroups utililsing the ControliQ planning function only.

The Summary Loading Board is designed for use by workgroups utilising the CaseworkiQ planning function or a combination of CaseworkiQ and ControliQ planning.

 

The ControliQ Loading board helps you check, change and balance child plans for your loading process. You can use the board to look at child plans before your meeting and see key metrics during the meeting to help you make decisions. You can also enter your decisions into the board right away and see how they affect the parent and child capacity and the child plans.

Name

Confirms the unique name of each Loading Board that has been created.

Stage

Confirms the stage the Loading Board is currently in. This will be:

 
Stage Description
Prepare the board has been created but the Start Loading Meeting option has not yet been selected. Key metrics to discuss planning assumptions are displayed.
Load the Start Loading Meeting option has been selected and the board now displays the capacity balance of each child plan. Decisions to address surplus and shortfalls in resource can be entered into the board.
Commit the Finish Loading Meeting option has been selected and decisions to balance capacity agreed.
 

Start and End Date

Confirms the date range of the planning period that the Loading Board covers.

Length

Confirms the Length and Unit used to create the Loading Board. This is set as part of Loading Board configuration.

Type

Details if the board was created as a Loading Board or a Summary Loading Board.

 

Configure your default Loading Board settings.

Search for a specific Loading Board using partial or full plan name.

Print the Loading Board table.

Refine the list of Loading Boards displayed in the plans table by filtering by attributes such as Name, Stage and Length.

  

Allows you to delete Loading Boards.

 

 

Plan Length

Select the number of plan units that you would like your Loading Board to cover. This can be between 1 and 60 units.

The selected plan length should match that of the plans you want the Loading Board to display.

Plan Unit

Select the required plan unit using the drop-down menu. This can be set as Day, Week or month.

Match Exact Day for Forecast

If checked when reviewing historical data to produce forecasts for Department Level Core tasks ControliQ will sort the data by day so each day of the week included in the historical data will be aligned together, all Mondays will be aligned together, all Tuesdays will be aligned etc.

Use First Day of Workgroup as Plan Start Date

If checked will default all Loading Boards to begin on the first day of the workgroup's week specified during setup of the Department the board is being created for.

Forecast Model

Historical Trend - If automatic planning is selected forecast work in data for Department level Core tasks will be based on upward or downward trends.

Historical Average - If automatic planning is selected forecasted work in data for Department level Core tasks will be based on historical average volumes.

Initial Start WIP

From Previous Plan – If automatic planning is selected Start WIP data for Department level Core tasks will be pre-populated based on the End WIP of the previous plan of the same length and unit.

From Manage Data - If automatic planning is selected Start WIP data for Department level Core tasks will be pre-populated based on current WIP values in the Manage Data Workgroup screen.

Zero – Start WIP for Department level Core tasks will default to 0 and can be updated manually.

Forecast Duration

Select the number of plan units you would like to use to forecast Work In for Department level Core tasks. The maximum duration that can be set is 12.

Save

Save your selections. These will be retained and applied to all new Loading Boards that are created.

 

 

 

 

Name

The Loading Board name will pre-populate to include the name of the workgroup the Loading Board is being created for and the date range it covers.

This can be over-typed with a name up to 100 characters long. All Loading Boards in ControliQ must have a unique name.

Board Type

For a ControliQ Loading Board make sure the Board Type is set to Loading Board.

Start Date

If you have selected “Use First Day of Workgroup As Plan Start Date” in Loading Board configuration this day will default to the next available first day. If this option is not select the date will default to the current day. This can be changed using the calendar function .

Plan Length

Plan Length will populate based on the Plan Length and Plan Unit setting defined in Loading Board configuration.

Create

Click Create to create your Loading Board. Please be aware that only child plans matching the Start Date and Plan Length details will be displayed in the board.

 

 

The Prepare stage of the Loading Board allows you to forecast and allocate any Department level Core tasks linked to the Workgroup as well as review ready to discuss key planning assumptions used whilst the child plans were being created.

 

Workgroup

If the workgroup that the Loading Board has been created for has Department level Core tasks linked to is details of each task will be displayed here.

Task Name

Task name, click the icon to expand the data displayed for each task

Work In

Forecasted Work In for each unit based on the Forecast Model selected during Loading Board configuration.

Review and amend the historical data used to produce the forecast.

Work Out

Total work out planned for the Workgroup. Click the icon to expand the data.

Child Work Out

When first expanded this section will display the current planned Work Out values for each team.

The Undistributed row details how many items you need to distribute to meet your End WIP target. Child plan values can be amended to allocate more or less of this task by typing the required value directly into the cell for each team and plan unit.

