Methods and systems for scheduling complex work orders for a workforce of mobile service technicians

摘要

Provided herein are data structures, processes and systems to facilitate scheduling of complex work orders to a mobile workforce. Complex work orders are comprised of several distinct sub-orders that require coordinated scheduling because the start of one sub-order is dependent on the start or completion of another. The data structure provided herein identifies a set of member sub-orders required for completing complex work orders and relates those sub-orders to one another by precedence criteria that establish which sub-orders are dependent on which other sub-orders. This data structure is used in computer processes integrated with workforce management systems to permit such systems to schedule and/or assign individual work orders in a coordinated manner to satisfy the precedence criteria. Also provided are processes for validating the completion of predecessor sub-orders prior to starting successor sub-orders and transmitting warning messages to field technicians when the precedence criteria have not been satisfied.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a complex work order, the method comprising the following steps executed by a computer:
identifying, by the computer, a work order as a complex work order by providing an identifier for the complex work order; selecting, by the computer, from a database containing records of ordinary orders a set of member sub-orders associated with the complex work order, defining, by the computer, a set of precedence criteria temporally relating the plurality of member sub-orders, the precedence criteria identifying a temporal relationship for a member sub-order relative to at least one of the start or completion of another member sub-order; communicating, by the computer, a proposed start time for commencing work on a member sub-order to a workforce management system configured with a data structure that stores the precedence criteria for the member sub-orders; validating, by the computer, whether the proposed start time satisfies the precedence criteria prior to starting work on the member sub-order.