Schedule Optimization

Schedule optimisation uses our SHORESIM algorithms to suggest assignment of open work orders to available personnel and transport resources across a date window you define. It uses operational data — personnel rotations, transport schedules, qualifications, asset locations, and weather — to generate a proposed plan.

The output is written into the active draft, so your live schedule is not changed until you review and apply the draft.

Prerequisites

Before running an optimisation, the following must be in place:

You are working in an active draft. The Optimise Schedule button is only available when a draft is open. The optimiser writes its output into the current draft and does not write directly to the live schedule.
Work orders have planning dates. Each work order needs an earliest start date and a latest finish date so the optimiser knows when it is eligible to be scheduled.
Work orders are linked to assets. The optimiser only schedules work orders that are linked to an asset.
Personnel have active work schedules. Personnel must have a rotation covering the optimisation period, with a Primary Base assigned.
Transport resources have active schedules. Each selected transport resource must have a valid work schedule for the optimisation period, with an assigned Primary Base or Secondary Base where applicable.
Weather data is available. The optimiser uses weather forecasts to determine suitable access windows. If weather data is missing for the period, access windows cannot be calculated correctly.
You have the Schedule Work Orders permission. Users without this permission will not see the Optimise Schedule button.

Base terminology: The former Home Base field is now called Primary Base, and the former Mother Vessel field is now called Secondary Base. The Offshore Base input has been hidden.

Where to Find It

Open Planning from the main navigation.
Select either the Team Planner or the Personnel Planner tab.
Make sure you have a draft open. The button is not visible in live mode.
Click Optimise Schedule in the toolbar.

Configuring the Optimisation

The Optimise Schedule dialog lets you control what goes into the run before you start it.

Simulation date range

Set a start date and end date for the period you want to optimise.

For short-term runs such as the coming 1–2 weeks, use a narrow window to get precise day-by-day assignments that reflect current personnel and transport availability.
For medium-term runs such as 4–8 weeks, use a wider window. This is useful when combined with work plans, as it lets you see how upcoming recurring work is distributed across resources before those work orders are formally raised.

Work orders

Choose which work orders the optimiser should consider:

Option	What it includes
All work orders	Open work orders with planning dates that fall within the selected date range
Filtered work orders	Only the work orders currently visible based on the active planner filters
Specific work orders	A manually selected set of work orders

Note: Work orders must be linked to an asset to be included in the optimisation.

Work plans

Work plans are recurring work templates defined in the Work Plans module. Including them in an optimisation run lets you model future recurring work without raising real work orders first.

When a work plan is selected:

The optimiser calculates which occurrences of the plan fall within the selected date range based on the plan's recurrence settings.
It generates draft work orders for each occurrence.
These draft work orders are scheduled alongside real open work orders.
The draft work orders appear in the draft timeline and Gantt chart after the run completes.

Draft work orders are not real work orders. They exist only within the draft and are removed if the draft is deleted or if the optimisation is re-run. To formally create work orders from a work plan, use the Apply action in the Work Plans module.

Personnel

Choose which personnel should be included:

Option	What it includes
All workers	Personnel with active work schedules covering the selected date range
Specific workers	A selected subset of personnel, useful for modelling constrained scenarios such as a smaller team or a specific resource group

Personnel availability is based on active rotations and base configuration. Personnel included in the run should have a Primary Base assigned.

Transport

Choose which transport resources should be included:

Option	What it includes
All transport	Transport resources with valid schedules in the selected date range
Specific transport	Selected transport resources, useful for modelling limited availability or reserving transport for a particular campaign

Transport availability is based on active schedules and capacity settings. Where relevant, the optimiser uses the configured Primary Base and Secondary Base to determine how personnel and transport resources can be matched.

What Happens When You Run It

Click Optimise to start the run. A progress animation is shown on the planning board while the optimisation is in progress.

The run goes through three stages:

1. Pre-processing

The system validates and assembles the selected work orders, personnel, transport resources, assets, bases, and weather data into the input for the simulation engine.

