Dynamic workforce scheduler

• US 6,823,315 B1
• Filed: 06/21/2000
• Issued: 11/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kronos Technology Systems Limited Partnership
• Original Assignee: Kronos Technology Systems Limited Partnership
• Inventors: Velazquez, Joseph A., Bucci, Mark E., Piccolomini, Paul J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meinecke-Díaz, Susanna
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stimpak, Johnna
• Application Number:
  US09/599,016
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9, 705/7
• US Class Current: 705/7.16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

A method of dynamically scheduling a workforce includes obtaining workforce requirements, attributes and employee preferences, determining a workforce schedule based on the workforce requirements and attributes, determining a schedule value based on workforce requirements and employee preferences, and iteratively modifying the workforce schedule, determining a schedule value based on workforce requirements and preferences for the modified workforce schedule, and comparing schedule values to determine a best workforce schedule.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically scheduling a workforce, comprising:

performing by a computer the steps of;

a) determining workforce requirements for a given time period;

b) determining, responsive to the workforce requirements, an initial workforce schedule for the given time period by determining shifts and assigning employees to the shifts, designating the initial workforce schedule as a trial workforce schedule and a best workforce schedule, and determining a value associated with the best workforce schedule responsive to the best workforce schedule, the workforce requirements and employee preferences, wherein said value is a weighted sum of overscheduling and underscheduling over all periods and all jobs for a given duration and employee dissatisfaction over all employees;

and wherein employee dissatisfaction is a weighted sum of;

a number of hours that the employee spends working outside the employee'"'"'s preferred availability;

a number of hours that the employee spends working outside the employee'"'"'s preferred jobs;

a number of hours that the employee spends working on the employee'"'"'s preferred day off; and

a difference between a number of scheduled hours and a number of preferred hours;

c) modifying the trial workforce schedule;

d) determining a value associated with the trial workforce schedule responsive to the trail workforce schedule, the workforce requirements and employee preferences;

e) if the value associated with the trial workforce schedule indicates a better match to the workforce requirements than a value associated with the best workforce schedule, designating the trial workforce schedule as the best workforce schedule;

f) repeating steps c) through e) for a predetermined number of iterations; and

g) selecting the best workforce schedule.

2. A method of dynamically scheduling a workforce, comprising:

performing by a computer the steps of;

determining workforce requirements for a scheduling cycle;

determining a workforce schedule satisfying a set of constraints such that an objective function ƒ

responsive to the workforce requirements, the workforce schedule and employee preferences, is minimized over a set of candidate workforce schedules;

said objective function is given by ƒ

=W_roΣ

Σ

o_ij+W_ruΣ

Σ

u_ij+W_dΣ

w_kd_k

where

Σ

Σ

o_ij=total number of minutes overscheduled for all periods i and all jobs j,

W_ro=weighting factor or penalty factor associated with overscheduling any job during any period,

Σ

Σ

u_ij=total number of minutes underscheduled for all periods i and all jobs j,

W_ru=weighting factor or penalty factor associated with underscheduling any job during any period,

Σ

w_kd_k=sum of dissatisfactions of all employees k, each employee'"'"'s dissatisfaction being weighted by w_k, and

W_d=overall weighting factor or penalty factor of total employee dissatisfaction, wherein employee dissatisfaction is responsive to employee preferences.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein each employee'"'"'s weighting factor w_k is responsive to one or many of seniority, work status and age.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein an employee'"'"'s dissatisfaction is given by:

5. The method of claim 4 wherein a job is ranked from 0% to 100% for each employee, the ranking being an additional weighting factor for d_k.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein W_ro=W_ru={fraction (1/60)}, and wherein W_d=R_d where R_d is a user-configured ratio from 0.0 to 1.0.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein w_k is proportional to 1/k where k indicates seniority.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the periods are for 15 minutes.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein the constraints comprise minor rules.

11. The method of claim 2 wherein the constraints comprise break rules.

12. The method of claim 2 wherein each scheduling cycle has a duration of one week.