PFM is the leader in the AI automation of schedule creation and compliance management. The software suite gives clients the ability to manage labor costs, respond rapidly and responsibly to changing market/ labor conditions.

Edmonton, Canada - July 2, 2021 /PressCable/ —

Introduction

Creating schedules in a unionized or a complex rule, shift work environment, is time consuming and requires compliance with large rule sets. Generally, these schedules are manually created and can impact operations because not all necessary rules are complied with and the lack of compliance results in grievances which is costly to the organization. Employee satisfaction can be negatively impacted when scheduling quality and equity criteria are not met, continuity of care is not addressed and fatigue management is not considered. Often schedules are not built to budget and when labor costs are overrun organizations to not have the data readily at hand to address the situation.

. Building schedules and evaluating them for compliance is necessary and very time consuming. Doing this manually is not only costly but usually , but very inefficient and prone to error.

As the need for creating schedules increases this often results in lengthy queues preventing organizations from responding quickly to changing market and labor conditions. . Rotation management cost is a significant budget item and the manual process allows for only one rotation to be created at a time making scalability an impossibility.

PFM has developed a software scheduling suite at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (amii) to address the challenges mentioned above. The automated toolset allows customers to build schedules based on their rules (collective bargaining agreements & custom rules), processed by a sophisticated proprietary engine to generate compliant schedules and shift patterns that are fair and equitable.

The suite consists of 4 modules:

The first is the Checker Module. This module evaluates existing rotations for compliance with formal and quality criteria rule sets and evaluates the staffing levels relative to budget targets. Compliance issues are marked with color codes and mouse over messages that can be exported and shared with applicable parties.

Second is the Solver Module. This module creates rotations utilizing formal and quality rule sets. Several different solving methodologies can be used and the is no limitation as to the number of rules that can be accommodated. There is no limit to the size, number of shifts or composition of shifts that can we satisfied. The underlying architecture was designed to ensure that the unique needs of individual clients can be accommodated.

Third is the Optimizer Module. This module optimizes both existing schedules and new schedules by aiding the user in ensuring that the optimal number of positions exist, a desired full-time/part-time ratio is present, the budget is complied with, each position is contract compliant and shifts are optimally distributed.

The fourth module is the Analytics Module. This module analyzes schedules using a client customizable array of metrics. Current categories include Cost, Compliance, Process Time, Administration Data and logistics.

Overall, PFM contributes to a client’s success by deploying a SaaS based software suite to automate the schedule management process thereby decreasing process time, making scalability possible, aiding organizations to become nimble in response to changing conditions, reinforcing best practices, and eliminating schedule process variability. In summation, eliminating process queues, decreasing process time, and ensuring 100% compliance results in cost savings to the client.

Further to the impact of the PFM Suite are the results of a case study and a proof-of-concept project done with one of the tenth largest health systems in the world.

Case Study

The four PFM Scheduling Suite Modules were used in sequence with an existing customer schedule.

The rotation was run through the Checker Module and 46 violations were identified and it was determined that the schedule needed optimization.

The Optimizer Module was then utilized to revise the schedule requirements and it was determined that only 14.32 FTEs were required versus the 16.76 that were present. Subsequently, the FTEs were reduced to 14.32 and the total number of positions reduced from 20 to 18.

The revised schedule requirements were then sent to the Solver Module and a new, optimized schedule was created.

The Analytics Module was then used to quantify the cost of the original schedule versus the optimized schedule and the cost savings was found to be $202,760/year for one small nursing unit

Proof of Concept Project Outcome

The project design was as follows:

10 seasoned schedule builders would be involved in the project and would manually solve and compliance check 10 schedules. The schedules would be a good representation of all schedule types existing in the organization.

Next, the 10 schedule builders would utilize the PFM tool Suite to Solve and compliance check the same group of 10 schedules. As a control, PFM would also solve and compliance check the 10 schedules.

The results were as follows:

· The schedule builders average manual process time = 86.3 hours and automated process time 7.32 hours saving 78.98 hours across 10 schedules. The PFM Control process time was 4.7 hours demonstrating that as client user proficiency increased , further gains would be realized.

In conclusion, the schedule builders were 11.8 times more productive using automation vs. a manual approach and the PFM control was 18.5 times more productive than the builders manual process time.

www.pfmscheduling.com

PFM Scheduling Services

Contact Info:
Name: Jason Harder
Email: Send Email
Organization: PFM Scheduling Services
Address: 17003 67 Avenue Northwest Suite 414, Edmonton, Alberta T5T 6Y5, Canada
Phone: +1-250-309-3742
Website: https://pfmscheduling.com

Source: PressCable

Release ID: 89032699