Create and Manage Field Service Objectives

This is a Field Service managed package feature.

Note If a user doesn’t see a particular service objective record type, they need record type access. To assign record types to users in profiles or permission sets, see how record type access is specified.

When a scheduling service creates a schedule, it scores each schedule that it evaluates by using the objectives listed in your scheduling policy. The weight of each objective determines how much each objective influences the final score.

Each objective has a scale that defines the best and worst-case scenarios. For example, in the Minimize Travel objective, the best-case scenario is no travel. The worst-case scenario is 2 or more hours of travel. Travel time is graded across this scale to determine its value, such that 1 hour of travel is 50% of the scale. The derived grade is multiplied by the weighting defined in the scheduling policy to determine the score for that objective. The sum of these scores for each service objective produces a resulting score for that schedule, which is evaluated against other versions of the schedule.

Optimization uses different mechanisms to calculate scores based on the optimization engine type. When you’re using Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization, the engine scores a schedule by using penalties. For example, the penalty for scheduling an appointment with 2 hours of added travel time is higher than the penalty for scheduling an appointment with 1 hour of added travel time. The goal is to find a schedule with the least penalty points.

When you’re not using Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization, the engine scores the schedule in an opposite manner, by using rewards. For example, the reward of scheduling an appointment with 2 hours of added travel time is less than the reward of scheduling an appointment with 1 hour of added travel time. The goal is to find a schedule with the highest reward points.

To learn the difference in how each type of engine scores the schedule, refer to the specific service objective page.

Create and manage service objectives from the Service Objectives tab. Add service objectives to a scheduling policy from the Customize Scheduling Policies page in Guided Setup or the Scheduling Policy Objectives related list on a policy.

When you create a service objective, select a record type to define the category that the objective falls into. The following categories are available.

• ASAP Service Objective
  Use the Field Service ASAP objective to instruct the scheduling engine to prioritize scheduling an appointment at the earliest possible time. Scheduling appointments as soon as possible improves customer satisfaction and SLA adherence and allows for a more utilized schedule with less resource idle time.
• Group Nearby Appointments Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Group Nearby Appointments service objective to reduce the number of mobile workers assigned to the same area on a given day. This objective ensures mobile workers maximize their presence in high-volume areas by completing all appointments within a specific area before moving to the next. It’s ideal for organizations with a large number of appointments per mobile worker, where multiple workers typically start from the same home base and cover the same geographical areas.
• Minimize Gaps Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Minimize Gaps objective to reduce idle time between service appointments and improve resource productivity.
• Minimize Overtime Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Minimize Overtime objective to reduce the duration of time that service appointments are scheduled into extended hours. Scheduling during overtime hours is generally less desirable than during standard working hours because overtime usually comes at a higher cost and causes strain on service resources.
• Minimize Travel Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Minimize Travel objective to reduce the total amount of travel time added to the schedule to maximize productivity and profitability.
• Preferred Resource Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Preferred Resource objective to prefer scheduling service appointments to service resources indicated as preferred for the respective accounts, assets, locations, work orders, and work order line items. Customers can prefer certain resources to be assigned to their appointment over others for various reasons, such as a service resource’s familiarity with the location or a previous great customer experience with a specific individual.
• Resource Priority Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Resource Priority objective to assign a priority value to rank service resources. This priority value indicates which service resources to prioritize for scheduling over others. Prioritizing resources can be used in scenarios such as preferring to schedule appointments to internal resources over contractor resources.
• Same Site Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Same Site objective to make sure a minimal number of mobile workers visit the same location by scheduling service appointments located at the same site together. For example, scheduling appointments for the same location with the same service resource can save time and effort and can eliminate the need for multiple trips.
• Skill Level Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Skill Level objective to prefer scheduling appointments to service resources depending on how proficient they are at a specific skill.
• Skill Preference Service Objective
  Use the Field Service Skill Preference objective to prefer a service resource with a skill that is indicated as a higher priority than others on the work order or work order line item within the same skill type.