Methods, apparatus, and systems for dispatching service technicians

Abstract

Scheduling of activities for field service technicians may be improved by modifying availability constraints associated with appointment windows for activities. Activities may be scheduled based on a performance deadline and relevant shift times of the resources to whom the activity may be allocated, as well as a variety of parameters relating to activities, resources and/or relevant environmental conditions (e.g., weather, traffic). An activity may be moved from one calendar day to another, a location constraint at the beginning and/or the end of a technician's shift may be removed or modified, and/or information updates may be provided in real time or near real time (e.g., every five minutes or less) throughout a work day to facilitate scheduling. In one example for scheduling dispatch of locate technicians for locate operations, ticket information relating to locate request tickets, as well as resource information relating to available technicians, may be extracted from a ticket database and a resource/technician database to provide appropriate inputs to a scheduling engine, based at least in part on matching available resources to performance deadlines associated with locate requests.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for dispatching a plurality of locate technicians to perform a plurality of locate activities, each locate activity corresponding to at least one locate ticket requesting that a presence or absence of at least one underground facility be determined within a planned dig area, the system comprising:
 A) at least one first storage device for maintaining a ticket database;   B) at least one second storage device for maintaining a technician database;   C) at least one first processor programmed to implement a scheduling engine for:
 C1) allocating the plurality of locate technicians to the plurality of locate activities, and 
 C2) scheduling the plurality of locate activities; and 
   D) at least one second processor programmed to implement a dispatch engine for:
 D1) retrieving ticket information from the ticket database; 
 D2) determining a performance deadline for a locate activity of the plurality of locate activities based at least in part on the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database; 
 D3) retrieving technician information from the technician database, the technician information comprising shift information indicating availability of the plurality of locate technicians; and 
 D4) providing inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information and the technician information, comprising determining a latest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the performance deadline for the locate activity and the shift information, further comprising providing the latest start time to the scheduling engine in association with the locate activity. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one first processor and the at least one second processor are a same processor. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein:
 providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises determining an earliest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information; and   the earliest start time and the latest start time for the locate activity fall on different calendar days.   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the earliest start time for the locate activity is determined based at least in part on a do-not-mark-before date obtained from the ticket information. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the at least one second processor is further programmed to retrieve ticket information from the ticket database repeatedly during a work day; and   a time interval between any two consecutive retrievals is at most 5 minutes.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and job performance information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and quality assessment information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and weather information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and traffic information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and risk information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and penalty or profitability information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and complexity information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
 determine a service category for the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
 determine the service category for the locate activity at least in part by parsing the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the service category is any one of emergency, re-mark, or short notice. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  13 , wherein:
 the at least one first processor is further programmed to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and   providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity based at least in part on the service category for the locate activity.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
 determine an underground facility type associated with the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  17 , wherein:
 the at least one first processor is further programmed to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and   providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity based at least in part on the underground facility type associated with the locate activity.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
 determine whether the underground facility type associated with the locate activity is a high profile facility type; and   apply a weighting factor to the base value assigned to the locate activity if it is determined that the underground facility type associated with the locate activity is a high profile facility type.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the at least one second processor is further programmed to determine at least one of job performance information, quality assessment information, weather information, traffic information, risk information, penalty or profitability information, and complexity information associated with the locate activity;   the at least one first processor is further programmed to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and   providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity; and   the at least one second processor is further programmed to apply a weighting factor to the base value assigned to the located activity based on the at least one of the job performance information, the quality assessment information, the weather information, the traffic information, the risk information, the penalty or profitability information, and the complexity information.   
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to present a user interface for displaying schedule information to a human dispatcher and for receiving manual adjustments from the human dispatcher. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to transmit schedule information to a remote user interface for displaying the schedule information to at least one supervisor of the plurality of locate technicians. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
 display two or more locate activities in a Gantt chart format via the user interface;   determine a performance deadline for each of the displayed locate activities; and   apply different visual indicators to the displayed locate activities depending on the performance deadlines of the displayed locate activities.   
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 23 , wherein an alert indicator is applied to a locate activity with a missed performance deadline. 
     
