Scheduling Systems; a New Trend?

Whether it is a construction company scheduling human resources for certain projects, an air career dealing with optimal crew assignments, or a fast food chain arranging freelance labor, they all use complex algorithms to optimize their resources.

September 1, 2003 -- It is no secret that we all heavily rely on information technologies in every day life. Whether you want to go to a movie, book a flight, or check how your favorite football team is performing, there is always a web site with the information you are looking for. And of course the Internet is a great resource for travelers! You can always read more about the place you are about to visit, book a hotel, or get precise driving directions.

This looks like a magic for most of us, but experts know this magic is possible due to custom web applications and interfaces implemented on top of information systems used in businesses. In addition to traditional online applications, such as e-commerce and content management systems, there has been an increased interest shown recently to online reservation and scheduling systems. Indeed, why cannot employees check their working schedules, update their profiles, and communicate with their administrators online?

Whether it is a construction company scheduling human resources for certain projects, an air career dealing with optimal crew assignments, or a fast food chain arranging freelance labor, they all use complex algorithms to optimize their resources. However, until recently in most companies these algorithms were carried out manually.

And already today one can find a number of scheduling products available on the market. Single user versions for just a few hundred euros can be installed on a standalone PC to solve simple scheduling tasks in an Excel-like environment. There are also several one-fits-all" ASP solutions available online, providing general reservation and scheduling functionality. But obviously, complex scheduling tasks require custom solutions that are closely tailored to business processes, possess online and multi-user interfaces.

In the construction business, for example, resources have to be assigned taking into account possible project delays and multi-project resource allocations. Equipment, transportation and machinery have to be allocated to project tasks in line with resource availability. Construction project managers put high importance to the capability of introducing last minute changes to schedules and making the latest schedule available immediately to all parties involved.

If we look at the airline industry, we will find several crew management solutions available on the market. For instance, a US-based Navtech provides flight operations management systems to the mid-sized airlines (http://www.navtechinc.com/). Class & ClassBid application from Navtech is a customized and dependable crew planning system that offers management and crewmembers an optimized scheduling solution. A unique part of the application is the capability for crews to enter bids for trips globally via the Internet.

Touring, a leading automobile assistance and insurance company in Belgium, chose to implement Planexa from French HolyDis (http://www.holydis.fr/). The purpose of the project was to set up a system optimizing human resource allocation to the jobs needed to be done. Touring is not the only company requiring a system that would provide optimal distribution of human resources.

And who would imagine that in the sports industry they could also benefit from a scheduling application? The biggest amateur hockey league in Canada chose ScheduleFS available through ABSS Europe (www.abss.be) to simplify administrative and scheduling tasks. Winter seasons in the hockey league run for 25-27 weeks. There are several hundred teams playing each week. Being amateur players, team members place a great importance to when the games are scheduled since they typically work during the day. Nobody wants to play in the ugly late timeslots - starting at 11pm or later. Not so many people can make it to be on time in the arena for games scheduled before 7pm. So most people would like to play between 7pm and 9pm, but there is simply not enough ice time to accommodate everybody at these times. Ice arenas have to keep on running with as little slack as possible. Throw in a few more complications like rotation teams for hockey divisions with an odd number of teams and so-called Bye weeks", when one of the teams is not scheduled to play.

Adult Safe Hockey League resolved the problem by implementing ScheduleFS, an online application with a powerful mathematical algorithm generating a number of scheduling iterations and proposing the best one that matches specified criteria. Administrators identify which hockey rinks are available at what time, how convenient those time slots are for players, when they prefer to play, etc. And the system builds an optimal schedule, treating all teams fairly - making sure it is not always the same team playing late in the night or is not playing at all. Last minute changes can be introduced manually, and, as the system is web based, the latest approved schedule becomes immediately available to all players and team managers online.

It is clear that each industry imposes unique requirements onto online reservation, scheduling and crew management applications. This usually makes a product developed in one industry incompatible with another one. However, systems built with the latest object oriented technologies can be configured for new business logic in a matter of weeks. Experience shows that it is more reasonable to customize an existing application for a new industry, rather than building a completely new application from scratch.

Implementation of information systems that help automating scheduling processes bring tremendous value to businesses and a high return on investment due to simplified administration, better resource usage, and lower labor costs required for building and maintaining work schedules.