Dynamic Workforce Scheduling for British Telecommunications plc

David Lesaint, Christos Voudouris and Nader Azarmi
Additional contact information
David Lesaint: Intelligent Systems Research, BT France, 11, place des Vosges 92061, Paris La Defense, France
Christos Voudouris: Intelligent Systems Research, BT Adastral Park, MLB1-PP12, Ipswich IP5 3RE, United Kingdom
Nader Azarmi: Intelligent Systems Research, BT Adastral Park

Interfaces, 2000, vol. 30, issue 1, 45-56

Abstract: British Telecommunications plc (BT) employs thousands of field engineers across the UK to maintain networks, repair faults, and provide service to customers. To allocate work efficiently, BT developed Work Manager, an information system that automates work management and field communications. In 1996, the Intelligent Systems Research group of BT enhanced Work Manager with a dynamic scheduler (DS) based on a combination of heuristic search and constraint-based reasoning. Rolled out in 1997 and reaching 20,000 engineers in 1998, DS with Work Manager is saving BT $150 million a year on operational costs. When deployed over the targeted workforce of 40,000 people, the system will save an estimated $250 million a year.

Keywords: INFORMATION SYSTEMS-DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS; TRANSPORTATION-SCHEDULING; PERSONNEL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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