Perfectly coordinated scheduling and route optimization
The customer
B&O Service SE, Bad Aibling, looks after more than six hundred thousand residential rental units in Germany for its customers. It employs over a thousand fitters from all trades at thirty locations. This makes it one of the largest real estate service providers in Germany.
In the event of technical damage in or to rental properties, it immediately arranges an on-site appointment with the tenant with a tight time window for repairs. These appointments are scheduled via our own call centers.
Goals at a glance
Acceleration of the planning process
Consideration of individual working hours and qualifications of fitters
Increased efficiency due to unproductive travel times
Optimum planning results even with last-minute rescheduling
The project in detail
The challenge
The aim of the optimization was to minimize costs across the board by significantly reducing travel times and ensuring even utilization of the fitters in order to avoid unnecessary overtime. This should already take place in the call center during order acceptance and scheduling. It is not only important to consider qualifications, travel times and individual contractual working hours in real time, but also the type of activity that may make follow-up appointments necessary.
The particular challenge here was the short-term nature of the project. The optimization not only has to calculate the best possible solution in real time, but also quickly identify and propose alternative courses of action in the event of postponements due to appointment cancellations, illness or other unforeseen events.
The solution
As part of the project, a web-based optimization software „Appointment Optimization and Absence Planning“ (TO) was developed to plan on-site appointments for fitters. This software is used in the call center to determine a cost-optimized appointment proposal during the telephone call with a tenant. It takes into account the required qualifications, the number of fitters needed and any follow-up appointments required. In the further course of planning, the TO is able to reschedule appointments within this visit time window or assign them to other fitters in order to keep the overall costs low. The option to reschedule will be used if further on-site appointments are agreed.
One particular challenge was the simultaneous optimization of several dozen telephone calls. The software uses sophisticated procedures to deliver fast responses even during peak times and to resolve planning conflicts that can arise due to latency times in telephone coordination as automatically as possible. This was achieved using technical methods from the online trading of stock systems.
In addition to call center operations, TO supports the planning process at the technicians' locations. If absences are to be planned, e.g. for vacation or illness, TO determines affected appointment conflicts and informs the dispatcher about the options for resolution (takeover by other fitters, postponement, cancellation, etc.). This makes the effects of an absence visible and can be implemented at the touch of a button.
Statistical evaluations of the optimization success are presented in a comprehensive reporting system.
The result
The main success of the project was the significant reduction in the daily travel time of the fitters while at the same time increasing the number of appointments carried out. TO is suitable both for the regular planning of new orders and for planning emergency assignments and shortens response times.
The main successes of the optimization project include
- Simplification, acceleration and stabilization of the planning process
- Facilitation of the scheduling process through supported rescheduling
- Significant reduction in travel costs
- Increase in productive on-site time for fitters
- Shortening the response time in emergencies
- Comprehensive reporting for transparent planning and evaluation of results