In theory, scheduling should be an easy task for any member of a scheduling team for a company, however this is oftentimes not the case. Generally, specialist knowledge of engineer availability is held with individuals within a team. The Eagle Field Service Scheduling Board module helps to uncover that knowledge and share it amongst all users. It uses assisted scheduling, which is designed to be easy to use, to aid the operator in choosing the right engineer every time. Even operators that do not normally take part in the scheduling process are automatically assisted in making the right decisions. Not only does the operator become more efficient, but the best scheduling decisions are made for the business, and the engineer’s days become more cost effective.

A rule engine is at the centre of the Scheduling Board module, which is completely configurable to suit a business’ needs. The output of the engine creates a score against every engineer for every day that is being recommended, and presents the best slots for the user to recommend. It can be altered to suit a company’s requirements, and different versions of the rule engine can be set depending on the time of year and business demands. The rules include engineer skill levels, capacity of engineer day, length of actual travel between cases, actual road distances, long travel home legs, response time, and customer preferred engineer.

The ability to allow the user or manager to view information they need at the click of a button is key to the design of the Scheduling module. It can be configured to have a different view depending on the individual user and company-wide requirements. This means that users can create customised boards relevant to their business, or show relevant panels and functionality depending on the user’s role. It is made up of functional panels that can be switched on or off, and spread over multiple screens, depending on the user’s requirements. Essential information is easily accessible, which is particularly important in a highly pressured scheduling environment. The calendar function also provides instant access to schedules for any day or engineer. It is presented to the user similarly to an Outlook calendar.

The Areas Viewer function allows users to set the system to group individual engineers together into specific geographical areas, creating a primary and secondary engineer hierarchy based on where resources are geographically based. This both prevents unnecessary travelling and is more cost effective for the business. The area viewer shows the user which engineers are assigned to each region while highlighting the recommended engineers. It also directly reflects the information shown in the Scheduler panel.

The Scheduler displays relevant details regarding the recommended engineers relevant to a specific job, and are grouped into geographical areas. This also shows how busy an engineer is on a certain day, making schedules more efficient. The day view provides pop-up information on the make-up of the engineer’s day, the jobs booked against them, time allocation, travel time, etc. It also displays a history of past jobs and the order in which they occurred, an element that is invaluable in understanding the performance of individual engineers.

The Best Practice Recommendations panel is useful in assisting the user in where best to place the job based on the detailed rules engine. The Rules engine displays a score showing which engineer is best suited to each job, and presents its recommendations to the user using a colour-coded system. This panel in particular is important as it simply displays an overall recommendation to the user. This technology highly benefits all field service businesses.  The Eagle Assisted Scheduler guides the user to make the correct decision for their customers and their business alike.

Queries on the topic of data and job information can be viewed by the user to provide an easy reference and reports of Unscheduled Visits, Visits to be rescheduled, Late Visits, Today’s Visits, Open Visits, Out of SLA Visits, and a summary report of jobs by engineer.

The Mapping panel and the Capacity panel are directly linked to display a geographical view of the selected engineer on the chosen day. This view shows the location of the engineer’s jobs, and where the engineer is. It can also be expanded to a street view.

The main benefit of this function is its optimisation of jobs. One of the biggest issues in service departments is that engineers can be overloaded, as a result of travel time not being considered. The travel time between jobs is constantly being updated in this application, providing a clear view of how busy an engineer is on a daily basis. Other benefits for businesses by implementing the Engineer Scheduling Board include;

• Engineers spend less time travelling and more time on-site working
• Optimisation of jobs booked on that day to ensure best business practice
• More efficient operators making the best scheduling decisions
• Rule engine that is tailored to your business requirements
• ‘At a glance’ information for operators and the management of availability of engineers