STAFF SCHEDULING

• US 20060277090A1
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InVision Software AG
• Original Assignee: InVision Software AG
• Inventors: Bollenbeck, Peter, Kemper, Ralf
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task

Abstract

Methods are provided of creating a deployment plan for staff members with single or multiple qualification for performing activities, each activity requiring at least a single qualification. The methods include the following operations performed by a computer: repeatedly generating a deployment plan assignment of the staff members, and assessing a quality of the assignment generated using a target function, using one of the assignments on the basis of the assessment of the quality as the assignment representing the deployment plan, wherein the target function comprises a term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the number of the staff members deployed to the activities and the calculated total staff member requirement of the activities the higher the quality of the assignment.

Claims

1. A method of creating a deployment plan for staff members with single or multiple qualifications for performing activities, each activity requiring at least a single qualification, the method comprising the following operations performed by a computer:

repeatedly generating a deployment plan assignment of the staff members, and assessing a quality of the assignment generated using a target function,

using one of the assignments on the basis of the assessment of the quality as the assignment representing the deployment plan,

wherein the target function comprises a term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the number of the staff members deployed to the activities and the calculated total staff member requirement of the activities the higher the quality of the assignment.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the activities define a multi-activity, and wherein the total staff member requirement is a multi-activity-related requirement value that is not changed during the repeated generating of a deployment plan assignment,

wherein for each activity an activity staff member requirement is calculated that indicates how many staff members are needed, if each of the staff members deployed is only qualified for one activity,

and wherein the target function comprises a further term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the activity staff member requirement calculated for each activity and the number of the staff members assigned to the multi-activity who are qualified for the activity, the higher the quality of the assignment.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the multi-activity-related requirement value is calculated according to the assumption that each of the staff members deployed to the multi-activity is qualified for all activities of the multi-activity due to his/her multiple qualification.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the multi-activity-related requirement value is based on effectively available qualifications of the staff members.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the activities define a multi-activity, and wherein the total staff member requirement is an approximated, effective requirement value that is calculated after each generation of a deployment plan assignment and indicates how many staff members are required in terms of the qualifications given in the currently generated deployment plan assignment.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the calculation of the approximated, effective requirement is performed using an approximation formula.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the target function comprises a further term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between an activity staff member requirement calculated for each activity, under the assumption that each staff member is qualified for only one activity, and a corresponding number of staff members who are qualified for the activity, the higher the quality of the assignment.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the target function comprises a further term associated with one or more normal activities, each comprising only one activity, wherein the further term determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the activity staff member requirement calculated for each normal activity and the number of the staff members assigned to the normal activity the higher the quality of the assignment.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the deployment plan assignment, that extends over a longer time interval, is divided into shorter time intervals, the deployment plan assignment of the staff members is performed for each of the shorter time intervals and the target function adds up the assessments of the shorter time intervals for the assessment of the deployment plan assignment.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein staff members are deployed to activities within a multi-activity prior to commencement of creating the deployment plan.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein a scheduler generates the deployment plan assignments under boundary conditions in the context of an optimization procedure.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the optimization procedure includes at least one of:

a taboo-search procedure, a simulated annealing procedure, a hill-climbing procedure, a genetic algorithm procedure, and a branch-and-bound procedure.

13. A method of configuring a telephone call router on the basis of a deployment plan prepared for staff members with single or multiple qualifications for performing activities, each activity requiring at least a single qualification, the method comprising:

repeatedly generating a deployment plan assignment of the staff members, and assessing a quality of the assignment generated using a target function,

using one of the assignments on the basis of the assessment of the quality as the assignment representing the deployment plan,

wherein the target function comprises a term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the number of the staff members deployed to the activities and the calculated total staff member requirement of the activities the higher the quality of the assignment, and

configuring the telephone call router so that it forwards telephone calls to one or more staff members, who are in service according to the deployment plan at the point of time of the telephone call, wherein the one or more staff members have the qualifications to answer the telephone calls.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the activities define a multi-activity and wherein the total staff member requirement is a multi-activity-related requirement value that is not changed during the repeated generating of a deployment plan assignment,

wherein for each activity an activity staff member requirement is calculated that indicates how many staff members are needed, if each of the staff members deployed is only qualified for one activity,

and wherein the target function comprises a further term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the activity staff member requirement calculated for each activity and the number of the staff members assigned to the multi-activity who are qualified for the activity, the higher the quality of the assignment.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the activities define a multi-activity, and wherein the total staff member requirement is an approximated, effective requirement value that is calculated after each generation of a deployment plan assignment and indicates how many staff members are required in terms of the qualifications given in the currently generated deployment plan assignment.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the target function comprises a further term associated with one or more normal activities, each comprising only one activity, wherein the further term determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the activity staff member requirement calculated for each normal activity and the number of the staff members assigned to the normal activity the higher the quality of the assignment.

17. A computer program product for creating a deployment plan for staff members with single or multiple qualifications for performing activities, the computer program product residing on a machine-readable medium for storing computer instructions, or the computer program product is a signal propagated on a carrier encoding the computer instructions, wherein the computer instructions, when executed on a processor-based machine, cause the processor-based machine to:

repeatedly generate a deployment plan assignment of the staff members, and assess a quality of the assignment generated using a target function,

use one of the assignments on the basis of the assessment of the quality as the assignment representing the deployment plan,

wherein the target function comprises a term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the number of the staff members deployed to the activities and the calculated total staff member requirement of the activities the higher the quality of the assignment.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the activities define a multi-activity and wherein the total staff member requirement is a multi-activity-related requirement value that is not changed during the repeated generating of a deployment plan assignment,

wherein for each activity an activity staff member requirement is calculated that indicates how many staff members are needed, if each of the staff members deployed is only qualified for one activity,

and wherein the target function comprises a further term that determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the activity staff member requirement calculated for each activity and the number of the staff members assigned to the multi-activity, who are qualified for the activity, the higher the quality of the assignment.

19. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the activities define a multi-activity, and wherein the total staff member requirement is an approximated, effective requirement value that is calculated after each generation of a deployment plan assignment and indicates how many staff members are required in terms of the qualifications given in the currently generated deployment plan assignment.

20. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the target function comprises a further term associated with one or more normal activities, each comprising only one activity, wherein the further term determines the quality of the assignments, such that the smaller the difference is between the activity staff member requirement calculated for each normal activity and the number of the staff members assigned to the normal activity the higher the quality of the assignment.