Technician Staffing and

Efficiency Point System

A Guide to Technician Placement
4th Revision
Chris Campbell
2/15/2010
Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Point System Basic Structure ........................................................................................................................ 4
Point Value: ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Point Limit (Territory Capacity) ................................................................................................................. 4
Components of the Projected Territory Usage ......................................................................................... 4
Percentages............................................................................................................................................... 4
Assigning Points ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Number of points per terminal ................................................................................................................. 5
Travel to Home Base Points ...................................................................................................................... 5
Number of points per Cash / Coin route................................................................................................... 5
Points Assigned for Miscellaneous Service Requests ............................................................................... 6
Scheduled Overtime.................................................................................................................................. 6
Scheduling Conflicts .................................................................................................................................. 7
Checking the Projected Figures .................................................................................................................... 7
Actual Point Total by Tech ........................................................................................................................ 7
Answering the Questions .............................................................................................................................. 8
Does an allotment of machines require a new territory or technician to be created? ............................ 8
New Territory Justification Worksheet ..................................................................................................... 9
Where should a technician be placed within an allotment of machines for maximum efficiency?....... 10
What Percentage of a current territory is being used? .......................................................................... 10
How efficiently is a technician performing in comparison to what is actually being scheduled in that
territory? ................................................................................................................................................. 10
Spreadsheet ................................................................................................................................................ 11
Calculating the Distance between Two Points............................................................................................ 12

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Introduction

This system is to be used to aid in the staffing of service technicians. The following questions
can be answered by utilizing this system:

1. Does an allotment of machines require a new territory or technician to be created?

2. Where should a technician be placed within an allotment of machines for maximum

efficiency?

3. What percentage of a current territory is in use?

4. How efficiently is a technician performing in comparison to what is actually being

scheduled in that territory?

The calculations used in this system will give projections as to when, where and why to hire
technicians. They also explain how to determine what is actually happening in established
territories.

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Point System Basic Structure

Point Value:
10 points = 1 Hour
1 Hour = 50 Miles
10 Points = $30

Point Limit (Territory Capacity)

Per territory, the maximum number of points a tech may have in one day is 80, in one year is
20,600. The formula is described below:

8 hrs / day x 10 pts = 80 pts / day

x 21.5 working days / month = 1720 pts / month
x 12 months = 20,600 pts / year

Components of the Projected Territory Usage

The projected usage of a territory is comprised of the following six components:

• Service call points per terminal

• Travel to home base points
• Cash / Coin route points
• Miscellaneous service request points
• Scheduled overtime
• Scheduling conflicts (projected overtime)

Percentages
The projected point totals can be translated into a percentage representing how close the
territory is to becoming maxed out and what percentage of the territory is projected to be
used. This figure can also give ideas as to what territories are in need of more business.

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Assigning Points

Number of points per terminal

The amount of points assigned to a terminal depends upon its arrangement and how many
service calls are ran per year on that type of arrangement. It also includes the distance from a
technician’s home base, and the fact that on average a service call takes 1 hour to complete.
This is described below:

Placements = 2 SVC / year

Merchants = 1 SVC / year
Air/Vac = 1.25 SVC / year

The points for distance from a tech’s home base to the location are determined as follows:

(# of Miles / 50) x 10pts

**For more on this calculation see “Calculating Distance between two points”**

So, the point value per year for each terminal within the territory is calculated by:

(# of SVC / year x 10pts) + (# of SVC / year x ((# of Miles / 50) x 10pts)

Travel to Home Base Points

The amount of points assigned for travel back to home base will be determined by the density
of the technician’s territory. The average travel time to the terminals within the territory will
be translated into travel to home base points.

**For more on this calculation see “Calculating Distance between two points”**

Number of points per Cash / Coin route

The amount of points assigned to a cash / coin route will be determined by the approximate
number of hours it takes to run the full route and the number of times it is to be run in one
year. Travel to home base points are included in this figure.

