NextGen FSM
NextGen FSM
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Emergency response flow - assignment of response activities

In the second step in the emergency response, the system identifies urgent activities and assigns them to the optimal field technician.

Identify and sort activities

The system:

  1. Gathers assignable tasks, such as:

    • New entries: Recently created emergency work orders (WOs).

    • Retries: Existing activities that haven’t exceeded the maximum scheduling attempts (configured at the company level).

  2. Sorts activities based on the rule defined in the optimization model and processed one by one. Defaults to insertion date.

Identify the schedule point 

To determine when the new task is scheduled, the system looks for the latest end time and:

  1. Last emergency: The end of the most recently assigned urgent task.

  2. Current status: Any active task, even if it isn't an emergency.

    • Eg. In Charge, Arrived, or Started.

  3. Start of day: The baseline coordinates and time established during the recalibrate phase.

  4. Priority logic: NextGen FSM always assigns the new activity at the end of the current urgent activity, if it exists.

Validate with real-time constraints

To make a realistic schedule, the engine validates several advanced constraints:

  • Lunch break management: When a technician plans to take their lunch break.

    • In progress: The system calculates the finish time based on the actual start + the planned duration.

    • Planned: The system only assigns the task if it can be finished before the break starts (including any allowed delay).

  • Unavailability management: The task must be completed before any planned unavailability. 

    • The system also confirms the technician can travel to the unavailability location on time after the emergency.

  • SLA and calendar: Technicians are excluded if No scheduling after SLA is active in the model.

Complete the assignment

After the best technician is selected, the system:

  1. Locks the resource: Prevents other changes while it finalizes the assignment.

  2. Integrity check: Verifies that no schedule modifications occurred during the calculation.

  3. Final assignment: Assigns the activity.

    • Note: If the assignment fails, the system increments the retry counter and logs the error.

  4. Logs the event: Records the entire event in the archive scheduling log.

Known limitations

The emergency response workflow currently does not support:

  • Team activities

  • Specific scheduling areas for technicians

  • WOs with fixed appointment slots

  • “Lock scheduling days" rules

  • Workload balancing rules (saturation and occupation)

What’s next?