OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

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1 OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

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3 OPTIMIZED WORkFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING 3 WELCOME TO OUR WORLD OF CONTINUOUS OPTIMIZATION We build unique workforce scheduling and planning products. Software engines built to respond immediately in real time to real-world events; plus the insight you need to drive service delivery improvements. We help you deliver maximum customer value and maximum workforce utilization at minimum cost. The results? Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty delivered by a highly efficient and effective service organization. Simple to say, but hard to achieve in practice. Read on to find out how we do it

4 4 OPTIMIZED WORkFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR OPTIMIZATION After-sales service and maintenance have become critical components in many organizations offerings to their customers, the end-consumer. In an increasingly commoditized world, it is often a key differentiator. Sometimes, it is the only way to set yourself apart from your competitors. There are many proven benefits from automating and optimizing the scheduling of your workforce. Success stories with IFS 360 Scheduling include 15% reductions in travel and overtime costs, 40% improvement in technician productivity, and 20%+ improvements in service level compliance and ontime service delivery. The increasing focus on service by companies is matched by escalating consumer expectations; not only product performance, but also the speed and efficiency of recovery. The logic is simple. If the product is not working, the consumer is not getting any value; the very reason they purchased in the first place. Every day, your customers are measuring you against their best service experiences across all product categories. That means higher demand for ever faster responses and more effective service delivery tighter Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and less tolerance of failure. Getting it right, first time has become a business imperative for all service organizations. Delivering field-based service is a major cost, whether you opt to use a directly-employed workforce, or to use third-parties to perform it on your behalf. Doing it well can make a significant difference to both the company s brand perception and financial results. Plus, managing a mobile workforce is a multifaceted challenge. The need to react quickly to realworld events, deal with uncertainty and cope with constant change are all characteristic of today s service environment. And, the trend is towards everincreasing complexity. INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT <100 TECHNICIANS IT SERVICES ~300 TECHNICIANS TELECOMS >10,000 TECHNICIANS Before with 360 Dispatchers 5 1 Technicians Job/Day SLA hit rate 82% 99% Travel time % Same day response 35% 58% Avg. time of last call 13:30 15:00 Calls in SLA 48% 87% Tech utilitization 61% 78%

5 OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING 5 Today, optimal service delivery performance must be part of any organization s key objectives if they want to retain customer loyalty, repeat purchasing and a positive word-of-mouth reputation. The adoption of new technology to improve service delivery has been patchy to say the least. Partly, this has been due to the lack of supporting infrastructure and connectivity, but the increasing ubiquity of wireless networks means real-time interaction with the field is now a cost-effective reality dispensing with the need for an endless stream of paperwork. This puts pressure on the back office to automate more processes that deliver instant responses to real-time events that are communicated immediately from the field. Early scheduling software was only able to deliver a start-of-day, or static, schedule. This batch process takes all of the outstanding work and churns out schedules based on available technician resources using a basic set of business rules and route optimization to reduce travel time and mileage between jobs. But, this approach cannot take into account the day-to-day dynamics of the business. Today s service environment demands more than to simply take care of basic performance parameters, such as the number of calls a technician can complete in a day. Now, the focus must be much more on delivering a great consumer experience. A more strategic approach is required. This means a better understanding of the demands on the service team and every aspect of their work, in order to make the required changes and plan effectively for both current and future business requirements. Moving forward aimlessly is not an option. For an increasing number of organizations, a realtime scheduling toolset is the only way to sustain service performance, to meet burgeoning consumer demands, and to grow the business. Being able to satisfy planned demand is only half the battle; being able to respond to, and satisfy, unplanned demand is key. Can you forecast planned/unplanned demand? what are your known constraints? Do you have enough technicians/engineers? Are they in the right locations? Do they have the right skills? Do they have access to the required parts? Can they be scheduled effectively? Can they be rescheduled in a timely way? Can you do all of this profitably?

