Workforce Scheduling with the Digital Assistant "Fred"

In this video, we use a few examples from the logistics industry to show how workforce scheduling with our digital assistant “Fred” works:

Efficient workforce scheduling involves an enormous amount of coordination and fine-tuning. As the number of staff increases, planning effort and error rates rise sharply.

This is especially true when assignments are to be subcontracted. And if last-minute changes such as sick leave occur, the work schedule has to be changed very quickly and communicated to everyone involved in a timely manner.

The digital assistant “Fred” removes a large part of this coordination work from dispatchers and supports planning. He first creates a proposal for a weekly work schedule based on customizable criteria. He automatically takes hourly quotas as well as sickness and vacation times into account – both for in-house employees and subcontractors. The dispatcher notices immediately if an internal or external employee is unavailable. “Fred” then provides alternative suggestions that merely have to be approved.

If a scheduled employee calls in sick at short notice, the digital assistant also automatically warns the responsible dispatcher by email. This eliminates the need to check with the HR department, secretariat or subcontractors. As a result, everyone involved has more time for their actual core tasks.

But “Fred” doesn’t just revolutionize planning. The digital assistant has a comprehensive booking system. It keeps a detailed and legally compliant record of all working hours, so that it is immediately clear who has worked where and when. This makes subsequent billing much easier, but can also be very useful in the event of an insurance claim, to name just one example.

The digital assistant “Fred” compiles information from very different sources (e.g. tender portals, HR and accounting, merchandise management, Excel, SAP, etc.). This means that every employee can continue working with their familiar programs. The existing IT infrastructure within the company remains untouched. No change management or expensive additional hardware is required.

As with all the functions that “Fred” offers, our augmented intelligence principle also applies here: the digital assistant does not decide over the heads of those involved; he just provides them with the information they need to make an informed decision. Ultimately, however, it is always the human being who makes these final calls!