Schedule Optimization

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Schedule Optimization

    Schedule Optimization is a feature designed to enhance task scheduling by automatically assigning tasks and adjusting to dynamic conditions. It aims to create efficient schedules that maximize task assignments while minimizing travel time, ultimately improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

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    Key Features

    • Policies: Define your optimization goals by blending objectives and constraints, allowing the customization of strategies to minimize travel time.
    • Scopes: Link tasks to policies based on assignment groups or geographical territories, ensuring effective application of your optimization strategies.
    • Batches: Configure when and how optimizations occur, enabling quick adaptations to changing needs by running batches at strategic times.
    • Intra-day Optimization: Re-optimizes schedules in real-time for unexpected changes like cancellations or new priority tasks, particularly beneficial for urgent situations.
    • Integration with Capacity and Reservations Management: Allocates tasks while considering defined capacities and reservations for both internal and external teams.
    • Support for Planned Crews: Optimizes task assignments specifically for pre-created planned crews.

    Key Outcomes

    • Boosted Customer Satisfaction: More predictable schedules and a focus on high-priority tasks ensure that service level agreements (SLAs) are met.
    • Cost Efficiency: Efficient coordination of agents minimizes travel time and overtime expenses.
    • Increased Revenue: Fit more jobs into working hours, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
    • Improved Agent Productivity: Enables quick transitions between assignments and reduces travel time, leading to lower fuel consumption and emissions.

    The Schedule Optimization enables you to optimize task scheduling, auto-assign tasks, and adapt to changing conditions. By applying policies, you can create the best possible schedule that maximizes task assignment and minimizes travel time.

    Key Benefits

    Boost customer satisfaction
    Create more predictable schedules, give preference to high-priority work, and help ensure SLAs are met. Focus on solving exceptional cases while Schedule Optimization handles the majority of tasks.
    Decrease costs
    Coordinate and direct a large number of agents efficiently. Schedule the best resource to help ensure a first-time fix. Reduce travel time and overtime.
    Increase revenue
    Fit more jobs into working hours to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.
    Agent productivity
    Increase agent productivity by enabling quick transitions between assignments. Minimize travel time to reduce fuel consumption and lower emissions.

    Schedule Optimization workflow diagram

    The following figure illustrates the high-level workflow of Schedule Optimization.

    Figure 1. Schedule Optimization workflow
    Schedule Optimization flow diagram showing how batches, scopes, and policies work together. See the previous text description for more information.

    Key components in Schedule Optimization

    Policies encapsulate your optimization goals by blending objectives and constraints. Knowing your objectives and constraints allows you to tailor your optimization strategies effectively. For example, if your team consists of 20 technicians operating within a city, a policy can be configured to minimize travel time. By running an optimization batch the night prior, the system streamlines tasks, cutting down on commuting time.

    Scopes link tasks to policies and can be based on assignment groups or geographical territories. Selecting the appropriate scope is critical to ensure that your policies are applied to the right set of tasks, optimizing your resources where it counts.

    Batches are the configurations that set when and how your optimizations occur. Running batches at strategic times allows you to adapt to changes and needs swiftly.

    Note:
    Utilize the ‘Schedule Optimization’ Application Scope for setting up and configuring these elements.

    Schedule Optimization based on territories

    Use Schedule Optimization with Field Service Territory Planning to schedule complex multi-territory assignments where an agent might be responsible for multiple territories over a longer batch processing period. Assign tasks to agents whether they’re primary or secondary members of a single or multiple territories.

    Intra-day Schedule Optimization

    Intra-day Optimization re-optimizes schedules for groups or territories in real-time based on changing conditions. Useful when tasks are canceled, delayed, or new tasks come in. For example:
    • A cable service provider deals with last-minute cancellations.
    • A weather event results in new, high-priority repair tasks.
    • A technician calls out sick for the day.
    Note:
    Field Service Scheduling Automation must be installed to use Intra-day Optimization.

    Schedule Optimization based on Capacity and Reservations Management

    Use Schedule Optimization with Capacity and Reservations Management to allocate tasks. This integration considers defined capacities and reservations for both internal teams and external contractors before scheduling and allocating tasks.

    Schedule Optimization for Planned Crews

    Use schedule optimization to optimize task assignments to planned crews. There are two types of crews: planned crews, which are pre-created, and dynamic crews, which are dynamically created as needed. Schedule optimization only supports planned crews.

    Schedule Optimization with Workforce Optimization for Field Service

    Use Schedule Optimization to consider agents' schedule and events from the Workforce Optimization for Field Service application to auto-assign tasks.