Transcript Agent Mediated Knowledge Management for Mobile Workforces in a

A JADE-LEAP based
application to
Support Team-based
Job Management in a
Telecommunications
Service Environment
Habin Lee and John Shepherdson
{ha.lee, john.shepherdson}@bt.com
Mobile Workforce Management Issues
• BT has 25,000 Engineers performing 150,000
installation and repair tasks each day in the UK
• A centralized workflow system is scheduling all the
tasks based on estimated travelling and task
execution time
Typical Customer Issues
- “Why should I wait for at home from 9:00 to 5:00” (real
time progress tracking)
- “They rarely arrive on time even if they promise”
(exception handling)
-“Somebody visited my home three times just to
replace a simple component” (KM / stock mgt)
- “They changed the delivery date three times over
four months” (Integration with legacy systems)
- “Why can’t I ask the delivery driver about the
Company’s products?” (Knowledge retrieval)
MAS as an enabler of enterprise
mobilization
• Purely distributed system (scalable for differing sizes
of workforce)
• Well known interaction protocols can be used to
coordinate distributed mobile workers
• Agents can learn preferences of each worker and
provide customized services
• Autonomous response to structured conversation
components
– Where are you ? / Which job are you working on ? / what’s your next
job location ? etc.
• Wrapper agents integrate legacy systems
mPower: A mobile CSCW System
• A smart agent on a mobile device that
- Provides mobile worker with services by executing
pluggable coordination components (C-COMs)
- Configures user interface and service access based on
device type and user role
- Features (semi) autonomous personal agents
To increase team interaction, empower the
individual and enhance the customer
experience
Dynamic service provision and
composition
Resource
DB (People & Job)
Web
pages
File
System
…..
….
….. ……..
…. …..
…….. …..
…..
…..
Firewall
WfMS
Knowledge exchange
Job trade
Swap Shift / Leave
Smart
Agent
Peer-to-Peer
Coordination
GPRS over VPN
Device profile / user role
Smart
Agent
KM System
Workflow
Agent
KMS
Gateway
Agent
Register service
and component
(C-COM)
Service Librarian
Agent
Service Library
Decentralised work co-ordination
Trade Work Request / Swap Shift
Trade Overtime / Cancel Leave Bookings
Call For Overtime Registration
Request Expertise
Make Collective Decision
Request Leave Change
Travel management
Plan Route / Replan Route
Estimate Route Cost
Knowledge Management
Attendance Management
And more
Find Expert
Find Relevant Information
Update Knowledge Base
Customer Experience
• Prior to Engineer visit (self
service)
– Log job via Web
• Specify ring ahead number
and time threshold
• Receive appointment time
– Track progress via Web
• Engineer’s name and proximity
• Dynamically re-assign to a
nearest engineer in case of
exceptional cases (Feedback is
sent to the customer
automatically)
Customer Experience
• During visit (via Engineer’s mobile
terminal)
– Request and be given other product
and service details
– Place orders and be given
appointments
– Agree (via electronic signature) e.g.
• time related charges; consent
to dig.
• On completion (via Engineer’s
mobile terminal)
– Customer Satisfaction survey
(electronic signature)
Conclusions
• Increased flexibility on mobile workflow management
via cooperation of multiple agents
• Increased customer satisfaction via agile workforce
management
• Exploitation of multi agent technology for mobile
CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work)
• Validation via field trials
– Technical feasibility
– Usability
– Business benefits
What Next?
• Context Understanding for Work Milestone
Management
• Device Adaptation and Dynamic Device
Change
• Voice-Text Integrated Human-Agent
Interaction
Context Understanding for Work Milestone
Management
Location trace
GUI Usage Log
Services used
Job schedule /
due date
He is
executing
Job2 with
probability of
xxx
Device Adaptation and Dynamic Device
Device profile
Change
<Device>
<Type>MobilePhone
</Type>
<Screen>
<Colour>2</Colour>
<Size>300</Size>
….
Device profile
<Device>
<Type>PDA</Type>
<Screen>
<Colour>256</Colour>
<Size>1204</Size>
….
C-COM
Library
C-COM
Library
GUI & Service
Mediator
Voice-Text Integrated Human-Agent
Interaction
Do you want
to accept a job offer?
Please answer with
one of..
TTS
Job Offer
Voice Input
List of possible answers
-Accept
-Reject
-Defer
Selected References
1.
H. Lee, P. Mihailescu and J. Shepherdson, Multi-Agent Technology as an enabler of
Computer Supported Cooperative Work for the Mobile Workforce, Lecture Notes in
Artificial Intelligence, Forthcoming, September 2004
2.
H. Lee, P. Mihailescu, and J. Shepherdson, mPower: A Reusable Framework for
Building Multi-Agent Systems to Automate Business Processes, BT Technology
Journal, 21 (4), 92-103, Oct. 2003.
3.
H. Lee, J. Shepherdson, P. Mihailescu, A Multi-agent System for Team-based Job
Management in Telecommunications Service Environment. Special Issue on Jade of
Telecom Italia Journal Exp, 3 (3), 96-105, Sep. 2003.
4.
H. Lee, P. Mihailescu, and J. Shepherdson, Conversational Component-based Open
Multi-agent Architecture for Flexible Information Trade, Lecture Notes in Artificial
Intelligence (LNAI), 2782, 109-116, 2003.
5.
Berger, M., Buckland, B., Bouzid, M., Lee, H., Lhuillier, N., Olpp, D., Picault, J., and
Shepherdson, J., An Approach to Agent-based Service Composition and it's
Application to Mobile Business Processes. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing,
2(3), 197-206, 2003.
6.
H. Lee, S. Case, and J. Shepherdson, Agent Mediated Knowledge Management for
Mobile Workforces in a Telecommunications Service Provision and Maintenance
Domain, In Proceedings of ECAI workshop on Agent Mediated Knowledge
Management, August 22-27, 2004, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain).
7.
P. Mihailescu, J. Shepherdson, P. Marrow, L. Lee, and H. Lee, MAS platforms as an
enabler of enterprise mobilisation: The state of the art, In Proceedings of IEEE
International Conference on Systems, Man & Cybernetics, The Hague, Netherland,
October 10-13, 2004.
mPower:
Demonstration
Coordination centric mPower Demo
3: Job Trade (mini)
Team Member B
Team Member A
2: Job Publication
4: Job Trade (maxi)
Team Leader
1: Job Notification
(new or urgent job)
All coordination via C-COMs
5:Job Update/
Closure
Job DB