6 6 OPTIMIZED WORkFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING THE 360 WORLDVIEW IFS 360 Scheduling supplies a suite of workforce scheduling and optimization tools. Nothing else. We dedicate our time to developing the world s best tools to support and deliver our customer s business objectives for more effective and agile service delivery, and better end-user/consumer loyalty. Our best in class, real-time scheduling and workforce planning technology, plus components for easy integration into existing fleet management, work order management, mobile data and CRM/ERP systems, means rapid return on investment for you; making you a consistently reliable partner for your customers a promise made can be a promise kept, every time. SERVICE MARGIN The question as to whether service should be a costor a profit-center has been around for twenty years or more, and the argument rages on. Our take on this is very straightforward. We believe that the best measure of success in field-based service is the margin delivered by the operation. That is, simply the difference between the value delivered to enduser customers and the cost to deliver that service. Now, customer value can be measured in many ways. For example, it might be revenue; it might be customer satisfaction ratings, or lifetime customer value. However you measure it, we use that value as an important baseline factor when calculating schedules and in determining priorities between different activities. We match that with the cost of technicians travel, plus their on-site costs, to determine the highest margin we might achieve for each individual job. We aggregate that for all of the jobs in the plan and evaluate many thousands of alternatives to determine the best possible schedule. MANAGEMENT BY EXCEPTION We believe that management by exception is a better way to work. What we call Radical Automation is a presumption that all routine or repetitive tasks should be automated, enabling the users (planners, schedulers, dispatchers) to focus on higher-value work, with the software using accumulated knowledge and insight to make well-informed decisions without manual intervention. Automating 80% of scheduling decisions is simply not good enough we are aiming for 95%+. When we say management by exception, we really mean it. This is only possible if the calculation engine utilizes mathematical techniques that are suited to the real-time, dynamic environment, especially if there are many hundreds or thousands and technicians to be scheduled. General purpose optimization algorithms are simply not suitable for solving this kind of puzzle. The power of IFS 360 Scheduling s proprietary algorithms, coupled with advanced heuristics, delivers highly optimized schedules blisteringly fast even for the largest and most complex scheduling problems. RIGHT-TIME DECISION MAKING The world of manufacturing has been revolutionized by lean and agile thinking, and a key component of these approaches is the notion of just-in-time (JIT). That is, delaying making procurement and production decisions until the last moment. This improves the quality of the decisions as they are based on the latest information and situational assessment, improving the frequency of them being right, and leading to less waste. We apply the same principle to mobile workforce scheduling. Trying to deliver against a plan that was formulated hours, maybe even days, ago leads to waste and inefficiency. On the other hand, the quality of plans can be dramatically improved

7 OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING 7 by making JIT decisions. And the chances of actually delivering what s on the plan increase equally dramatically. A good decision can only be the right decision if it is made at the right time. Maximum technician utilization and maximum customer satisfaction deliver both at minimum cost. ALWAYS OPTIMIZING We are never satisfied that we have got the best, or optimal plan. Our Dynamic Scheduling Engine is constantly evaluating the problem, seeking alternatives that might deliver a higher service margin a better plan. This constant cycle of calculation and evaluation means that we always have an up-to-date plan available, one that has taken every input into account every piece of feedback from the field, every new and amended job detail, every GPS fix from a vehicle, and including the impact of passing time on factors such as SLA compliance. And we are always looking at the bigger picture, by evaluating the whole problem all of the time. We also believe the same of our software and are constantly striving to enhance our tools and improve their performance so that you can improve yours. A GOOD DECISION CAN ONLY BE THE RIGHT DECISION IF IT IS MADE AT THE RIGHT TIME

