Resource Planner is a new approach to help managers plan their use of resources in the most efficient manner. This resource planning module is designed to work standalone and/or as a module of Matrix LIMS or an existing LIMS or Information Management System that is producing work to be performed by resources, tasks, people, equipment, buildings, training rooms etc.

Some of the important features of Resource Planner are as follows:

Resource Planning 
Resource Planner can look at outstanding tasks (workload) and suggest an optimal plan to complete those tasks. It considers most of the parameters and constraints e.g. expertise and availability of staff members, availability of equipment, instruments and other resources and average task completion times, priority of tasks etc.

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If resource planning is being carried out for a longer period of time (eg six months), this feature could be used to calculate the completion times of tasks and check the feasibility of due dates. For short term planning, it can be used to create weekly schedules/work sheets.

Another very useful feature is handling "what-if" scenarios. In eg a laboratory, resources are often lost or new tasks come in. Dealing with these situations is often complex and time consuming. Resource Planner can be used to deal with these scenarios e.g. if new tasks arrive, Resource Planner can acknowledge them and re-calculate the completion time. The priority of tasks can be changed if some tasks become critical.

Tracking Resources
Resource Planner can be used to track resources such as staff members and equipment / instruments. The Manager can look at the availability of staff members and equipment / instruments at any time. He / she can track the expertise of his staff members e.g. who can do what test. This information is useful for identifying the training needs of staff.

Resource Planner can also be used to track the workload e.g. work arrived, work in progress and work completed. It presents this information to the Laboratory or Planning Manager in an intuitive graphical format.

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Other features:

• Resource Planner has the look-and-feel of Matrix LIMS.
• It uses advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms to generate plans.
• It generates high quality graphs and charts.
• It is built on the Microsoft .NET technology which is the latest technology from Microsoft.