Handling unscheduled tasks in a scheduling process

• US 20030041087A1
• Filed: 09/19/2002
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trimble MRM Ltd. (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: @Road Incorporated (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Pothos, Dionisios, Laithwaite, Robert, Alletson, Ian S
• Granted Patent: US 7,210,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

Tasks (T) such as repair jobs on a telecommunications system, that are to be performed by a plurality of resources such as field engineers (E), at different locations in a geographical area (2), are scheduled by means of a scheduler (10) at a work manager server (5). The scheduler provides schedule data (11) corresponding to schedules of the tasks that individual ones of the resources are to carry out, from task data (4) concerning the tasks to be carried out and resource data (6) concerning characteristics of resources available to carry out the tasks over a given period. Not all the tasks are scheduled, resulting in unscheduled task data (11a). The schedule data (11) is downloaded to a workstation (7) together with the unscheduled task data. The downloaded data is analysed at the workstation to determine a candidate resource (E) to perform the task (T) corresponding to the unscheduled task data.

Claims

1. A method of scheduling tasks to be performed by means of a plurality of resources, comprising:

providing schedule data (26, 42-45) corresponding to schedules of the tasks (11) that individual ones of the resources are to carry out, prepared from task data (4) concerning the tasks to be carried out and resource data (6) concerning characteristics of resources available to carry out the tasks over a given period, together with unscheduled task data (11a) concerning a task (1) not included in the schedules, and

analysing the schedules and the characteristics of the individual resources to determine a candidate resource (E) to perform the task (T) corresponding to the unscheduled task data.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the tasks (T) are to be performed at different locations in a geographical area (2) by the resources (E) and the schedule data (26,42-45) contains location data corresponding to the locations of the resources and the unscheduled task, and the analysing includes comparing (S13.2) the location data for the unscheduled task and the resources to determine said candidate resource.

3. A method according to claim 2 including ranking (S13.4) more than one said candidate resource according to a predetermined criterion.

4. A method according to claim 2 including computing the distance of the resources from the unscheduled task (S13.3) and ranking them according to distance therefrom.

5. A method according to claim 2 including computing the time to travel to the unscheduled task (S13.3) for the resources individually and ranking the resources according to the computed travel time.

6. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 5 including making an initial search (FIG. 20) for a group of resources to be considered as candidate resources.

7. A method according to any preceding claim including providing (S13.5) a display (72) of the or each said candidate resource (E).

8. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 6 including providing a display on a map of the locations of the unscheduled task (91) and a least one said candidate resource (92-95).

9. A method according claim 8 including providing a tour map for at least one of the candidate resources.

10. A program to be run on a computer to perform a method as claimed in any preceding claim.

12. Computer software according to claim 10 further including program instructions to produce the schedule data.

11. Computer software to be run on data processing apparatus for use in scheduling tasks to be performed by a plurality of resources, the software including program instructions for operating on schedule data (26, 42-45) corresponding to schedules of the tasks (11) that individual ones of the resources are to carry out, the schedule data having been prepared from task data (4) concerning the tasks to be carried out and resource data (6) concerning characteristics of resources available to carry out the tasks over a given period, together with unscheduled task data (11a) concerning a task m not included in the schedules, the program instructions being configured to produce an analysis of the schedules and the characteristics of the individual resources to determine a candidate resource (E) to perform the task (T) corresponding to the unscheduled task data.

13. Apparatus to schedule tasks to be performed using a plurality of resources, wherein schedule data (26, 42-45) corresponding to schedules of the tasks (11) that individual ones of the resources are to carry out, prepared from task data (4) concerning the tasks to be carried out and resource data (6) concerning characteristics of resources available to carry out the tasks over a given period, together with unscheduled task data (11a) concerning a task (T) not included in the schedules, are provided, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to analyse the schedules and the characteristics of the individual resources to determine a candidate resource (E) to perform the task (T) corresponding to the unscheduled task data.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13 configured as a client (7) to receive said schedule data from a server (5).

15. Apparatus according to claim 14 together with the server (5).

16. Apparatus according to claim 13, 14 or 15 including a display device (16) configured to display the unscheduled task and at least one said candidate.

17. Apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 16 wherein the schedule data relates to tasks to be performed on a telecommunications system and the resource data relates to field engineers to perform the tasks.