Predictive planning with neural networks.

Abstract

Critical for successful operations of service industries, such as telecoms, utility companies and logistic companies, is the service chain planning process. This involves optimizing resources against expected demand to maximize the utilization and minimize the wastage, which in turn maximizes revenue whilst minimizing the cost. This is increasingly involving the automation of the planning process. However, due to unforeseen factors, the calculated optimal allocation of resources to complete tasks often does not match up with what is actually occurring on the day. This factor highlights a requirement for a method of predicting accurately the number of tasks that will be completed given a known amount of resources and demand in order to produce a more accurate plan.