Planning and Forecasting
The 360 DSE can produce a sophisticated set of reports to enable organizations to monitor performance and aid decision-making. The data returned includes:
- Average activities per day per resource
- Average travel per activity
- Average travel per resource
- Average travel distance per resource
- Resource utilization
A number of additional modules are available to complement the scheduling process to help businesses improve their performance. By using historical data and the Advanced Planning Module it is possible to forecast demand and highlight where there are service hotspots. By running an extensive range of ‘what if’ scenarios it is possible to determine how many extra engineers with particular skills might be required and where they need to be located. So called ‘predictive deployment’ enables service organizations to keep abreast of what is happening with their business and control how it develops to cope with changes over time.
Predictive deployment
This base data is easily manipulated to simulate taking on new business, reducing the engineer head count etc. The results of these changes can then be viewed in the standard web based workbench tool, which enables the user to see the impact of these changes upon the service organization in a typical day-to-day situation. The map graphically displays hotspots where there is overcapacity as well as clearly identifying geographical areas where there is insufficient capacity. In addition the resource can display this for different times of the year enabling a business to forecast and prepare for fluctuations in seasonal demand.
Where there is not enough resource to accommodate the forecast demand the APM will recommend how many resources to recruit, what skills they should have and in what location they would ideally be based.