System and method for forecasting bank traffic and scheduling work assignments for bank personnel

Claim 1

A method of providing efficient use of tellers and for forecasting customer traffic and teller utilization on a continuous basis at a bank wherein any one of a plurality of customers may be serviced by any one of a plurality of tellers at a respective one of a plurality of teller stations and to arrange teller work schedules for the future, the customers being formed in a queue while awaiting service, and wherein said queue is formed in a physically defined area having an entrance and an exit; said method comprising the steps of: A. DATA SENSING AND COLLECTING: sensing the arrival of customers at the entrance of said queue; recording the number of such arrivals and the time of each arrival; sensing the departures of customers from said exit of said queue; recording the number of departures and the time of each departure; sensing the time spent by each customer in said queue; recording the time spent by each customer in said queue; determining whether a teller is available at each teller station; recording the amount of time that a teller is available at each of the stations; determining whether a teller at a station is active or inactive; recording the amount of time that a teller at each station is active; sensing the number of customers serviced at each station; recording the number of customers serviced at each station; B. ANALYZING: determining arrival patterns for customers for predetermined time periods based on said sensed and recorded data; and obtaining teller utilization forecasts; C. SCHEDULING: based on said arrival patterns, estimating a number of arrivals for each predetermined time period; combining said estimates with said teller utilization forecasts; positioning a number of tellers to respective teller stations for each predetermined time period of limit customer waiting time to a predetermined level during all predetermined time periods; and positioning the remainder of the tellers to perform non-teller tasks for each predetermined time period; whereby providing efficient use of tellers while controlling customer waiting time.

Claim 2

A method of providing efficient use of tellers and for forecasting customer traffic and teller utilization on a continuous basis at a bank wherein any one of a plurality of customers may be serviced by any one of a plurality of tellers at a respective one of a plurality of teller stations and to arrange teller work schedules for the future, the customers being formed in a queue while awaiting service, and wherein said queue is formed in a physically defined area having an entrance and an exit; said method comprising the steps of: A. DATA SENSING AND COLLECTING: sensing the arrival of customers at the entrance of said queue; recording the number of such arrivals and the time of each arrival; sensing the departures of customers from said exit of said queue; recording the number of departures and the time of each departure; sensing the time spent by each customer in said queue; recording the time spent by each customer in said queue; determining whether a teller is available at each teller station; recording the amount of time that a teller is available at each of the stations; determining whether a teller at a station is active or inactive; recording the amount of time that a teller at each station is active; sensing the number of customers serviced at each station; recording the number of customers serviced at each station; B. ANALYZING: determining arrival patterns for customers for predetermined time periods based on said sensed and recorded data; and obtaining teller utilization forecasts; C. SCHEDULING: based on said arrival patterns, estimating a number of arrivals for each predetermined time period; combining said estimates with said teller utilization forecasts; positioning a number of tellers to respective teller stations for each predetermined time period of limit customer waiting time to a predetermined level during all predetermined time periods; and positioning the remainder of the tellers to perform non-teller tasks for each predetermined time period; whereby providing efficient use of tellers while controlling customer waiting time.