GROUNDS MAINTENANCE Advanced Planning and Scheduling

From WorldCLASS::

WorldCLASS offers a unique advanced planning and scheduling solution for grounds maintenance. WorldCLASS established in 1995, provides these systems hosted on-line. as well as the regular locally hosted software.

WorldCLASS offers a dedicated grounds maintenance planning and scheduling package available for low budget rental or for purchase.

Sectors

This grounds maintenance planning and scheduling solution is ideal for County Councils, Borough Councils and Housing Associations.



Replaces spreadsheets

It is the most effective way to replace the cumbersome spreadsheet approach with a better product for minimal cost.

GROUNDS MAINTENANCE PLANNING & SCHEDULING PROBLEM

  • Teams of one or more employees
  • Different working hours, skills etc for different employees
  • Tasks assigned to teams
  • Either regularly performed tasks "routine" or ad-hoc "reactive" tasks
  • Planning and scheduling of tasks
  • Performance monitoring

    SYSTEM OVERVIEW

  • Main modules: Operator Interface (OPI), Capacity Planner, Scheduler
  • Driven by user-configurable data
  • Use it as a stand alone product or integrate it with your existing systems
  • Multiple users, two possible user roles
  • User
  • Administrator

    CAPACITY PLANNING

  • Calculates capacity and load for each team, as well as capacity for each employee (and team)
  • Planning in weekly or monthly buckets
  • Planner start date configurable
  • Long-term (typically 52 weeks) but the length of plan determined by the user
  • Identifies over and under load - Infinite Plan

    FINITE CAPACITY PLAN

  • Optional finite planning to smooth overload automatically - according to rules provided
  • Possible ways to smooth the infinite load include:
  • Assigns additional employees to overloaded teams
  • Moves tasks from overloaded weeks to remove overload
  • Tasks can be moved forward or backward for the same team, or assigned to a different team
  • Employee overtime can be assigned automatically
  • User can allow/disallow and define limitations to which above rules can be applied
  • Takes account of task priority
  • Extend Summer hours / reduce Winter hours
  • Possible to automatically generate a finite plan, and/or adjust the load manually through the user-friendly interface provided

    Charts are available for both the infinite and the finite plan.

    SCHEDULING

  • Schedules tasks and assigns resources (employees, equipment)
  • Short term (one or two weeks)
  • obeys different constraints
  • Required number of employees/equipment
  • Employee or equipment availability
  • Several employees working on task simultaneously
  • Task to be scheduled in specific period of time
  • or on a specific day
  • or during a specific time of day e.g. morning
  • tasks scheduled according to their priority

    PERFORMANCE MONITORING

  • Enables user to identify possible patterns in team under/over performance
  • By team
  • Available in weekly, monthly, yearly or quarterly
  • Visual colour-coded chart attached
  • User-friendly interface



    • What is our Software Rental?

    Software rental is delivered over the internet to our council or housing associations clients.



    We provide the maintenance and support for the Grounds Maintenance Planning & Scheduling Software system, and our clients pay a monthly fee, which starts from just £300 per month.

    The software can be highly customized, as we have developed a framework tool which allows the system to be tailored to each client's needs.

    What are the benefits of a hosted planning and scheduling system?

    A low cost of entry is a huge advantage. Another benefit is that the maintenance, upgrades and security of the system becomes our responsibility. Browser-based web delivery means quick start up, and anywhere access. The absence of on-site servers, software, security and IT professionals means lower total cost of ownership for our clients

    Why choose WorldCLASS?

    Made In The UK

    All WorldCLASS software, labour, helpdesk and support services are proudly made and offered from the UK

    There are several important reasons to choose WorldCLASS for your software needs

    Pricing

    We allow you to purchase only the functionality you need. We offer all of our modules in a standard format as Software Rental from £300 per month for any number of users and fully inclusive of training.

    The cost of our typical tailored Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems range from £20,000-£50,000.

    Software rental

    This method of software delivery virtually eliminates the risks and large expense associated with a system purchase.

    Configurable

    The system is highly configurable and customisable, allowing users to set data location and format as well as much of the business logic as needed A large number of highly customisable reports are generated, including equipment and skill utilisation summary. All system data can be imported to and exported from Microsoft Excel.

    Thin Client

    The software is designed to be accessible from thin client machines, ensuring easy access to the software from anywhere, minimising hardware requirements and greatly simplifying the maintenance.

    The system is designed for simultaneous access from multiple users (one planner, one scheduler, multiple views)

    Full compatibility with wireless networking allows the field team scheduling system to be potentially used with PDAs, PocketPCs, Blackberrys and other wireless devices.



    Benchmarking and User Group:

    One of our Housing Association clients has suggested that as our system is more widely used, that the standards be used for pruning beds of certain sizes, mowing acreage, equipment utilised etc. be benchmarked by associations and councils as a means of exchanging data to develop "best practice." WorldCLASS will shortly be setting up a Grounds Maintenance Planning and Scheduling User Group in order to facilitate the development of this "best practise>"

    Other Sectors:

    WorldCLASS::APS specialise in three areas.

    The planning and scheduling of:

  • food and FMCG

  • process manufacturing, particularly aluminium (rolling mills and extrusion), steel and textiles

  • individuals, teams and plant and equipment for Grounds Maintenance for Borough Councils and Housing Associations

    Implementations:

    WorldCLASS:: have numerous significant implementations and Case Studies in blue-chip corporations and SME's, where companies have achieved World CLASS::status through the application of one or both of our two software products; a finite capacity planner (the WorldCLASS::Capacity Planner) and an APS scheduler (the WorldCLASS::Scheduler), closely coupled to their business needs. The WorldCLASS::APS range of products can stand alone but are generally interfaced to existing MRP, ERP or to customer’s bespoke systems.

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