Activities Excepted From Incrementing In Global Minimum Staffing Although Included In Satisfying Global Minimum Staffing
First Claim
1. A method performed in one or more computers, the method comprising:
- receiving input on a first activity to be performed in a facility, the first activity having a first workload to be kept unchanged;
checking in each time period among a plurality of time periods during which the facility is open, whether a difference is greater than zero, between a minimum number of employees needed to open the facility and a current number of employees obtained based at least partially on a plurality of second workloads of second activities in the facility and the first workload of the first activity; and
when said checking finds that the difference is greater than zero in any time period among the plurality of time periods, at least one processor allocating an excess number of hours that are obtained based at least on said difference, to obtain and store in a computer memory changed second workloads while keeping at least the first workload of the first activity unchanged, such that a new current number of employees obtained based on at least the changed second workloads and the first workload, equals or exceeds in said each time period the minimum number of employees needed to open the facility.
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Abstract
In each time period during which a facility is open, a difference is automatically checked for being greater than zero, between a minimum number of employees needed to open the facility and a current number of employees. The current number of employees is obtained based at least partially on workloads of activities in the facility, including normal activities whose workloads are determined based on forecasts and labor standards and at least one activity (“no-increment” activity) whose workload is to not be incremented. When the difference is greater than zero in any time period, an excess number of hours of minimum staffing are obtained based at least on the difference, and then allocated among the workloads of the normal activities, to obtain new workloads while keeping the workload of each no-increment activity unchanged. Therefore, workload of an no-increment activity is used in checking but the no-increment activity'"'"'s workload is not incremented.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method performed in one or more computers, the method comprising:
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receiving input on a first activity to be performed in a facility, the first activity having a first workload to be kept unchanged; checking in each time period among a plurality of time periods during which the facility is open, whether a difference is greater than zero, between a minimum number of employees needed to open the facility and a current number of employees obtained based at least partially on a plurality of second workloads of second activities in the facility and the first workload of the first activity; and when said checking finds that the difference is greater than zero in any time period among the plurality of time periods, at least one processor allocating an excess number of hours that are obtained based at least on said difference, to obtain and store in a computer memory changed second workloads while keeping at least the first workload of the first activity unchanged, such that a new current number of employees obtained based on at least the changed second workloads and the first workload, equals or exceeds in said each time period the minimum number of employees needed to open the facility. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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7. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions comprising:
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instructions to receive input comprising a number of repetitions of a first activity to be performed in a facility, and a duration of the first activity, wherein a first workload of the first activity is to be kept unchanged; instructions to check in each time period among a plurality of time periods during which the facility is open, whether a difference is greater than zero, between a minimum number of employees needed to open the facility and a current number of employees obtained based at least partially on a plurality of second workloads of second activities in the facility and a first workload of the first activity, wherein the first workload is based on at least the number of repetitions and the duration of the first activity; and instructions to allocate an excess number of hours to meet the minimum number that are obtained based at least on said difference, to obtain and store in a computer memory new second workloads while keeping at least the first workload of the first activity unchanged such that a new current number obtained based on at least the new second workloads and the first workload, equals or exceeds the minimum number in each time period; wherein the instructions to allocate are to be executed after execution of said instructions to check finds that the difference is greater than zero in any time period among the plurality of time periods.
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12. An apparatus comprising at least one processor coupled to a memory, the apparatus comprising:
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means for receiving input comprising a number of repetitions of a first activity, and a duration of the first activity; means for checking in each time period among a plurality of time periods during which a facility is open, whether a difference is greater than zero, between a minimum number of employees needed to open the facility and a current number of employees obtained based at least partially on a plurality of second workloads of second activities in the facility and a first workload of the first activity, wherein the first workload is based on at least the number of repetitions and the duration of the first activity; and means for allocating an excess number of hours of minimum staffing that are obtained based at least on said difference, among the second workloads of the second activities, to obtain and store in said memory new second workloads while keeping the first workload of the first activity unchanged such that a new current number based on at least the new second workloads and the first workload, equals or exceeds the minimum number in each time period; wherein the means for allocating is responsive to the means for checking finding that the difference is greater than zero in any time period among the plurality of time periods.
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Specification