Optimised appointments explained
How does your booking slot configuration impact mobile workforce team costs?
The size of a booking slot, a 4hr vs 2hr for example, can have a significant impact on the overall team cost to achieve the same volume of jobs for each scenario. This generally follows the standard optimisation rules: the less latitude the jobs have, the smaller your ability to optimise.
However there is a best way of making an optimised booking!
As an example, proposing AM/PM slots instead of all day slot can increase the workforce cost by 14% in this sample, as this requires more technicians and will generate more travel time.
If the change from AM/PM slots to 2h slots has a minimal impact (0.9%), moving from AM/PM slots to 1h slots is very significant: this change increases the work cost by 43% in this sample. This requires more technicians (+4) and generates more travel time (+33%).
This is easily understandable. A 1h slot for a 30 minute job doesn’t give much latitude for the optimisation to move the job.
BUT the exact configuration can also determine the overall cost. In this scenario of changing the slot from AM/PM to 1H slot, if it now requires the job to only “start” in the slot instead of “starting and finishing” in the slot then the impact of the change become negligible!