At this stage:

Work plan templates are expanded into draft work orders.
Existing draft activities in the selected date range are cleared before new optimisation output is written.
If the optimisation is re-run on the same draft, previously generated draft work orders are cleared before the new run.
Progress updates show how many work orders, personnel, and transport resources have been prepared.

2. Simulating

The simulation engine runs the scenario. It calculates travel time, checks weather access windows, matches personnel qualifications to work order requirements, respects working-hour constraints, and assigns work orders to personnel and transport combinations that can complete them.

3. Post-processing

Simulation results are converted into draft activities and written into the active draft.

Each draft activity records:

The work order it covers
The assigned personnel
The assigned transport resource, where applicable
The scheduled start and end time

When the run completes, you receive an in-app notification with a direct link to the result in the Schedule Archive.

If some work orders cannot be scheduled, the optimiser can still complete the run and schedule the work orders it could place. A warning notification lists the affected work orders and the reason they could not be scheduled.

Reviewing the Results

Schedule Archive

The Schedule Archive, accessible from Planning → Archive, stores a record of every optimisation run.

Each entry shows:

Input — the work orders, personnel, and transport resources included in the run
Output — the draft activities created, the personnel and transport resources assigned, and the work order each activity covers

Open any output activity to inspect the full assignment details.

Timeline view

After the optimisation completes, the active draft timeline shows the newly created draft activities across the scheduled date window.

Use the Team Planner or Personnel Planner timeline to review the detailed day-by-day plan. From here, you can make manual adjustments if needed, such as moving activities, removing assignments, or adding activities for work that was not placed by the optimiser.

Gantt chart view

Switch to the Gantt Chart tab while keeping the same draft active to review the optimisation results over a longer horizon.

The Gantt chart is useful for assessing:

How the draft schedule sits across weeks or months
Whether draft work clusters heavily in particular periods
Whether the plan fits within the expected work order windows
Whether there are visible resource gaps or overloaded periods

Key things to check in the Gantt chart after an optimisation

Impact on existing plans

The Gantt chart can show draft planning data alongside the wider schedule context. Use the primary and secondary bar settings to compare the optimiser's planned dates against baseline or existing planning windows.

A warning icon (⚠️) on a task bar indicates that the planned dates fall outside the allowed date window for that work order. Review these warnings before applying the draft.

Draft work orders from work plans

If you included work plans in the run, the generated draft work orders appear in the Gantt chart. This gives you a forward-looking view of how recurring work is distributed across the selected period.

Use this to identify periods where recurring work clusters heavily, or where there may be spare capacity for additional work.

Resource utilisation

When enabled, the Gantt utilisation row shows required, assigned, and available capacity across the visible time buckets. Use this to review whether the optimised plan is close to capacity, over capacity, or leaving available capacity unused.

Note: Editing tasks directly in the Gantt chart is disabled when viewing a draft. To adjust individual assignments, switch back to the timeline view.

Re-running the Optimisation

You can run the optimiser multiple times on the same draft.

Each new run replaces previous optimisation output in the selected date range:

Existing draft activities in that period are cleared before new ones are written.
Previously generated draft work orders are cleared when the optimisation is re-run on the same draft.
New draft activities and draft work orders are then created from the latest optimisation inputs.

This lets you iterate safely without changing the live schedule.

Common reasons to re-run include:

Adjusting the date window to review a different planning horizon
Changing which work plans are included
Restricting the run to specific personnel or transport resources
Broadening the work order selection
Updating work order dates, durations, or qualification requirements before trying again

Warnings and Errors

Warnings

Warnings are issued when the optimiser completes but cannot place some work orders.

Common causes include:

Warning	Cause
No qualified personnel available	No selected person has the qualifications required by the work order
No base assigned to personnel	The person has a rotation but no Primary Base set in the work schedule
Transport resource assigned to a base with no matching personnel	The selected transport resource and selected personnel cannot be matched through compatible base assignments
Work order window too narrow	The work order's earliest start / latest finish window does not overlap enough with the optimisation period to find a valid slot
Missing or incomplete weather data	Weather access windows cannot be calculated for the selected period or location

Errors

Errors prevent the run from producing output.