Routing Service Tasks
- 09 Mar 2023
- 4 Minutes to read
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Routing Service Tasks
- Updated on 09 Mar 2023
- 4 Minutes to read
- Contributors
- Print
- DarkLight
Article Summary
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Mobileforce FSM provides tools for dispatchers to best optimize the scheduling for their technician work force:
Plug Route provides a list of unscheduled service tasks that can fill the gaps in a technician's existing schedule.
Smart Route reviews the currently service task appointments scheduled for a technician, changing and optimizing the technician's appointment schedule based on the geographic locations of the clients, traffic patterns, as well as the technician's starting and ending location.
Plug Route
Dispatchers should use Plug Route when a technician has one or more gaps in their schedule that can be filled with unassigned and unscheduled service tasks.
Example:
Plug Route is most beneficial in a scenario when a technician's daily schedule is disrupted due to a unexpected cancellation of an appointment. This cancellation creates a "gap" in the schedule of the technician that the dispatcher would like to easily fill with an unscheduled service task.
However, the dispatcher has to ensure that the rest of the technician's schedule will not disrupted by any new appointments. Plug Route solves this problem.
The dispatcher inputs the technician, the applicable date, and the desired time window. Mobileforce FSM reviews the input as well as the technician's existing schedule, and then provides a list of one or more applicable service tasks which can be completed, ensuring the technician can:
- Travel from the location of their previous apppointment, to the location of this new service task
- Complete the appointment for this new service task, taking into account a variety of factors to estimate the time needed to complete the work
- Travel from the location of this new service task to the next appointment that is already on their schedule.
Note:
Plug Route cannot suggest a route for a technician if that technician has not been assigned 1 or more appointments.
The dispatcher can choose to select one (or none) of the tasks, and Mobileforce FSM automatically creates an appointment for the service task based on the information provided.
Using Plug Route
From the Schedule & Dispatch page, click the Plug Route button. Mobileforce opens the Plug Route popup window displaying the location of the task on the map.
- By default, today's date is selected. Click the date to change it from the calendar drop-down.
- Click the Select Technician dropdown and select the technician whose schedule you want to review.
- Click the Select a Hole/Gap dropdown and select the time gap to plug.
Note:
By default, the Plug Route window displays routes in List View, where tasks are listed in a tabular view. Click Map View to view scheduled tasks on the map.
Mobileforce FSM provides a list of unscheduled Service Tasks that can be feasibly inserted into the technician's existing schedule without disrupting it. Select the desired task, if any, and click Accept Route.
Smart Route
Smart Route allows dispatchers to ensure that the appointments assigned to the technician are routed and scheduled to minimize travel time, and maximize client-facing time, while working around crucial "locked" appointments which cannot be rearranged.
Example:
If you are a dispatcher who is scheduling a technician's appointments, and one of the appointments is with a premiere client and cannot be moved. The dispatcher can use Smart Route to ensure that the other appointments are efficiently routed.
The Smart Route feature allows dispatchers to optimize any technician's scheduled tasks based on the following criteria:
- The starting location for the technician on a given day.
- The location of the scheduled tasks for the technician.
- The ending location for the technician on that day.
- The estimated time to drive between each location.
Smart route is interactive. It provides the best route and then gives the dispatcher a choice as to whether or not to accept the suggested alternative schedule.
Note:
For best results, Mobileforce recommends using Smart Route when three or more appointments have been assigned to a technician.
Using Smart Route
From the Schedule & Dispatch page, click the Smart Route button. Mobileforce opens the Smart Route popup window.
- By default, today's date is selected. Click the date to change it from the calendar drop-down.
- Click the Select Technician dropdown and select the technician whose schedule you want to review.
Note:
By default, the Smart Route window displays routes in List View, where tasks are listed in a tabular view. Click Map View to view scheduled tasks on the map.
Mobileforce FSM takes the input of the technician and date and provides a list of appointments, potentially rearranged to optimize client time and minimize travel time.
Additionally the currently scheduled route is shown in the same window, so the dispatcher can compare the two routes.
Note:
For your convenience, each leg of the original route is sequentially numbered, so you can better review how Smart Route has sorted the appointments in the Optimized Route.
Click Accept Route to rearrange the technician's appointments as suggested.
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