Systems and methods for automatic scheduling of a workforce

• US 10,115,065 B1
• Filed: 11/01/2010
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Fama, Jason, Zeoli, Michael, Hamilton, Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Delich, Stephanie Z
• Application Number:
  US12/916,678
• Time in Patent Office: 2,920 Days
• Field of Search: 705 713, 705 721, 705 736, 705 741, 705 742, 705 715
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for scheduling a workforce. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a shift activity template; receiving an association between the shift activity template and at least one worker; and scheduling a plurality of schedulable objects. The scheduling is performed in accordance with a workload forecast and schedule constraints. Each of the schedulable objects is based on the shift activity template. The shift activity template describes a worker activity performed during a shift. The template has range of start times and a variable length for the activity. The activity is associated with a queue.

Claims

1. A method of workforce scheduling, comprising:

using a processor and computer memory to form a template-user interface comprising at least one shift activity template, wherein a worker interacts with the template-user interface to enter attributes of a work schedule into the shift activity template stored in the computer memory, wherein the attributes describe at least one worker activity performed during a period in a shift, a range of start times for the worker activity, and a length for the at least one worker activity;

creating with the processor and storing in the computerized memory, a schedulable object associated with the shift;

for said at least one worker activity, initializing corresponding attributes in the schedulable object in accordance with attributes from the shift activity template;

receiving an association between the shift activity template and at least one worker;

and

adjusting a scheduled time for the worker activity within the shift to evaluate combinations of scheduled times for the worker by binding the schedulable object to a respective period in the shift;

constraining additional binding such that the additional binding of additional schedulable objects to additional periods in the shift are distinct from the respective period in the shift;

identifying schedulable objects that are in excess of a minimum number of schedulable objects for a respective shift activity template and tracking the excess schedulable objects with a “

no binding”

identifier;

gathering the identified excess schedulable objects and placing the excess schedulable objects together in initial periods of respective shift activity templates to accommodate reassigning the excess schedulable objects;

identifying at least one queue experiencing a backlog and reassigning the excess schedulable objects from respective shift activity templates to the at least one queue;

and

directing output from the queue to the at least one worker in accordance with the binding and additional binding.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the variable length comprises locating the variable length among a plurality of schedulable objects with heuristic searches comprising one of a quick search, chronological search, activity oriented search and a swap search.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the activity ordered search comprises:

creating a list of possible activity orderings; and

for each ordering, each activity in the ordering and non-required scheduling object,

filtering the list of possible activity orderings for that scheduling object such that it only contains the activity in the ordering;

scheduling using an existing local search and scoring to optimize work rules and service goal scores; and

if an optional scheduling object is bound, replacing it with a required scheduling object.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the swap search comprises:

swapping two activity blocks where an activity of a first block is not the same as an activity of a second block and employees associated with the first block and the second block are the same; and

comparing a performance improvement based on the swapping.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating, for each shift activity template, a plurality of schedulable objects, a domain of potential bindings for each schedulable object, and a respective additional binding.

6. The method of claim 5,

where each schedulable object contains a list of possibilities consisting of every start-time/activity pair given a start time window defined in the shift worker activity, a shift length, a list of flexible activities defined in the shift activity, and skills of an employee;

ordering the scheduling objects such that non-required objects are first; and

scheduling for each employee using an existing local search and scoring, to optimize work rules and service goal scores;

wherein the local search comprises;

selecting a non-required scheduling object;

filtering a list of possibilities for that scheduling object such that it only contains a start chronologically ordered start time;

scheduling using an existing local search and scoring to optimize work rules and service goal scores; and

if an optional scheduling object is bound, replacing it with a required scheduling object.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a score that represents one of plural alternatives, where the alternatives include scheduling to achieve service level on as many queues as possible, scheduling work on the queues that have the most work, and scheduling work proportionately to the workload on each queue.

