Split Assignments

ProTrack provides the capability to allow two or more associates to be working on the same assignment concurrently. This functionality allows a single assignment's standard time to be treated as a pool of time, which is shared among all participants in the assignment.

When an assignment is split into multiple assignments, the original assignment is then referred to as the "Parent Assignment", and the resulting assignments (associated to the employees) are referred to as the "Children Assignments". Altogether, the Parent and Child Assignments are referred to as a "Family".

One key concept to grasp regarding Split Assignments is that the KVI information (and thus the standard time), is calculated at the Parent level, and then distributed to the Child assignments. The amount of standard time that is distributed to each Child assignment is based on a ratio of its duration (or the actual amount of time spent in the assignment), to the total duration of all child assignments.

^{Fig.1 Illustration of Standard Time Distribution to 3 Child Assignments}

Split Assignments can be created in one of two ways - using the ProTrack Kiosk or through WMS Import of Child Assignments.

Splitting an Assignment Using the Kiosk

If an Active* assignment is linked to an employee and another employee requests to work on the same assignment, ProTrack splits the original assignment into separate assignments.

The start and end times are recorded for each associate independently against their respective assignments. An assignment may be split any number of times, even by the same employee repeatedly. In fact, when a single employee places any assignment on Hold in the Kiosk and resumes it later, it's the Split Assignment logic that divides the original assignment.

To split an assignment:

1. Type the shared Assignment ID in the Assignment ID field of the 'Perform Assignment' section of the Kiosk screen.
2. Click Start in the 'Perform Assignment' section. ProTrack generates a new assignment: the original assignment ID with a "-1" appended to the end.
3. The new assignment ID is shown in the Assignment ID field of 'Current Assignment' section and the status of the assignment is set to INP in the 'Assignment Information' section.

Importing Split ("Child") Assignments Via WMS File Download

There are situations where multiple associates are working as a team (and who's productivity will be tracked as a team), but using a Kiosk doesn't work well with that particular job function.  In these cases they're working on one unit of work (an assignment in ProTrack).  If their participation in the assignment can be captured by a host system (as with any typical post-download file), then any time an associate spends on the assignment can be captured in ProTrack via WMS files download (as opposed to having to use the Kiosk).  This enables multiple associates to work on a single (parent) assignment.  In addition, each associate can even work on the same assignment multiple times.  This is useful when an associate logs onto an assignment, then has to switch to a different assignment, and then return back to the first assignment. 

As with Kiosk Split Assignments, standard time is calculated at the parent level and then shared among everyone (the children) who worked in the assignment.  Standard time is calculated using KVI values, which are stored at the parent level.  KVIs may be passed in one or more child assignment, but are all accumulated at the parent assignment level. So KVI information which may be provided in a few different ways:

1. At the parent level, as a pre-download assignment.  For example, a known amount of work needs to be completed and an assignment can be sent for this work before it is worked.  In this case all of the children assignments are sent containing no KVI information.
2. In one or more child assignments.  Each child assignment's KVI's are added to the totals at the parent level.  This enables some employees to contribute KVIs to the total and some not to. 
3. No pre-download assignment, no children have KVIs, but a KVI-update file is sent.  One KVI update file is sent to update the parent level assignment.
4. Manually updated using the KVI Entry screen in ProTrack.

For Child Assignment import specifications, see the import specifications page.