3 Key Tips for Implementing Resource Scheduling Successfully

Graham Heiner, European Delivery Manager, Movilitas GmbH

Scheduling technologies have improved over the years, becoming more powerful as organizations work to leverage their enterprise systems and data (for example, in SAP) to more efficiently manage their resources. The purpose of resource scheduling, in an asset maintenance or service management context (sometimes also called scheduling and dispatch), is to:

• select an appropriately skilled and available resource to complete a task or series of tasks
• maximize resource utilisation
• minimize response time

Usually, a large volume of work orders or service orders are involved in the process.

Scheduling technologies go far beyond basic calendaring capabilities found in maintenance software and perform complex computations over large data sets so people can make the best decisions. Your company has a lot of options to select from these days. Many offer value-added features that could be of benefit to you, such as:

• multi-staged and multi-resourced job scheduling
• different types of scheduling automation and rules based on scheduling policies
• real-time monitoring and early warning of potential service-level violations
• dynamic booking windows for customers
• planning boards and other graphical views for easier management
• workflows based on predetermined triggers
• simulation scheduling
• advanced analytics

So, if your organization is thinking about implementing or upgrading a scheduling function, here are three of my key tips based on my experience.

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