8. A method of workforce scheduling, comprising:

using a processor and computer memory to form a template-user interface comprising at least one shift activity template, wherein a worker interacts with the template-user interface, to enter attributes of a work schedule into the shift activity template stored in the computer memory, wherein the attributes describe at least one worker activity performed during a period in a shift, the template having a range of start times for the worker activity and a variable length for the at least one worker activity, wherein flexible activities fill consecutive time slots in the shift and further wherein a later object is dependent on previously created objects;

creating with the processor and storing in the computerized memory, a plurality of schedulable objects associated with the shift;

for said at least one worker activity, initializing corresponding attributes in the schedulable objects in accordance with said attributes from the shift activity template;

identifying schedulable objects that are in excess of a minimum number of schedulable objects for a respective shift activity template and tracking the excess schedulable objects with a “

no binding”

identifier;

gathering the identified excess schedulable objects and placing the excess schedulable objects together in initial periods of respective shift activity templates to accommodate reassigning the excess schedulable objects;

identifying at least one queue experiencing a backlog and reassigning the excess schedulable objects from respective shift activity templates to the at least one queue;

receiving an association between the shift activity template and at least one worker;

defining a time bank of weekly target hours for the at least one worker over a predetermined period; and

scheduling the plurality of schedulable objects using heuristic searches, wherein the schedulable objects are associated with the at least one worker in accordance with a workload forecast, schedule constraints and the time bank each stored in the memory, wherein the scheduling comprises;

adjusting the variable length of the worker activity to evaluate combinations of varying lengths of the worker activity in the scheduling;

binding the plurality of the schedulable objects to a respective period in the shift and automatically scheduling the workforce to meet the workload forecast stored in said memory;

directing output from the queue to the at least one worker in accordance with the binding and additional binding.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

defining plural time banks for the at least one worker; and

assigning one of the time banks to the at least one worker in accordance with the workload forecast.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising scheduling the at least one worker within a campaign having a duration of the predetermined period.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising tracking hours worked by the at least one worker during the campaign.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising projecting the workload forecast in accordance with an hours per week worked by employees, vacation hours per week taken by employees, overtime hours, retraining time, layoff plans and hiring plans.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising defining intermediate periods within the time bank to reflect workload forecasts having a duration less than the predetermined period.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the duration is associated with a seasonal adjustment or product release.

15. A method of workforce scheduling, comprising:

using a processor and computer memory to form a template-user interface comprising at least one shift activity template, wherein a worker interacts with the template-user interface, to enter attributes of a work schedule into the shift activity template stored in the computer memory, wherein the attributes describe at least one worker activity performed during a period in a shift, a range of start times for the worker activity, and a variable length for the at least one worker activity;

receiving an association between the shift activity template and at least one worker;

creating with the processor and storing in the computer memory, a plurality of schedulable objects associated with the shift;

scheduling the plurality of schedulable objects using heuristic searches, wherein the schedulable objects are in accordance with a workload forecast of the first queue and a schedule of the second queue, the scheduling comprising;

for said at least one worker activity, initializing corresponding attributes in the schedulable objects in accordance with said attributes from the shift activity template;

adjusting the variable length of the worker activity to evaluate combinations of varying lengths of the worker activity in the scheduling;

identifying schedulable objects that are in excess of a minimum number of schedulable objects for a respective shift activity template and tracking the excess schedulable objects with a “

no binding”

identifier;

gathering the identified excess schedulable objects and placing the excess schedulable objects together in initial periods of respective shift activity templates to accommodate reassigning the excess schedulable objects;

identifying at least one queue experiencing a backlog and reassigning the excess schedulable objects from respective shift activity templates to the at least one queue;

binding the plurality of the schedulable objects to a respective period in the shift and automatically scheduling the workforce to meet the workload forecast stored in said memory;

directing, in real time and with a contact router, output from the first queue and the second queue to the at least one worker in accordance with the binding.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising iteratively scheduling the plurality of schedulable objects for subsequent queues.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first queue and the second queue are defined as a tier, and wherein the subsequent queues are layered in tiers to create a cycle.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the tiers within the cycle converge to create a score.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the convergence of the cycle is set in accordance with a cycle delta threshold, a cycle count threshold and a processing time threshold.