Assign a Technician to a Job
Assignment means linking a specific technician to a job — or to an individual step within a multi-step job. The assigned technician is the person responsible for performing the work. Their name appears on the job card on the calendar, and the job counts toward their Work In Progress (WIP) total for the day.
Assignment and scheduling are independent actions. A job can be scheduled into a bay and time slot before a technician is assigned, and a technician can be assigned before the job is formally scheduled. Most advisors do both at the same time, but there are valid reasons to separate them — for instance, scheduling the bay slot immediately when a customer calls, then confirming the tech assignment during the morning briefing.
Before You Assign
A few checks before assigning any technician:
- Is the tech clocked in? BayWise tracks clock-in status in real time. Assigning a job to a tech who has not clocked in is allowed, but you will receive a warning. If your workshop requires clock-in before assignment (configurable in Settings → Operations → Clock-In Rules), the assignment will be blocked until the tech is clocked in.
- Does the tech have the required skill? If the job’s service type has a skill requirement configured in your service catalog, BayWise filters the technician dropdown to show only qualified techs. If you need to see all techs regardless of skill match, there is an option to expand the list — but any tech without the required skill will be marked with a caution indicator.
- Is the tech within their WIP limit? Each technician has a maximum WIP — the number of active jobs they can hold simultaneously. This is configured per tech in the Technician settings. Exceeding WIP is a warning, not a hard block, but it is a signal that the tech is already stretched.
Manual Assignment
Open the job detail panel
Click on the job card — either in the Unscheduled list or on the calendar grid. The job detail panel opens on the right side of the screen.
Click Assign
In the Technician section of the job detail panel, click Assign Technician. A technician selection dropdown appears.
Select the technician
The dropdown lists available technicians. Each entry shows:
- The technician’s name
- Their current WIP count (e.g. Priya Nair — 2 active jobs)
- A skill match indicator (green tick if qualified for this service type, amber caution if not)
- Their clock-in status
Select the technician you want to assign. For example, for a brake inspection at Tanaka Auto Service, you select James Okafor — he is clocked in, has the Brakes & Suspension skill, and currently holds one active job.
Confirm the assignment
Click Confirm. The technician’s name now appears on the job card on the calendar. The job is added to James’s WIP count.
AI-Assisted Assignment
BayWise includes an AI suggestion engine that evaluates your technician roster and recommends the best available match for each job. This is particularly useful during busy periods when advisors are managing many jobs simultaneously and do not have time to manually review every tech’s workload.
AI suggestions improve over time as job history accumulates. In the first few weeks after going live, suggestions are based on skill match and availability only. After 2–3 weeks of completed jobs, efficiency history is factored in — the system learns which technicians complete similar service types faster and with fewer QC issues.
Open the job detail panel or locate the job card
AI Suggest is available both from the calendar job card (via the quick-action button) and from within the job detail panel.
Click AI Suggest
Click the AI Suggest button. BayWise evaluates all available technicians against four criteria and returns a ranked recommendation within a few seconds.
Review the suggestion
The suggestion panel shows:
- Recommended technician — the top-ranked match, with a brief explanation. For example: “Priya Nair — Skill match confirmed. 1 active job (within WIP limit). Highest efficiency score for engine diagnostics this week.”
- Alternative options — one or two runners-up, if the advisor wants to override the top suggestion.
- Why this tech? — a short summary of the factors that drove the recommendation.
Accept or override
Click Accept to assign the recommended technician. Click Choose Different Tech to return to the manual selection dropdown. The AI suggestion is a recommendation, not a directive — advisors retain full control.
What the AI Considers
The suggestion engine weighs four factors in this order of priority:
1. Skill match — Does the technician have the skill required by the service type? A tech without the required skill will not be recommended unless no qualified techs are available. Skill requirements are configured in the service catalog.
2. WIP limit — Is the technician within their maximum Work In Progress limit? Techs at or above their WIP limit are deprioritised. This protects quality: an overloaded technician is more likely to make mistakes or take shortcuts.
3. Current workload balance — Among techs within their WIP limit, how is today’s workload distributed? The AI favours technicians with relatively lighter loads, which produces more even throughput across the team and reduces the risk of one technician becoming a bottleneck.
4. Efficiency history — After sufficient job history has accumulated, the AI evaluates how efficiently each technician has completed similar jobs in the past: average actual time versus estimated time, and QC pass rate for that service type. A technician who consistently completes engine diagnostics faster than the estimate, with high QC pass rates, will rank above an equally skilled but slower technician for engine diagnostic jobs.
Conflict Warnings
BayWise shows a warning — but does not block the assignment — when any of the following conditions are true:
| Condition | Warning shown |
|---|---|
| Tech is not clocked in | ”James Okafor is not clocked in. Assign anyway?” |
| Tech is at WIP limit | ”Priya Nair has reached her WIP limit (3 active jobs). Assign anyway?” |
| Tech lacks required skill | ”Santos Mendez does not have the Transmission skill required for this job. Assign anyway?” |
| Scheduling overlap | ”This job overlaps with WO-2039 already assigned to Priya Nair. Assign anyway?” |
In each case, the advisor can override the warning and proceed. Overrides are logged and visible in the tech’s activity history for that day.
If your workshop policy is to treat any of these as hard blocks rather than soft warnings, contact your BayWise administrator — some of these thresholds can be tightened in Settings → Operations.
Assigning Technicians to Multi-Step Jobs
For multi-step jobs, each step can be assigned to a different technician. This is the standard model for body repair, where the work moves through distinct trades:
- Step 1 — Disassembly: Assigned to James Okafor (general technician, handles teardown)
- Step 2 — Panel Repair: Assigned to Priya Nair (certified panel beater)
- Step 3 — Paint: Assigned to a dedicated paint technician
- Step 4 — Reassembly and QC: Assigned back to James Okafor
To assign a technician to a specific step:
Open the job detail panel
Click the job card on the calendar. The panel opens showing all steps listed in sequence.
Expand the step
Click on the step you want to assign. The step detail expands to show its own Assign button.
Assign as normal
Follow the same manual or AI-assisted assignment flow described above. The assignment applies to that step only — it does not change the assignments on other steps.
At workshops like Santos Body Works where body repair jobs routinely involve three or four separate specialists, step-level assignment is essential. It allows the production flow to be tracked per specialist and gives each tech visibility of exactly which step they own.
Reassigning a Technician
Plans change — a tech calls in sick, a job needs to be moved, or the initial assignment was a placeholder. To reassign:
Open the job detail panel
Click the job card to open the panel.
Click the technician’s name
In the Technician section, click the currently assigned tech’s name. The assignment form reopens.
Select a different technician
Choose the replacement technician from the dropdown. The previous assignment is immediately cleared and the new assignment is applied.
Check the previous tech’s WIP
When you reassign, BayWise automatically decrements the WIP count for the removed tech. If removing the job creates unexpected capacity for that tech, you may want to pull forward another job from the Unscheduled list to fill their time.
Reassigning a technician on a job that is already In Progress does not pause or transfer the clock. If the new tech picks up a job that was already started by someone else, the job timer continues from where it was. Make sure both the outgoing and incoming technician are aware of the handoff — and add a note to the job so the history is clear.