Sure Staf: A Computerized Staff Scheduling System for Telephone Business Offices

Scheduling of staff between answering incoming calls and processing paper-work has been a continual problem in telephone company Business Offices. A staff scheduling system has been developed and implemented in Bell Canada on a trial basis. Incoming call load data are recorded automatically and are entered daily into a time share computer terminal. The next day's forecast, by half hour, is made by a cyclic exponential smoothing routine and the number of servers required to take calls is calculated using a queueing model of the Business Office. A schedule of call answering periods for the available staff to match the requirements is made using a heuristic algorithm. Managers are able to choose their objective on the accessibility of the office to incoming customer calls and the staff can organize their work day without unplanned interruptions.