Method and system for allocating specific appointment time windows in a service industry
View Patent ↗The present invention provides a method for allocating appointment time windows. The steps of this method include creating a statistical estimate of a daily schedule comprising a series of estimated service orders. An actual service order is then received. This actual service order is inserted into the daily schedule by using a set of scheduling instructions for determining the least cost to employ the available service resources. At this point, this actual service order does not have a system imposed time window. The set of scheduling instructions is used to determine a time window surrounding this insertion point. If the customer accepts this time window, then the closest estimated service order is replaced by this actual service order, and the daily schedule is recomputed based upon the revised set of service orders to yield a revised daily schedule. This process may be repeated for any number of days or time periods from which the customer may choose the time window best meeting the customer's availability.
1. A method for allocating an appointment time window to derive an optimal service schedule for a service provider, comprising the steps of:
generating a statistical service schedule estimate for a predetermined service time period, said statistical service schedule estimate comprising a set of statistically-derived service orders;
(a) receiving an actual service order to fulfill in said predetermined service time period;
(b) imposing a scheduled time on said actual service order to derive an optimal time window in which to fulfill said actual service order wherein said scheduled time of said actual service order is centered within said optimal time window;
(c) comparing said actual service order to said set of statistically-derived service orders for determining a most closely related service order from said set of statistically-derived service orders;
(d) replacing said most closely related service order with said actual service order creating a modified service order set;
(e) generating a modified service schedule based on said modified service order set; and
(f) repeating steps (a) through (e) in response to the receipt of additional actual service orders for generating the optimal service schedule.
2. A method for allocating appointment time windows, using a computer program, and wherein the computer program is operable to execute the method with a scheduler software engine, comprising the steps of:
generating a statistical service schedule estimate for a predetermined service time period, said statistical service schedule estimate comprising a set of statistically-derived service orders;
(a) receiving an actual service order to fulfill in said predetermined service time period;
(b) imposing a scheduled time on said actual service order to derive an optimal time window in which to fulfill said actual service order wherein said scheduled time of said actual service order is centered within said optimal time window;
(c) comparing said actual service order to said set of statistically-derived service orders for determining a most closely related service order from said set of statistically-derived service orders;
(d) replacing said most closely related service order with said actual service order creating a modified service order set;
(e) generating a modified service schedule based on said modified service order set; and
(f) repeating steps (a) through (e) in response to the receipt of additional actual service orders for generating an optimal service schedule.
3. A computer system directed by a computer program operable to schedule a plurality of diverse work assignments, the computer system comprising:
a software engine;
a storage device operable to store program data;
a memory operable to store a computer program;
a processor coupled to the storage device and the memory, the processor operable to execute the computer program such that the computer is directed by the computer program to allocate appointment time windows for service orders performed by a mobile workforce having a plurality of mobile workforce members by performing the steps of:
generating a statistical service schedule estimate for a predetermined service time period, said statistical service schedule estimate comprising a set of statistically-derived service orders;
(a) receiving an actual service order to fulfill in said predetermined service time period;
(b) imposing a scheduled time on said actual service order to derive an optimal time window in which to fulfill said actual service order wherein said scheduled time of said actual service order is centered within said optimal time window;
(c) comparing said actual service order to said set of statistically-derived service orders for determining a most closely related service order from said set of statistically-derived service orders;
(d) replacing said most closely related service order with said actual service order creating a modified service order set;
(e) generating a modified service schedule based on said modified service order set; and
(f) repeating steps (a) through (e) in response to the receipt of additional actual service orders for generating an optimal service schedule.