Methods, apparatus, and systems for dispatching service technicians
AssigneeCertusView Technologies, LLC
InventorsSteven E. Nielsen, Curtis Chambers, Jeffrey Farr, Rajdip Singh Sikand
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeCertusView Technologies, LLC
InventorsSteven E. Nielsen, Curtis Chambers, Jeffrey Farr, Rajdip Singh Sikand
Estimating the term…
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.
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:
The system of 13, wherein:
The system of 17, wherein:
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:
The method of 37, wherein estimating an expected duration for the locate activity comprises:
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:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.