Optimizing technician schedules in response to urgent events
Summarize
Summary of Optimizing technician schedules in response to urgent events
Prioritized event optimization in ServiceNow Field Service Management enables rapid, same-day schedule adjustments in response to urgent events. This feature targets only the specific technicians and tasks affected by critical events, avoiding unnecessary reoptimization of the entire schedule. It improves operational efficiency by focusing on impacted resources and tasks without disrupting unaffected assignments.
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Key Features
- Intraday Prioritized Optimization: Runs shortly after a prioritized event occurs, adjusting schedules for affected technicians and tasks only.
- Buffer Window: Configurable delay (e.g., one minute) to accumulate multiple priority events before triggering optimization, allowing batch processing of urgent updates.
- Technician Selection: Considers technicians directly impacted by events such as timing changes or those already assigned to affected tasks. It excludes overlapping territories, focusing solely on territories impacted by the events.
- Task Selection: When events relate only to tasks, the engine targets existing assignees; if none exist, no technicians are included.
- Matching Rules Integration: When Territory-Based Optimization is enabled, matching rules can refine which tasks and technicians are considered based on criteria like skills, search radius, and time thresholds. This is particularly useful for reassignment scenarios such as technician absences.
- Example Matching Rules: Demo data includes sample rules filtering technicians and tasks for prioritized events, which can be customized or extended.
- Configuration Requirements: Territory-Based Optimization must be enabled; it cannot be used with assignment group-based configurations. Custom event types and flows should be migrated to use the Intraday Event Type table for compatibility.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Enables swift and efficient response to urgent scheduling changes without disrupting the broader schedule.
- Targets only the affected technicians and tasks, ensuring minimal operational impact.
- Improves schedule accuracy by considering technician availability and skill matching in real time.
- Supports granular control over optimization scope through buffer windows and matching rules.
- Helps maintain service levels by prioritizing tasks with SLA breaches or imminent deadlines.
Resolve urgent scheduling changes quickly and efficiently by configuring prioritized event optimization, which responds immediately to critical events and targets only the specific technicians and tasks affected, without reoptimizing all tasks and qualifiers.
About intraday optimization for prioritized events
Prioritized event optimization enables same-day, event-driven schedule adjustments that run shortly after a prioritized event occurs. This mode targets a specific group of Field Service technicians and tasks without adjusting the entire qualifier.
The buffer window property determines how many minutes the system waits to collect additional priority events before running optimization. For example, with a one-minute buffer, the system waits one minute after detecting a priority event to capture any other events before starting optimization.
Technician selection
Task Selection
When only task-related events occur without technician events, the engine includes only existing task assignees. If no assignees exist, no technicians are considered.
Prioritized event optimization focuses on territories directly impacted by the events and doesn't include overlapping territories.
To set up intraday optimization for prioritized events, see Configure optimization for prioritized events.
Optimization with matching rules
You can apply matching rules to prioritized event optimization for improved control over job assignments. Matching rules are only available when Territory-Based Optimization is enabled. Territory-Based Optimization can't be used with optimization configurations that use assignment groups.
Matching rules identify a subset of relevant tasks and technicians to optimize based on criteria such as search radius, required skills, and time thresholds. When matching rules are configured, they determine which tasks and technicians are directly impacted by a prioritized event, including pending dispatch tasks with SLA breaches or tasks that have a window end within the next four hours. For example, when a technician calls in sick, matching rules identify all technicians with similar skills as directly impacted, enabling the optimization engine to reassign that technician's tasks efficiently. When a prioritized event occurs and creates a task event, the system generates a prioritized job and applies the configured matching rules to filter assignment options before making recommendations.
You can configure the maximum search radius and distance unit at the qualifier level to control the scope of optimization for each territory.
If you installed the Field Service Management Demo Data plugin, two example matching rules are available: Filter technicians for prioritized events and Filter tasks for prioritized events. These rules include criteria for affected technicians and affected tasks. You can use these example rules or create your own.
For more information about matching rules, see Set up prioritized intraday optimization with matching rules.