8 8 OPTIMIZED WORkFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING DELIVERING WORLD-CLASS Your customers want you to deliver excellent service both planned and reactive using your specialist knowledge and expertise to keep their equipment running at peak performance; after all, that is what they are paying for. All the while, benchmarking you against other service experiences and your word-ofinternet reputation. We are sure you feel the same towards IFS 360 Scheduling we need to deliver too. To meet your expectations of a partner, jointly focused on enhancing your business, we have to perform reliably and consistently over time to earn your trust. Developing the best software tools is not enough; just having the applications installed will not get you world-class performance. The technology needs to be complemented with a complete range of specialist services to support you through the initial business change and software implementation and into the future; making sure that you continually get value from your investment for years to come. Success requires the commitment and involvement of your staff and resources, and of ours too. Our team of experienced consultants will bring you a wealth of expertise about scheduling including tips and techniques for optimizing technician performance and work alongside you through the transition; transferring skills and knowledge through formal training and everyday interaction. We are as committed to your success as you are. We will help you assess the impact of introducing

9 OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING 9 automated scheduling and advanced tools on processes, on job roles and on your customers. We will help you communicate with all stakeholders about the changes, the planned improvements and the benefits for everyone. We will help you address and overcome the natural concerns that your staff will have, as winning hearts and minds is a critical success factor for this kind of strategic initiative. Focusing on the people does not mean neglecting the technical aspects. We use industry-standard approaches and open technologies to ensure minimum impact on your current infrastructure. The IFS 360 scheduling engine and other components use your existing systems as the source of data, so integration is also a critical success factor. We have used the knowledge gained through many previous projects to make sure that IFS 360 Scheduling software is easy to integrate into your existing IT infrastructure, whether it is installed on premise or running in the cloud. The wealth of experience, and the breadth of our consultants expertise, has been distilled into a proven project methodology one that we are confident will deliver your objectives. You will have approaches that you know work in your business. We will work with you to synthesize the best of both and build a winning combination. We have simplified and standardized as much as we can, guaranteeing faster delivery and less risk. In today s ultra-competitive and challenging business environment, you can rely on us to deliver world-class. JUST HAVING THE APPLICATIONS INSTALLED WILL NOT GET YOU WORLD-CLASS PERFORMANCE

10 10 OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING THE IFS 360 SCHEDULING TOOLSET Whether you choose to run our software on-premise or in the cloud, as an independent application or integrated with IFS Applications, the features and the improved results you get are the same. The comprehensive software suite offers a range of tools to suit different situations and business needs, ranging from long-term strategic planning to instant responsiveness to emergencies. All of them are built to the same exacting quality standards, delivering every minute of every day. THE SCHEDULING ENGINE The Dynamic Scheduling Engine (DSE) is a worldclass optimization engine and the heart of our toolset. Using a blend of sophisticated mathematical techniques, and algorithms developed over 20 years that are finely tuned for mobile service, the DSE is capable of solving extremely large scheduling problems overlaid with multiple business-defined constraints for example skills, SLAs, parts requirements and delivering highly optimized plans within seconds. But, it does not stop there. The DSE implements our unique always optimizing philosophy, meaning it continually searches for a better solution a schedule that can deliver improved service margin. If it finds one, it will change the part of the plan that has not been committed to reflect the improvement, re-allocating work to resources in a just-in-time decision-making approach. The right decisions, at the right time. The DSE is designed for unlimited flexibility in modeling business policies and objectives, with numerous parameters designed in response to realworld requirements, refined through numerous implementations and a relentless focus on the needs of service providers. The comprehensive setup and configuration options reflect the reality of increasing customer expectations, more demanding Service Level Agreements and your commitment to service delivery consistency and reliability as a competitive advantage. THE USER INTERFACE Much of the work done by 360 software applications happens automatically, without the need for user interaction; for example, calculation and evaluation of plans, and communications with other applications and technicians/vehicles. But, that does not mean we have forgotten the importance of an intuitive, powerful interface for those tasks that do need human help. Quite the opposite, we lavish as much care and attention on the user experience as we do on other aspects of our products. Browser-based, the IN BENCHMARK TESTS AGAINST OTHER SCHEDULING ENGINES, THE DSE CAME TOP IN SPEED OF PROCESSING, ROUTE EFFICIENCY AND CONSTRAINT MATCHING (MEETING BUSINESS RULES) ON DATASETS RANGING FROM 50 TO 50,000 RESOURCES.

