|
|
The
Production Planner gives you an overview
of selected jobs' key information such as
the due date, production status, priority,
and schedule timeline.
The Production Planner is your
gateway to traffic management in Clients & Profits
X. This new feature works in conjunction with
your Weekly Traffic Report. Unlike the Weekly
Traffic Report, which shows a job’s milestone
due dates, the Production Planner shows all open
jobs, their due dates, production status, and
priority.
The Production Planner takes a timeline view of the job status and traffic
reports. The window lists open jobs by priority, displays graphically when
each job starts and ends. Managers can better plan for new work using the Production
Planner timeline, which graphically represents the time a job will be unfinished
(e.g., worked on) in the shop.
To use the Production Planner
1 Choose Production > Production Planner.
The Production Planner window opens, listing all of the shop's open jobs. Jobs
are sorted by priority (i.e., bleeding rush, rush, normal, etc.) then by production
status and job number.
Jobs can be sorted by job number, name/title, priority, due date, or production
status by clicking on one of the list's column heading. The sort direction
(i.e., ascending or descending) can be changed by clicking the up/down arrow.
Clicking the previous month and next month buttons moves
the timeline backward or forward one month at a time.
 Double-clicking
on a job will automatically take you to the job ticket window for
the selected job.
To show only open jobs for one client
In the production planner window, you can view job tickets for one client or
for all clients.
1 Enter the client number into the "find client" field then
click the Find button.
To change a job status
The Change Job Status window lets you update the selected jobs' production
or billing status. This window is a useful shortcut when you need to give a
group of jobs that same status. Click here
for step-by-step instructions.
To filter jobs on the Production Planner by priority
The Production Planner can be used to show only rush jobs, postponed jobs,
or any of the other rush categories that your shop uses (see job
preferences). The default rush categories, in order of severity, are: Bleeding
Rush!, Killer Rush, Rush, Normal, Whenever (no
rush), and Postponed. There is an additional filter for overdue
jobs, which shows only jobs with a due date prior to today.
Unfinished
and overdue? The Rush Manager, a
built-in part of the Production Planner,
lets you assign priorities to jobs. Rush
jobs are automatically moved to the top
of the list for immediate attention. |
To postpone a job
The Postpone Job Tickets window lets you postpone the start dates or due dates
for a group of jobs in a single step. This window will change the start dates
or due dates for the jobs you've selected in the Production Planner. Click
here for step-by-step instructions.
To reschedule a job
The Reschedule Jobs window lets you postpone the start dates or due dates for
a group of jobs in a single step. This window will change the start dates or
due dates for the jobs you've selected in the Production Planner. Click
here for step-by-step instructions.
To reassign a job
The Reassign Job Tickets window lets you change the traffic assignments (i.e.,
the people assigned to key production and creative roles) on a selected group
of jobs. This window prompts you for the initials of the new people working on
these jobs, then changes the traffic assignments in one step. Click
here for step-by-step instructions.
To print the Production Planner
1 Choose File > Print Planner or click the print
planner button to print a hard copy of the production planner
report.
To update jobs from the Production Planner
The Production Planner can be used to update the status, priority, due dates,
and more for a set of selected jobs. By using the update buttons in the window's
toolbar, you can change the jobs' production or billing status, change their
priority, postpone the start date or due date, reschedule start dates or due
dates, reassign traffic assignments, or close them. Select multiple jobs by holding
down the Command key and mouse clicking on the jobs you wish to update then click
one of the toolbar buttons:
change status updates the
selected jobs' production or billing status. A window will prompt you
to choose a new status code. When you click OK, all of the jobs you selected
will get the status you chose.
change priority updates the
selected jobs' priority. A window will prompt you to choose a new priority,
which will be applied to all of the jobs you selected.
postpone will change the start
date or due date for all of the jobs you selected.
reschedule will change the
selected jobs' start date and due date to a new date that you choose.
All of the jobs you select will get the same start date and due date.
This tool is used to reschedule a group of new jobs that usually don't
have task schedules yet; for this reason, the jobs' tasks are unaffected
by the new start date or due date.
reassign changes the traffic
assignments on the jobs you selected. Different people can be assigned
to the jobs as production managers, traffic coordinators, creative directors,
etc. This tool is useful when a creative team needs to be moved to the
jobs of a different client.
close jobs will close out all of the selected jobs. The jobs' status will
be given the default "closed" status (see status
code preferences). The same rules regarding closing jobs (i.e., can't close
jobs with unbilled costs, etc.) apply here as they do from the Job Ticket window).
In addition, a selected job ticket’s
traffic information (i.e., status note, milestones,
traffic assignments, etc.) can be updated by
clicking on the traffic link.
|
