EP0797164B1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Appointment booking and scheduling system
Assignee: Fujitsu Services Ltd
•
Filing: 1997-02-21
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Granted: 2000-03-29
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Expires: 2017-02-21
Abstract
No abstract record available.
Inventors
- 👤 James William Hardie Edgar
- 👤 Peter John Gathercole
- 👤 Michael Alan Johnson
- 👤 Alistair Edward Roycroft
- 👤 Alan Smith
- 👤 Donald Brian Webster
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 17:58
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06Q; G06Q10/00; G06Q10/10; G06Q10/109; G06Q10/02; G06Q10/06; G06Q10/063; G06Q10/0631; G06Q10/06311; G16; G16H; G16H40/00; G16H40/20
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim
247 words
A computerised appointment booking and scheduling apparatus
for scheduling a plurality of operatives travelling to
sites in a geographical area, the apparatus comprising a
database (11) containing a pool of jobs, input means (12)
for adding new jobs to said pool, and scheduling means (13)
for using the pool of jobs to generate and to store in the
database a plurality of routes (31), indicating sequences
of sites to be visited by said operatives, characterised in
that: (a) said geographical area is divided into a plurality of
regions, each of which regions includes a plurality of said
sites; (b) each of said routes (31) comprises information
specifying a sequence of said regions to be visited by a
particular operative, the times the operative is scheduled
to enter and leave each of said sequence of regions, and
the amount of free time available for new appointments in
each of said sequence of regions; (c) said input means (12) comprises means (41) for offering
appointments at specific times, using the currently stored
routes to check for availability of operatives in specific
regions at specific times, and for updating said pool of
jobs and said routes to reflect new appointments that have
been accepted; and (d) the apparatus also includes means (42,43) for
periodically running said scheduling means to generate from
scratch a new plurality of routes, optimising the new
plurality of routes to minimise a cost function, and
storing them in the database to replace the currently
stored routes.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
47 words
Apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein said means (42,43)
for periodically running said scheduling means comprises
means (42) for checking whether a predetermined trigger
number of appointments has been made since the last time
the scheduling means was run and, if so, for calling the
scheduling means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
65 words
Apparatus according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein said scheduling
means (13) comprises means (52) for generating a set of
dummy jobs, collectively representing the total amount of
free time available to operatives to handle new
appointments, and means (53-55) for using these dummy jobs
in generating said new plurality of routes to determine
distribution of the free time within said new plurality of
routes.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
32 words
Apparatus according to Claim 3 wherein said
scheduling means comprises means for allocating said dummy jobs
between said regions to achieve a substantially even
distribution of available free time between said regions.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
238 words
A method of operating a computer apparatus to schedule a
plurality of operatives travelling to sites in a
geographical area, the method comprising maintaining a pool
of jobs in a database (11), adding new jobs to said pool,
and using the pool of jobs to generate and to store in the
database a plurality of routes (31), indicating sequences
of sites to be visited by said operatives, characterised in
that: (a) said geographical area is divided into a plurality of
regions, each of which regions includes a plurality of said
sites; (b) each of said routes (31) comprises information
specifying a sequence of said regions to be visited by a
particular operative, the times the operative is scheduled
to enter and leave each of said sequence of regions, and
the amount of free time available for new appointments in
each of said sequence of regions; (c) the step of adding new jobs to said pool comprises
offering appointments at specific times, using the
currently stored routes to check for availability of
operatives in specific regions at specific times, and
updating said pool of jobs and said routes to reflect new
appointments that have been accepted; and (d) the method further comprises periodically running said
scheduling means to generate a new plurality of routes from
scratch, optimising the new plurality of routes to minimise
a cost function, and storing them in the database to
replace the currently stored routes.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
43 words
A method according to Claim 5 wherein said step of
periodically running said scheduling means comprises
checking whether a predetermined trigger number of
appointments has been made since the last time the
scheduling means was run and, if so, calling the scheduling
means.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
59 words
A method according to Claim 5 or 6, further including the
step of generating a set of dummy jobs, collectively
representing the total amount of free time available to
operatives to handle new appointments, and using these
dummy jobs in generating said new plurality of routes to
determine distribution of the free time within said new
plurality of routes.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
31 words
A method according to Claim 7, further including the step
of allocating said dummy jobs between said regions to
achieve a substantially even distribution of available free
time between said regions.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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