11 OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING 11 The multi-workspace Scheduling workbench. Performance visibility, and real-time tools for exception tracking and resolution. Scheduling Workbench (iswb) encapsulates enduser interaction through a series of workspaces that delineate functions and responsibilities. Its rich, easy-to-use functionality enables the user to view, understand and interact with the schedule; focusing on proactively managing exceptions to minimize loss of efficiency in the service delivered, and keeping promises for customers. TRAVEL TIME AND ROUTING OPTIMIZATION The 360 Hierarchical Travel Matrix (HTM) efficiently delivers extremely accurate travel time estimates. Built using the real road network and actual travel times, the HTM ensures that the plans delivered by the DSE are both achievable and reliable. The 360 HTM and DSE use latitude and longitude for location geocoding, enabling worldwide deployment, with a range of different datasets to suit different needs, e.g. as the crow flies, streetlevel routing and custom matrices. These can be supplemented with overlays to take account of varying conditions, such as rush hour traffic or particular weather conditions. Map displays of the optimized travel routes, including individual turn-by-turn directions, are available in the Scheduling Workbench and are continually updated to ensure that the latest information is always visible. APPOINTMENT BOOKING The Appointment Booking Engine complements the DSE s real-time, always-optimizing, approach to dynamic scheduling with functions that allow appointments to be seamlessly mixed in with other work types (e.g. break/fix and PPM) whilst retaining maximum flexibility and efficiency in the use of resources. Potential appointment times are calculated with regard to existing workload and your business policies to ensure cost-effective and efficient scheduling. Appointments can be offered and confirmed by your staff, or self-served via an online portal, confident in the knowledge that the promise can be kept. RESOURCE PLANNING The 360 Advanced Resource Planner (ARP) module provides visual and automated tools to drive the

12 12 OPTIMIZED WORKFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING Action-ready insights in user-configurable interactive dashboards tracking critical service KPIs. REPORTING AND ANALYTICS Like transaction processing systems, e.g. ERP or CRM, an automated workforce scheduling and optimization environment is rich in data. Unlike such applications, scheduling data changes rapidly literally second by second and this is an additional difficulty for reporting and analysis. How can you measure the performance, and provide action-ready insights in such a fluid situation? We respond to this challenge with a multi-layered approach, to match the needs of different user communities. Some users need real-time reporting and planning and rostering of human resources over time. This can be based on predicted workloads or specific projects, or might simply be used for shift planning. Resource management policies and legislative constraints (e.g. Working Time Directive) plus shift patterns, skills, and breaks are enforced when building the plan. The results can be sent to the DSE to enable dynamic scheduling of the reactive work alongside the planned commitments. insight, whilst others need to look at data and trends over longer periods of time. For example, the Exceptions Board is provided for the scheduler/dispatcher and reports potential service problems or jeopardy situations in real time. This focus on exceptions enables proactive management to eliminate issues before they escalate and impact customer satisfaction. Other analyses provide managers with insights into actual performance by monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Real-time access to, for example, SLA hit rates, time on-site and distance travelled can be critical to making intra-day adjustments that fine tune service delivery and ensure that KPIs are met; rather than a post-mortem to try and understand what has already gone wrong. The 360 Data Mart populates a business intelligence database with snapshots of the planned and actual performance. This enables analytical reporting via many 3rd-party tools you may already have these in place as well as standard IFS 360 Scheduling reports and dashboards.

