Scheduling Software
Client: Roads and Traffic Authority
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| CSIRO developed software which solves the RTA’s complex queuing
problems and optimises the way that service staff are deployed. It is helping to ensure
faster service at motor registries |
CSIRO has also been putting its rostering skills to work for the Roads and Traffic
Authority (RTA) of NSW.
A typical motor registry office might have several hundred customers every day, seeking
to conduct any one of over 100 different transactions. These transactions vary widely,
from simple driving licence applications to the registration of semi-trailers. They take
different lengths of time and demand staff of very different levels of skill and training
to handle them.
Meeting Demands
Customer arrivals also fluctuate throughout the day. These changing demand levels must
be met by counter staff whose numbers also fluctuate as people take lunch breaks, or stop
serving to handle administrative tasks. To complicate matters further, motor registries in
different places-and there are 135 registries across NSW- experience different traffic
flows and handle different categories of transaction.
"We wanted CSIRO to look at our queuing problems with a view to providing quicker
and more efficient service," says Sujit Dattaray, senior planning and research
officer with the RTA. "Working with CSIRO proved to be a most valuable experience and
we learned a great deal from it."
Researchers from CSIRO developed mathematical descriptions of RTA’s services and
customer queuing. This enabled them to develop a computer program which allows the RTA to
find ways to meet all of the demands of their complex system.
CSIRO considered this a strongly customer project, with the ultimate goal of ensuring
that RTA's performance measures were achieved, and that nobody had to queue for more than
a few minutes.
To achieve that, the researchers first spent considerable time collecting data and
tracking arrivals and departures to observe queuing behaviour at the RTA. ‘Queue
equations' were developed using this data as well as equations based on probabilities of
staff workload and queue lengths at different times during the day. From this, CSIRO
developed a simple program that runs on a PC.
Software Finds Solutions
Using this program, the registry manager can determine and set up an optimal schedule
for any given day, which can be overridden and re-set it in an emergency. The program
allows the managers to adjust queue lengths and waiting times as well as optimal
workloads. They can use the program to move transactions from one queue to another, or to
shift staff from one job to another.
CSIRO scientists were able to solve the RTA’s queuing problems, despite their
having a very complex queue structure. The RTA had recently installed a Swedish ticketing
system known as the QMATIC. It which results in a `multi-server/multi-queue' approach -
people don't queue at a particular window for one sort of transaction, but are grouped
into a number of queues and move to the indicated server when their number is called. This
meant that there are no easy ways to model the system mathematically. CSIRO’s
scientists were able to develop an innovative approach to solving the problem.
CSIRO’s approach could be used in a range of other situations where people have to
queue to carry out a range of more or less complicated transactions.
Client Feedback
This will make a significant difference to one class of customer, who will receive better service as a result of a better queueing system.
Peter de Jager, Manager, Service Planning and Development,
Road Traffic Authority
Further Information
Please contact David Sier
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