Changes made here will update each child plans capacity balance.

End WIP

Entering your target EWIP position into each plan unit will populate the Undistributed row illustrating if too much or too little work has been allocated to the teams to meet this target.

Start

Click this button to progress the Loading Board to the next stage.

Interval

Select to review child plan metrics in hours, minutes or FTE.

Warning

If more Work Out than needed to meet the End WIP target has been allocated the Work Out for the plan unit will display a warning icon

the value will display as a negative. Placing your cursor over the value will prompt a pop-up message confirming the reason for the warning icon.

 

 

 

 

Balance (Hrs)

Displays the capacity balance for each workgroup for each plan unit with a Red, Amber or Green status depending on the size of the surplus or shortfall

Green – Capacity balance is between 0 and 5 hours

Amber – Capacity balance is between 5.1 and 15 hours

Red – Capacity balance is greater than 15.1 hours

Workload (Hrs)

Displays key information such as Start and End WIP illustrating the movement between the 2 values and the total forecasted Work In based on items multiplied by standard time for each task planned.

Performance (Hrs)

 

Displays key information about each workgroups planned performance targets.

Agreed Challenge Productivity – This is based on the Productivity Percentile for Forecast set for each team as part of plan configuration.

Productivity – The planned level of Productivity

Utilisation – Based on the amount of Diverted work planned in the Time Available during the planning period.

If a workgroup does not have enough historical data to meet the forecast parameters set during Plan Configuration their Challenge Productivity will display as a dash.

  

 

 

When you are ready to begin your Loading Meeting selecting the Start Loading Meeting button will move the Loading Board into the Load stage.

Click on a balance value displays the actions box:

Capacity Balance Values

Selecting a capacity balance value prompts the balancing actions box to the right of the screen to activate.

Team Name and Balance

Confirms the workgroup name, date and surplus or shortfall of the capacity balance value selected in the Dept Summary table.

Balancing Action Options

Balancing decisions relating to Loaning / Borrowing, Diverted and Flexitime / Overtime can be entered here. This will update the Department Summary with the amended capacity balance values as well as amending the planned values for the relevant category in the child plan.

Update Balancing Actions

 

If Loaning/Borrowing is selected, you can specify the team that resource will be loaned to or borrowed from if that team is included in the Loading Board by entering the required value directly into the cell next to the team's name. This will update the capacity balance values for both teams as well as amending the planned values in both child plans. If the team is not included in the Loading Board the time should be entered into the ‘Other’ cell.

If you are balancing using Diverted the tasks linked to the selected team will display and the time can be entered directly into the cell next to the required task.

  

 

Once all Resource and Diverted balancing actions have been entered the team plans can be updated to reflect balancing decisions made in relation to WIP. The owner of the plan can do this by opening their plan from the planning tab and updating it or the plans can be accessed from the Loading Board by clicking on the workgroup name in the Dept Summary table.

Once all balancing decisions have been made click the Finish Loading Meeting button to move the Loading Board to the next stage.

 

 

 

 

 

Overview

The Summary Loading board can be utilised by workgroups where CaseworkiQ planning is being used. The Summary Loading Board can display workgroups containing only CaseworkiQ plans or those where there are a combination of CaseworkiQ and ControliQ plans in place.

Name

Confirms the unique name of each Loading Board that has been created.

Stage

Confirms the stage the Loading Board is currently in. This will be:

 
Stage Description
Prepare the board has been created but the Start Loading Meeting option has not yet been selected. Key metrics to discuss planning assumptions are displayed.
Load the Start Loading Meeting option has been selected and the board now displays the capacity balance of each child plan. Decisions to address surplus and shortfalls in resource can be entered into the board.
Commit the Finish Loading Meeting option has been selected and decisions to balance capacity agreed.
 

Start and End Date

Confirms the date range of the planning period that the Loading Board covers.

Length

Confirms the Length and Unit used to create the Loading Board. This is set as part of Loading Board configuration.

Type

Details if the board was created as a Loading Board or a Summary Loading Board.

 

Configure your default Loading Board settings.

Search for a specific Loading Board using partial or full plan name.

Print the Loading Board table.

Refine the list of Loading Boards displayed in the plans table by filtering by attributes such as Name, Stage and Length.

  

Allows you to delete Loading Boards.

 

 

 

Plan Length

Select the number of plan units that you would like your Loading Board to cover. This can be between 1 and 60 units.

The selected plan length should match that of the plans you want the Loading Board to display.

