How to work with trade groups
This article describes how to work with trade groups, what you need to configure, and what the benefits are.
How to configure
Trade groups can be created via "System Administration" and then "Trade groups" in the "Human Resources" section.
Next, you need to link one or more trade groups to each employee (see the "Trade groups" tab at the top right of each employee).
You can find the employee(s) in the same section under System Administration as the trade groups.
In addition, you can link a trade group to a work order and/or checklist.
By assigning a trade group to a work order, optionally automatically via a checklist, employees will automatically see the work orders assigned to their trade group(s).
Please note that the "Trade group" field is disabled by default for employees, workorders and checklists. Enable the feature as follows.
1. Enable the feature to link trade groups to employees.
Go to "System Administration" and then "Configure input screens" and enable the "Trade groups" tab for employees.
2. Go to "System Administration" and then "Configure input screens" and enable the fields for the "Workorder" and the "Checklist".
3. Optionally, go to "System Administration" and then "Configure columns" and enable the "Trade group" column for the work orders and checklists menus.
See this article about how to add fields and tabs to an input screen, as well as how to add a column to a menu.
How to work with trade groups
Once the trade groups have been configured and can be linked to a work order and/or checklist, you simply need to assign a trade group to the work order(s) and checklist(s) where necessary.
The advantage of assigning this in a checklist is that this information is transferred to every work order created at each interval, reducing the amount of work you have to do as a work planner for each checklist.
In ControlOffice itself, you can then create a filter/view for trade groups.
See this article for more information about creating views.
In the ControlOffice app, a "Work orders in trade group" menu automatically appears when the logged-in employee is linked to one or more trade groups. This menu then displays all open work orders for those trade group(s), sorted by planned date. Work orders without a planned date are shown at the top.
Benefits of working with a trade group
- More targeted planning: work orders can be assigned to the right trade group more quickly, instead of first having to determine which individual technician is suitable.
- Better overview of capacity: you can more easily see where the workload is concentrated. For example, a large amount of outstanding electrical work compared to the available electrical capacity.
- Less dependent on individuals: you plan work based on the expertise required and can then determine which employee within that trade group will take it on.
- Clearer distribution of work: especially in larger technical departments, it becomes immediately clear which type of work belongs to which team.
- Easier filtering: trade groups can help logically divide work orders, planning and potentially reports by discipline.
- Better KPIs: you can ultimately look at factors such as the number of work orders, lead time, hours, backlog and costs per trade group.
- More scalable: with 3 technicians, you may still know everyone and plan manually; with 20–50 employees, grouping by trade becomes much more valuable.
- More logical for planners: instead of "Who can resolve this malfunction?" it first becomes "This is Electrical" and then "Who in Electrical has availability?"