Staff scheduling

• US 7,962,356 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InVision Software AG
• Original Assignee: InVision Software AG
• Inventors: Bollenbeck, Peter, Kemper, Ralf
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): FEENEY, BRETT A
• Application Number:
  US11/421,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20060277090A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,840 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• 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 causing a particular computer system to create 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:

repeatedly generating, by a processor associated with the particular computer system, a deployment plan assignment of the staff members, and assessing a quality of the assignment generated regarding the state of coverage of activities by using a target function,

using, by a processor associated with the particular computer system, 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 normal-activity term;

2. The method according to claim 1,

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

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein 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.

4. 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.

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

6. The method according to claim 5, 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.

7. A method of configuring a particular telephone call router with the aid of a particular computer system and 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, by a processor associated with the particular computer system, a deployment plan assignment of the staff members, and assessing, by a processor associated with the particular computer system, a quality of the assignment generated regarding the state of coverage of activities using a target function,

using, by a processor associated with the particular computer system, 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 normal-activity term

8. The method according to claim 7, 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

9. A computer program product comprising software for creating a deployment plan for staff members with single or multiple qualifications for performing activities, the software being stored on a non-transitory machine-readable medium, wherein the software includes computer instructions that, 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 regarding the state of coverage of activities by 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 normal-activity term;

10. The computer program product according to claim 9, 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