Plan Unit

Select the required plan unit using the drop-down menu. This can be set as Day, Week or month.

The selected unit should match that of the plans you want the Loading Board to display.

Match Exact Day for Forecast

This is a Loading Board Configuration option so will not impact a Summary Loading Board

Use First Day of Workgroup as Plan Start Date

If checked will default all Loading Boards to begin on the first day of the workgroup's week specified during setup of the Department the board is being created for.

Forecast Model

This is a Loading Board Configuration option so will not impact a Summary Loading Board

Initial Start WIP

This is a Loading Board Configuration option so will not impact a Summary Loading Board

Forecast Duration

This is a Loading Board Configuration option so will not impact a Summary Loading Board

Save

Save your selections. These will be retained and applied to all new Loading Boards that are created.

 

 

 

Name

The Loading Board name will pre-populate to include the name of the workgroup the Loading Board is being created for and the date range it covers.

This can be over-typed with a name up to 100 characters long. All Loading Boards in ControliQ must have a unique name.

Board Type

For a CaseworkiQ or combination Summary Loading Board make sure the Board Type is set to Summary Board.

Start Date

If you have selected “Use First Day of Workgroup As Plan Start Date” in Loading Board configuration this day will default to the next available first day. If this option is not select the date will default to the current day. This can be changed using the calendar function .

Plan Length

Plan Length will populate based on the Plan Length and Plan Unit setting defined in Loading Board configuration.

Create

Click Create to create your Loading Board. Please be aware that only child plans matching the Start Date and Plan Length details will be displayed in the board.

 

The Summary Loading Board will display key metrics for each plan created for the selected workgroup.

Workgroup Name

The workgroup name column lists workgroups linked to the selected level of the hierarchy.

By default, it will display the child workgroups of the selected workgroup. The list can be further expanded to display lower levels of the hierarchy using the icon.

The name of the workgroup that the plan was created in will appear a lighter shade of blue indicating it can be selected to open and review the plan.

If a workgroup has more than 1 provisional plan in place you can select which one to surface in the Summary Loading board when no Target plan exists by clicking on the icon and selecting the required plan from the drop-down menu in the Select Provisional Plan pop-up box and clicking the Add button.

Status

The Status column details the current Status of the surfaced plans.

P – indicates a Provisional plan.

T – Indicates a Target plan.

C – Indicates a Committed plan.

The Summary Loading Board will surface Committed or Target plans first as when the status is changed to committed this indicates a commitment to deliver on that plan and its outcomes. When a plan status is changed to Target this is an indicator that this plan is the one that will be presented at the loading meeting.

If there are no Committed or Target plans in place for the required period then a Provisional plan will be surfaced.

If there are multiple provisional plans in place for the same period no plan data will be surfaced until a Provisional plan is selected from the available plans.

Balance

The Balance section displays the date range covered by each plan unit, the capacity balance for each Workgroup for each plan unit and an overall total for the plan period.

The balance values will be taken from the levels of the hierarchy that the plans were built in and then aggregated upwards to give overall values.

These values have a Red, Amber or Green status based on the size of the shortfall or surplus in capacity.

Green status is applied to shortfalls or surpluses of 0 to 5 hours.

Amber status is applied to shortfalls or surpluses of 5.1 to 15 hours.

Red status is applied to shortfalls or surpluses of 15.1 hours and above

Performance

The Performance Outcomes section displays:

Planned Outcomes Items, this will populate for teams using the CaseworkiQ planning function and planning in items. It will detail the total number of items planned for Case Types (Cases) and Case Stages (Stages).

Planned Outcomes Time, this will populate for teams using the CaseworkiQ planning function and planning in time. It will detail the total number of hours, minutes or FTE planned for Case Types (Cases) and Case Stages (Stages).

Productivity, displays the planned level of productivity at the level of the hierarchy the plan was built in and an aggregated average at the higher levels.

Utilisation, displays the utilisation that will be achieved based on planned resource and diverted elements at the level of the hierarchy that the plan was built in and an aggregated average at the higher levels.

Select to display or hide the performance section of the Summary Loading board.

Unchecking the box will remove the Planned Outcomes, Productivity and Utilisation metrics from the table.

Intervals

Choose to view time based metrics such as capacity balance or the Outcomes of time based plans in Hours, Minutes or FTE.

Edit the name of the Summary Loading Board by clicking on the pencil icon.

Once selected the name can be amended by overtyping the existing text.

Changes can be saved by selecting the

icon or cancelled by selecting the blue cross

 

 

 

 

For more information on...

Calculations

See Key Equations
Frequently Asked Questions See FAQs