13 OPTIMIZED WORkFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING 13 THE TECHNOLOGY Automated scheduling systems do not indeed cannot operate in isolation. They form part of an ecosystem of applications that cover the end-to-end service processes, making ease of integration an important consideration. Not only must any scheduling system comply with your technical environment today, you want the reassurance that it will continue to do so. This is best achieved by conformance to standards and a commitment to future compatibility. The IFS 360 Scheduling product set is web-based and built on the Microsoft.NET framework to ensure maximum performance and flexibility. The DSE integrates quickly and easily with complementary applications (e.g. mobile data, vehicle tracking, service management) through an XML-driven, SOAP implementation of web services that utilizes WCF. There is a standard integration to IFS Applications, using the OAGiS-compliant IFS Connect broker module. IFS 360 Scheduling s applications are already Software as a Service (SaaS)-proven, giving you the choice to host the software on-premise or in the cloud. The applications can be dynamically scaled, enabling computing power to be added or removed as required, without stopping and restarting to meet changing demand levels for scheduling computation. The performance scales linearly, in line with the available computing power. This means that the DSE is capable of scaling seamlessly from scheduling tens of technicians to scheduling tens of thousands. Multiple scheduling problems can be handled simultaneously across many organizations, using the same configuration and underlying architecture. The comprehensive, extensible data model allows for user-defined, customizable business rules to meet the most complex needs of a service organization s scheduling requirements. The system is entirely data-driven, continuously improving the scheduling in response to real-time updates. Once initialized, only data changes need to be sent to the system and only changes in allocation are returned. THE 360 DYNAMIC SCHEDULING ENGINE Service Oriented Architecture INPUT MANAGER Mobile Data Network Activities/Resources Updates TECHNICIAN/PDA OPTIMIZATION ENGINE XML Web Services BROADCAST MANAGER Travel Manager 360 DYNAMIC SCHEDULING ENGINE Business Rules Database Internet IFS 360 Scheduling Workbench BACK OFFICE APPLICATION Call Centre

14 14 OPTIMIZED WORkFORCE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING LEADING PROVIDER OF WORKFORCE SCHEDULING TECHNOLOGY PIONEERS IN SCHEDULING IFS 360 Scheduling has its roots in complex numerical analysis. In the 1990s the company s founders developed a sophisticated mapping and scheduling application for use by the emergency services. The system helped them make efficient use of their resources and meet legal SLAs measured in minutes. Ambulances waiting in strategic locations rather than remaining in their stations became a common sight as a direct result. 360 was founded in 2002 to take its world-class scheduling expertise into a new software environment, and focusing on field service. Since that time, we have been working with field service organizations around the world to schedule more effectively and optimize their resources to meet an ever-widening spectrum of SLAs. More recently, the focus has been expanded to include other complex, but non-mobile, scheduling environments and resourcing for project-based working. Today the team at IFS 360 Scheduling continues to include top mathematicians as well as scheduling experts and service specialists, based on the outskirts of Nottingham in the UK. Its products are available stand-alone and as a fully integrated component of IFS Applications.

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16 About IFS and IFS Applications IFS is a public company (OMX STO: IFS) founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications, a component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology. IFS focuses on agile businesses where any of four core processes are strategic: service & asset management, manufacturing, supply chain and projects. The company has more than 2,000 customers and is present in 50+ countries with 2,700 employees in total. If you are interested in further information, [email protected] or contact one of our regional offices or visit our website Americas Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, United States Asia Pacific Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, new Zealand, Philippines, PR China, Singapore, Thailand Europe east and central asia BALKANS, Czech Republic, GEORGIA, Hungary, Israel, KAZAKHSTAN, Poland, RUSSIA and cis, Slovakia, Turkey, UKRAINE Europe Central AUSTRIA, Belgium, GERMANY, ITALY, netherlands, SWITZERLAND Europe West France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom Middle East and africa India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates Nordic Denmark, Norway, Sweden Finland and the Baltic area Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania IFS 360 SCHEDULING For further information, [email protected] or visit our website united kingdom (0) france (0) This document may contain statements of possible future functionality for IFS software products and technology. Such statements of future functionality are for information purposes only and should not be interpreted as any commitment or representation. IFS and all IFS product names are trademarks of IFS. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. IFS AB 2012 En Production: IFS Corporate Marketing, January Printing: DanagårdLiTHO AB, Ödeshög, Sweden.