British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

@road, Inc.

Vidus Limited

Ian S Alletson

Dionisios Pothos

Robert N W Laithwaite

Nader Azarmi

Christos Voudouris

John J O'Donoghue

David Lesaint

Paul Walker

Andrew P Noble

Robert Nw Laithwaite

Geoff Lowndes

Tasks (T) such as repair jobs on a telecommunications system, that are to be performed by a plurality of resources such as field engineers (E), at different locations in a geographical area (), are scheduled by means of a scheduler () at a work manager server (). The scheduler provides schedule data () corresponding to schedules of the tasks that individual ones of the resources are to carry out, from task data () concerning the tasks to be carried out and resource data () concerning characteristics of resources available to carry out the tasks over a given period. Not all the tasks are scheduled, resulting in unscheduled task data (). The schedule data () is downloaded to a workstation () together with the unscheduled task data. The downloaded data is analysed at the workstation to determine a candidate resource (E) to perform the task (T) corresponding to the unscheduled task data.

Handling unscheduled tasks in a scheduling process

Tasks (T) such as repair jobs on a telecommunications system, that are to be performed by a plurality of resources such as field engineers (E), at different locations in a geographical area (), are scheduled by means of a scheduler () at a work manager server (). The scheduler provides schedule data () corresponding to schedules of the tasks that individual ones of the resources are to carry out, from task data () concerning the tasks to be carried out and resource data () concerning characteristics of resources available to carry out the tasks over a given period. The scheduled tasks are provided with associated contingency values (C) which are each computed as a function of the difference between the time that a task is scheduled to start and the latest start time that is feasible for the task . The schedule data () is downloaded to a workstation (). The downloaded data is displayed on a Gantt Chart and the task blocks on the display are colour coded according to their contingency values (C) to give a visual indication of their values.

Contingency planning in a scheduling process

A plurality of resources, typically service operatives, are allocated to a plurality of tasks by a method in which initial information relating to the tasks to be allocated and the resources available to perform the tasks is provided. An initial series of schedules is first generated allocating resources to the tasks, and then modifying the individual schedule of at least one resource in response to updated information. Changes to individual schedules may be made in response to such updated information independently of the schedule generation. The initial, series of schedules may be generated in a two-stage process in which a rule-based system allocates tasks selected as being difficult to allocate (e.g., because they are linked to other tasks). then a stochastic (non-systematic) search system compiles the rest of the schedule. Periodically, the stochastic system may be interrupted to allow a further rule-based system to analyze the schedules created thus far, and fix the best ones in the schedule, so that the stochastic system can then concentrate on improving the remaining schedules. In order to allow the system to handle rapid changes in the requirements for tasks and the resources, on a scale faster than the time required to generate the schedules, a schedule modification system is arranged to make changes in the short term in between schedule updates delivered by the schedule generation system.

Method and apparatus for resource allocation when schedule changes are incorporated in real time

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Rochdale, United Kingdom

Ian S Alletson