Get with the Sequence!

 

This is a common question from users: "What does 'Out of Sequence (Check all)' mean? "

 

 

 



 

You may get this message even when there are no missing events in the work order you are working on. Here's what it means:

 

By default, TrakIT will not allow you to skip events or leave them blank. This is simply to enforce good practices and ensure better data quality. Thus, when you see the error "Out of sequence", it simply means that there are one or more missing events prior to the event you are entering. Once you fill up the missing events with 'NA' (Not applicable/available) or 'TBA' (To be advised), you will not get this error.

 

In some cases, you may see the error "Out of sequence (Check all)" despite all events being entered. This will happen only when the work order is a part of a shipment with other work orders as well and the 'Apply to T/D' or 'Apply to S/I' checkbox is selected.

 

When an event is being applied to all work orders in the shipment, the missing event check is also applied for all work orders in the shipment. If any of the work orders are missing events prior to the event in question, the whole operation fails with the above message - which indicates to 'Check all' work orders for missing events.

 

Although it is possible to insert empty events when using the Bulk Update function and selecting the checkbox 'Ignore Event Sequence', it should, as far as possble, be avoided. Leaving events empty during bulk updates will cause the "Out of sequence" error for other users subsequently.

 

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

 

KPIs to Measure Hours

In TrakIT, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) basically measure the time difference between two events in a corridor. Previously, this difference was measured in whole days only - with an option to exlude weekends and defined holidays. Based on other conditions, a KPI can be set up to provide alerts when certain criteria are met.

With the latest build of TrakIT - A major change has been implemented with the way KPIs are measured. KPIs now measure hours as well as the days between two events.

When a KPI is setup to measure Business Hours only, the country and zone must be selected for the KPI. This is so that TrakIT can determine the holidays for the country and calculate the correct business hours as per the time zone selected.

It is very important to know the difference between Business Hours and Running Hours as these figures are very different for the same two events. Business hours are measured only between 9 am to 5 pm local time and completely excludes Saturdays, Sundays and holidays defined for the country. KPIs that measure Business hours are always displayed in italics.

The KPI Target and Actual values are displayed in days and hours. One running day is 24 running hours, whereas one business day consists of 8 business hours.

For example:

Start Time:	11:00 hrs, 14th Sept 2012
End Time:	18:30 hrs, 18th Sept 2012
Running Days/Hours:	4 days & 7 hours (103 running hours)
Business Days/Hours:	2 days & 6 hours (22 business hours)

The Business days are calculated as follows:
14th Sep, Friday:	11:00 to 17:00	= 6 hours
15th Sep, Saturday:		= 0 hours
16th Sep, Sunday:		= 0 hours
17th Sep, Monday:	09:00 to 17:00	= 8 hours
18th Sep, Tuesday:	09:00 to 17:00	= 8 hours

Any excess minutes are always truncated (not rounded). When exporting KPIs via Excel or CSV, the figures are always in hours.

For any questions of clarifications, contact TrakIT Support.

TrakIT Tracks Time

Events in TrakIT will now include the time of the event as well. This will benefit "fast" shipments tremendously where events are separated in hours or minutes instead of days.

The time of an event will always be specified in 24 hour format as HH:mm, dd MMM yyyy. Example: 14:55, 18 Aug 2012. AM/PM will not be used. Furthermore, users must be aware that the time specified for an event is assumed to be the local time of the user entering the event. This fact will be significant for corridors where the origin and destination are on different time zones. Users can also enter an event time up to 6 hours in the future.

Having a time-stamp on each event will also allow managers to see the time difference between the occurence of an event and the time it is updated in TrakIT. This will help identifying events that are logged with delays or bottlenecks in the workflow process.

Entering the time is simple. The pop-up calendar will now include drop-down lists for hours and minutes (in intervals of 5 minutes). The user should select the hour/minute and then select the date. If the event is being updated in real-time, the user can simply click the 'Now' link to insert the current date/time. If time is not is not selectable by the drop down list (e.g: 14:53), the user can type in the time directly in the text box.

All existing and old events in the system will automatically get a time of 12:00 (noon) based on the local time of the user who entered the event.

Time can also be considered to be optional as the default time will be 12:00 for all events. So users who don't need to use time for events can simply select the date.

Any events exported from the Operations page will also include the time of the event (in the user's local time). Bulk updates for events will also be assumed to be the local time of the user making the update.

The time for event updates by email will be taken as the time the email is received on the server. (This will change in a future update)

Currently, KPIs will only be measured in days. In the next update of TrakIT, hour and minute based KPIs will be available as well.

For any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact TrakIT Support. If you notice any un-expected or erroneous behaviour, please notify us immediately.



Dynamic Dashboard

With the latest build of TrakIT (build 55), the Dashboard page is now dynamic with addition and removal of charts and graphs.

Users can not set their own charts and graphs on their Dashboard. Currently, the following types of charts are available:

Work Order Creation - This is the basic graph that was present earlier and displays the number of work orders created each month.

KPI Performance Graph - This is a trend chart that displays the average calculated days of a selected KPI over the selected time period. The KPI is selected from the Master KPI list.

Event Occurrence Trend - This is a trend chart that displays the number of work orders for a particular event occurring during a month. Although the selection of the event is made from a single corridor, the event code is used to obtain the events from all corridors selected in the filters. For example: If you selected the event 'Discharged' from the list, TrakIT will use the event code (default 'DIS'), and obtain the corresponding events from all corridors selected in the filters.

Top 10 Pie Charts - These display pie charts that previously existed as well as the addition of a few more charts.

Each chart can be removed by clicking the close button. And the source data for each chart can be exported to MS-Excel by clicking the Excel icon.

For any questions, please contact TrakIT Support.

Active Filters & Excel Filters

With the latest update, Build 54, released yesterday, below are two changes (among many others) that were released:

Visually Distinctive Filters - The filters on the Operations page are now displayed in a light red colour if they are playing an active role in obtaining the list of work orders that you see. This makes it very easy to visually see which filters are in effect.

Excel Export Template & Header Filters - In the Customs & Advanced Reports, you now have the option to choose an Excel File (that maybe contains your company logo) as a template to use for exports. Additionally, you can choose to apply filters on the header row for receipients to quickly filter down to the information they need.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.