     
         25 . A method for dispatching a plurality of locate technicians to perform a plurality of locate activities, each locate activity corresponding to at least one locate ticket requesting that a presence or absence of at least one underground facility be determined within a planned dig area, the method comprising:
 A) retrieving technician information from a technician database maintained on at least one first storage device, the technician information comprising shift information indicating availability of the plurality of locate technicians;   B) providing first inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the technician information;   C) retrieving ticket information from a ticket database maintained on at least one second storage device;   D) determining a performance deadline for a locate activity of the plurality of locate activities based at least in part on the ticket information;   E) providing second inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information and the technician information, comprising determining a latest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the performance deadline for the locate activity and the shift information;   F) selecting, by the scheduling engine, a start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the first and second inputs;   G) allocating, by the scheduling engine, at least one locate technician to perform the locate activity; and   H) dispatching the at least one locate technician to perform the locate activity.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein retrieving ticket information comprises:
 identifying new tickets that have been added to the ticket database since a previous retrieval; and   retrieving the new tickets from the ticket database.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and job performance information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and quality assessment information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and weather information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and traffic information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and risk information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and penalty or profitability information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and complexity information associated with the locate activity. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising;
 applying one or more ticket exclusion criteria to at least one new ticket to determine whether the at least one new ticket is suitable for automatic scheduling.   
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein:
 the one or more ticket exclusion criteria comprises a geofence exclusion that defines a geographical exclusion area; and   the at least one new ticket is excluded from automatic scheduling if a ticket location associated with the at least one new ticket falls within the geographical exclusion area.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein:
 the one or more ticket exclusion criteria comprises a geofence exclusion that defines a geographical exclusion area and is associated with at least one exclusion time period; and   the at least one new ticket is excluded from automatic scheduling if a ticket location associated with the at least one new ticket falls within the geographical exclusion area and a performance time window of the at least one new ticket overlaps at least partially with the at least one exclusion time period, the performance time window being determined by an earliest start time and a performance deadline associated with the at least one new ticket.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein providing second inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises estimating an expected duration for the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  37 , wherein estimating an expected duration for the locate activity comprises:
 determining a facility type to be located during the locate activity;   determining the expected duration for the locate activity based at least in part on the facility type.   
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein:
 the scheduling engine is adapted to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and   providing second inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein assigning a base value to the locate activity comprises:
 determining a facility type to be located during the locate activity; and   determining the base value for the locate activity based at least in part on the facility type.   
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein assigning a base value to the locate activity further comprises:
 determining a service category associated with the locate activity; and   applying a weighting factor to the base value based at least in part on the service category.   
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 determining at least one of job performance information, quality assessment information, weather information, traffic information, risk information, penalty or profitability information and complexity information associated with the locate activity,   wherein:   the scheduling engine is adapted to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric;   providing second inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity, and applying a weighting factor to the base value assigned to the located activity based on the at least one of the job performance information, the quality assessment information, the weather information, the traffic information, the risk information, the penalty or profitability information and the complexity information.   
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 receiving at least one input instruction from a human dispatcher via a user interface; and   providing third inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the at least one input instruction received from the human dispatcher.   
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to modify availability of a locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians. 
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to modify a start location of a locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians. 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to allocate a selected locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians to a selected locate activity of the plurality of locate activities. 
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to allocate a selected locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians to a project ticket comprising two or more related locate activities. 
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising transmitting schedule information generated by the scheduling engine to a remote user interface for displaying the schedule information to at least one supervisor of the plurality of locate technicians. 
     
     
         49 . At least one computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform a method for scheduling dispatch a plurality of locate technicians to perform a plurality of locate activities, each locate activity corresponding to at least one locate ticket requesting that a presence or absence of at least one underground facility be determined within a planned dig area, the method comprising:
 A) retrieving technician information from a technician database maintained on at least one first storage device, the technician information comprising shift information indicating availability of the plurality of locate technicians;   B) providing first inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the technician information;   C) retrieving ticket information from a ticket database maintained on at least one second storage device;   D) determining a performance deadline for a locate activity of the plurality of locate activities based at least in part on the ticket information; and   E) providing second inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information and the technician information, comprising determining a latest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the performance deadline for the locate activity and the shift information.