Generate Build Plan

Modified on Tue, 25 Jun 2024 at 06:24 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS


What is a Build Plan?

Build Plan (BP): The BP acts as a container for data related to all work done in a contiguous stretch of time, for a single 'Site', under a single contract. 


Construction company operations and financials center on individual Site builds, represented in FieldCLIX as 'Build Plans'. BP is approximately equal to what is called a 'Customer Job' in many ERP systems. Each BP gets a single Budget and COP. A BP might have 1 or several Client POs, Vendor POs, Vendor Bills, Sales Orders/Quotes, BOMs and WOs. It can have Milestones and is a key delimiter on all operational and financial dashboards. 


A BP might represent all work and finances associated with a Monopole Upgrade done for Ericsson AT&T. It might also be a Rooftop Trouble-Ticket for ACAS or a DFW Airport Terminal IDAS project done for a multi-carrier escrow account. A BP sometimes equates to what companies have traditionally called a “Project” but is not to be confused with an FCX “Project” which is more of a ”Line-Of-Business.” 


A BP applies the parameters of work defined in the Project Template to work done for an actual Site. A BP is generated and managed by the BP Owner (BPO) and is resolved when all WOs are resolved and the BP is closed. BPs are Subordinate to Project Scenarios and Predominate to Work Orders.







Who is Build Plan Owner?

The Build Plan Owner (BPO) is a Project 'Role' which is a required attribute on any BP and must be assigned to a single Employee per BP. Construction company operations and financials center on individual Site builds, represented in FieldCLIX as BPs. The Employee with final responsibility for the financial success of a build is therefore usually assigned as the BP’s 'Owner'. BPO is assigned at the time of BP Generation and is and can be used for many processes, notification and access rights configurations throughout the system.







Who can generate a Build Plan

Employees are assigned to the “Can generate BPs” role, can generate Build Plans, can run GBP.






Build Plan Request

Build Plan Request is a key part of the Build Plan Generation Process (GBP).


To generate a Build Plan, you:

  • create a Build Plan request in any convenient way,
  • fill in all the required fields on the BP Request card,
  • click on the Generate Build Plan button.


There are many ways to run GBP:

  1. Open Status Dashboard or Dispatch Calendar and click to “New Build Plan”.
  2. Run GBP Wizard through Quick Launch, and it opens BP Request Card.
  3. Open BP Request Reference and create a new record.
  4. Open Customer Job Reference, open Customer Job Card and click “Generate Build Plan” for selected Customer Job.
  5. On the Live and TCR Map, generate a Build Plan when creating a Site — on the Site card click "Create and Generate BP".







How to Generate a Build Plan

GBP via Status Dashboard or Dispatch Calendar

Depending on your access rights, open the Status Dashboard or the Dispatch Calendar in either FCX Desktop or FCX Web.

 






Fill out BP Request Card

Fill out fields you may need.


Build Plan Name and Customer Job Name are determined according to the format set in the system constants. 

Thus, Build Plan Name is assembled from:

  • Fields specified in the constant + Number (auto assigned in numerical order). For example, Customer Name + Project Scenario+ Site + Number.
  • Customer Job Name if the Customer Job is specified in a BP Request.


Build Plan Name should be unique, otherwise you will receive an alert notification.


There is an option to set custom BP Name — use the checkbox “Custom BP Number”. Click the box to unlock the “BP Name” field, so you can enter your custom name. If you want to use auto naming for the BP — clear the mark.

Bear in mind that this checkbox is only displayed for employees who have been assigned the “Can use custom BP name” role.


Select a Site, Project Scenario and Customer. If the required Site or Customer does not exist, click on + to create a new object.


Fill in Customer Job field:

  • Select an existing Customer Job (for example, synced from QuickBooks) after filling in the Customer field.
  • Leave the Customer Job field blank. In this case, you will see the name of a new auto-created Customer Job.
  • Or create a new one with a custom name → click the + icon next to the Customer Job field.


BP Owner is automatically filled in by the current user. Change it if necessary.


Class is taken from the Calculation specification reference. The system checks if there is a Class for the generating BP that corresponds to the particular group of Project, Scenario, Region, Market, Carrier, and BP Owner.

If you select a Customer Job, the Class will be pulled in from the Job.


BP Role Members are populated after you select a Scenario. You can change Roles if it is needed.


If Customer Job creation is enabled in your instance, the Job Name format is set up in the system constant and may contain: Site Name, Build Plan Name, etc.  If you want to use a custom name for the newly created Customer Job, you should create a Customer Job manually, fill-in the required name, and then select this Customer Job in a BP Request.


The Customer Job field editing may be disabled in your instance due to system settings/constants. Such a use case considers the automatic generation of customer jobs during GBP.


There is a setting in Notification Events to notify a BP Owner, BP's Project Role Members that a Build Plan has been generated. It can be customized on client's request.
The created Build Plan starts immediately after its generation.


To reset the selected Customer Job in a BP Request, just clear the Customer field.


Active BP Request is a request for which BP has not been created yet. Closed one has already BP.





Generate Build Plan

A BP is generated after you click on the Generate Build Plan button. The BP Number is also assigned during BP creation.


If for some reason you have created a BP Request, but have not generated a Build Plan, this draft request will be available on the next launch GBP.


As a result, the system creates the BP, adds Work Orders, and releases them for dispatch, if it’s specified in WO Types for the used Scenario. Additionally, you can set up a Scenario to create Budget, Sales Order, Bill of Material on BP generation.





Create a Site or Customer in GBP Web

You can create a new Site and Customer in GBP Web (using the Status Dashboard or Dispatch Calendar). 

  1. Run the GBP in FCX Web.
  2. Click on the Plus icon near the Site and Customer field.
  3. Create Site, Customer, or Customer Job respectively.




New Site

Read more about adding a site to FCX.




New Customer

Please note, that is Customer generation in GBP Web is available only if customers synchronization to QB is disabled or not used.

Only users of the Project Library Managers can create a new Customer in a GBP Web.





New Customer Job

Create a Customer Job with a custom name.





Running GBP Wizard from FCX Desktop

1. Open FCX Desktop → run the Quick Launch → run the GBP wizard.


2. Fill in all the required fields as usual. Read about each field above.


3. Click to generate a BP.





GBP via Customer Job

1. Open FCX Desktop → run the Quick Launch → open Customer Jobs reference → open the required Customer Job card → click on Generate Build Plan.



2. Fill in all the required fields as usual. Read about each field above.


3. Click to generate a BP.






Copy from previous Request

Use the “Copy from previous Request” action in GBP Web/Desktop to fill in a new request from the last one that you created.





GBP via BP Requests Reference: Copy from other Request

1. Open FCX Desktop → run the Quick Launch → open Build Plan Requests reference →  click on Create Record.


2. Fill in all the required fields as usual. Read about each field above.

Use the “Copy from other Request” action in GBP Desktop to fill in a new request from the one you've selected.


3. Click to generate a BP. 






Find more about:

Project Overhead Build Plans

Profit Center calculation

Build Plan Card


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