System and method for skills-based staffing and scheduling

• US 8,612,272 B1
• Filed: 09/02/2009
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: inContact Incorporated (Nice Ltd)
• Original Assignee: Turgut Aykin
• Inventors: Aykin, Turgut
• Primary Examiner(s): FEENEY, BRETT A
• Application Number:
  US12/584,210
• Time in Patent Office: 1,567 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling

Abstract

An invention for scheduling employees in a skills-based contact routing environment in which each employee has one or more skills and belongs to a skill group. The invention includes an initialization step and an iterative step. In the initialization step, the invention generates initial staffing levels and initial agent schedules for each skill group. In the iterative step, a skill group is selected and unscheduled while keeping agents in other skill groups on their current schedules, agent requirements for the skill group selected are updated using a staffing model that applies contact routing rules and includes the number of agents scheduled for work in other skill groups, and agents are rescheduled in the selected skill group. In each iteration each skill group is unscheduled, agent requirements are updated, and agents are rescheduled once. Iterations continue until one or more stopping criteria are satisfied.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for developing schedules comprising the steps of:

(a) acquiring a scheduling period, consisting of a plurality of planning periods, a plurality of contact groups, one or more service level targets for the plurality of contact groups, contact volume forecasts and average service time forecasts for each contact group of the plurality of contact groups over the scheduling period by a computer;

(b) acquiring skill groups including a plurality of agents together with their skills and skill levels, and scheduling rules by the computer;

(c) acquiring initial schedules for the plurality of agents in each skill group and designating the generated initial schedules as current schedules for the plurality of agents in the each skill group by the computer;

(d) selecting a first skill group of the skill groups by the computer;

(e) updating the agent requirements for the first skill group selected in step (d) by un-scheduling the plurality of agents in the first skill group and discarding the current schedules, maintaining the current schedules for the plurality of agents that are not included in the first skill group and using a staffing model to determine the minimum agent requirements for the first skill group to most closely meet the service level targets by the computer;

(f) generating new current schedules for the plurality of agents in the first skill group selected in step (d) using the updated agent requirements found in step (e) by the computer;

(g) repeating steps (d-f) for the each skill group of the skill groups until every skill group of the skills groups is unscheduled, the agent requirements are updated, and the plurality of agents in every skills group of the skill groups is re-scheduled by the computer; and

(h) repeating steps (d-g) in one or more iterations until a set of final schedules is found for the plurality of agents in every skill group of the skill groups after satisfying one or more stopping criteria conditions by the computer.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein a staffing model analyzes contact arrivals and service times based on the contact volume and average service time forecasts for the plurality of contact groups over the scheduling period, contact abandonments, contact routing rules, and the initial schedules for the plurality of agents that are not included in the first skill group.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the new current schedules for the plurality of agents in every skill group is generated using a scheduling algorithm.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the scheduling algorithm comprises of formulating the constraints and objective function of an Integer Linear Programming (IP) model.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein agent requirements for a skill group unscheduled are updated to meet service level targets for contact groups using the staffing model.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more stopping criteria conditions may includes the difference between the service levels found in two successive iterations for the all contact groups being less than a pre-specified value.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more stopping criteria conditions includes exceeding a pre-specified maximum number of iterations.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more stopping criteria conditions includes exceeding a pre-specified period of time.

9. A computer implemented method for developing schedules, the method comprising:

retrieving from a database including stored therein initial schedules for a plurality of agents grouped in a first group of agents and a second group of agents according to skills and skill levels;

un-scheduling the plurality of agents in the first group of agents by discarding the initial schedules for the plurality of agents in the first group of agents and updating, by a computer, agent requirements for the first group of agents over a scheduling period using a staffing model by determining minimum agent requirements for the plurality of agents in the first group of agents that most closely meets the service level targets for the first group of agents while maintaining the schedules for the plurality of agents in the second group of agents, and rescheduling agents in the first group of agents to most closely meet the updated agent requirements for the first group of agents;

un-scheduling the plurality of agents in the second group of agents by discarding the initial schedules for the plurality of agents in the second group of agents and updating, by the computer, agent requirements for the second group of agents over the scheduling period using the staffing model by determining minimum agent requirements for the plurality of agents in the second group of agents that most closely meets the service level targets for the second group of agents while maintaining the schedules for the plurality of agents in the first group of agents, and rescheduling agents in the second group of agents to most closely meet the updated agent requirements for the second group of agents; and

repeating, by the computer, the updating of the agent requirements for the plurality of agents in the first group of agents and the second group of agents and iteratively rescheduling the first group of agents and the second group of agents until a set of final schedules is found for the plurality of agents by satisfying one or more stopping criteria conditions.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising:

maintaining in the computer, initial schedules for the scheduling period of a third group of agents while rescheduling the first group of agents and the second group of agents;

un-scheduling the plurality of agents in the third group of agents by discarding the initial schedules for the plurality of agents in the third group of agents and updating, by the computer, agent requirements for the third group of agents over a scheduling period using the staffing model by determining minimum agent requirements for the plurality of agents in the third group of agents that most closely meets the service level targets for the third group of agents while maintaining the schedules for the plurality of agents in the first group of agents and the second group of agents, and

after updating agent requirements for the third group of agents, rescheduling agents in the third group of agents to most closely meet the updated agent requirements for the third group of agents.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 10, wherein the first group of agents has a higher rank compared to the second group of agents and the third group of agents.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein the new current schedules for the plurality of agents in every skill group is generated using a scheduling algorithm.

13. A computer implemented method for developing schedules, the method comprising:

(a) selecting, by the computer, a first skill group among a plurality of skill groups that is the highest ranked skill group wherein the skill group includes a plurality of agents;

(b) updating, by the computer, agent requirements for the plurality of agents in the first skill group selected in step (a) by un-scheduling the plurality of agents in the first skill group and discarding the current schedule for each of the plurality of agents in the first skill group, while keeping a current schedule of each of the plurality of agents that are not in the first skill group by using a staffing model to determine the minimum agent requirements for the first plurality of agents in the first skill group to most closely meet service level targets;

(c) generating, by the computer, schedules for the plurality of agents in the first skill group selected in step (a) using the updated agent requirements found in step (b) and making the generated schedules for the plurality of agents the current schedules for the agents in the skill group selected in step (a);

(d) repeating, by the computer, steps (a-c) by selecting each lower ranked skill group of the plurality of skill groups; and

(e) iteratively rescheduling the plurality of agents in each skill group of the plurality of skill groups until a set of final schedules is found for the plurality of agents by satisfying one or more stopping criteria conditions.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13, wherein the new current schedules for the plurality of agents in every skill group is generated using a scheduling algorithm.