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 (# of hours x 10 pts) x (52 / route weekly cycle)

Points Assigned for Miscellaneous Service Requests

Some types of service requests are unable to be predicted on a regular basis. These types of
service requests are:

• Installation of equipment
• Removal of equipment
• Emergency cash fills
• Electronic journals
• Site audits
• Preventative maintenance
• Special projects

These types of service requests, however, can be projected by looking at the average amount of
points per year per technician for these types of requests. This number comes out to 1,100
points and is calculated as follows:

Avg # of pts per yr per tech =

Total # of misc svc requests / # of yrs data were obtained from

/ # of technicians x (hrs to complete type misc svc x 10 pts)

The other pieces of information needed are the number of terminals within the territory and
the number of points assigned to those terminals. Using the formula below, the points
assigned for miscellaneous service requests can be calculated:

Total # of pts assigned to terminals x (total # of terminals / 1100)

This calculation also provides a percentage describing how much of the technicians projected
work will amount to these types of requests. The percentage grows as additional machines are
added to the territory and vice versa.

Scheduled Overtime
Scheduled overtime is defined as any hours greater than eight that are scheduled in advance –
normally this pertains to cash or coin routes that are scheduled as 9 or 10 hour routes.

Scheduled overtime hours are given a greater point value due to the fact that they are beyond
the maximum point limit for a technician’s day. The total points for scheduled overtime will be
multiplied by 1.5.

(Scheduled hrs of OT x 10) x 1.5

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Scheduling Conflicts
As a territory’s projected usage grows towards 100%, the probability of scheduling conflicts (or
overtime) begins to increase. Once the territory has reached 70% (1440 points) of its capacity,
scheduling conflicts are calculated into the territory’s projected usage. These points are given a
greater point value as well.

((Total projected territory pts – 14400) x 1.5) – Scheduled OT Pts

Checking the Projected Figures

Actual Point Total by Tech

The actual points being accumulated for each tech are calculated by the month and separated
into the same six categories as the projected figures. How these are calculated is outlined
below, and then the actual percentage is compared to the projected percentage.

Service Call Pts = Total service call hours scheduled for the month (excluding travel time)

Cash / Coin Route Pts = Total hours scheduled for cash and/or coin routes for the month

Travel (SVC) Pts = ((Total odometer mileage for the month – Total miles from routes for
the month) / 50) x 10

Misc SVC Pts = Total hours scheduled for Misc SVC for the month

Scheduled OT Pts = Total hours of scheduled OT for the month x 1.5

Scheduling Conflicts (OT) = (Total OT for the month – Total hours of scheduled OT) x 1.5

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Answering the Questions

Does an allotment of machines require a new territory or technician to be

created?
This is determined by the “Territory Efficiency Rating”.

The minimum Territory Efficiency rating in a given territory is 0%. Any percentage lower than
0% does not “justify” having a technician in that market. This is figured by the base cost of the
technician versus the income from service calls and cash fills, and is described as follows:

Monthly Cost of Tech (Approx $5000) =

Employee Cost ($2790/mth) + Vehicle Cost ($333/mth) + Mileage Cost ($1400/mth)

Employee Cost = Avg Wage($2250/mth) + Benefits($450/mth) + Phone($90/mth)

Vehicle Cost = Avg Purchase Price($20,000) at 5 yrs depreciation($4,000/yr)
Mileage Cost = Avg Miles Driven/tech/mth(4000) x 0.35 cents/mile

Translated into Points:

$5000 (Monthly cost of Tech) x 12 months = $60,000 / yr

$60,000 / 20600 pts per year = $3 per 1 pt
OR $30 = 10 pts

Income per Service Call = $100 / $30 = 34 pts

Income per Cash Fill = $60 / $30 = 20 pts
Income per Coin Stop = $35 / $30 = 12 pts

Territory Efficiency Rating =

(((((# of placements x 2 SVC) + (# of merchants x 1 SVC) + (# of air/vacs x 1.25 SVC)) x 34

pts) + ((# of placements x 20 pts)*(52/3 week cycle)) + ((# of air/vacs x 12 pts) x (52/9
week cycle))) – 20600 pts) / 20600 pts

Although 0% is the minimum Territory Efficiency rating to justify the placement of a new
technician or territory, it is not necessarily the most efficient - as the percentage of the territory
used grows towards 70%, the territory becomes more efficient. Absorbing new machines into
other existing territories will be looked at as well to determine the most efficient way to
incorporate new business.

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New Territory Justification Worksheet

Column A 1 Column B 1 Column C 1

Service Section

# of Placement ATM’s : ______________ x 2 = ___________ x 34 = _____________

# of Merchant ATM’s: ______________ x 1 = ___________ x 34 = _____________

# of Air / Vacs: ______________ x 1.25=___________ x 34 = _____________

BOX 1

Total of Column C 1 = __________________

Column A 2 Column B 2 Column C 2

Route Section

# of Placement ATM’s : _____________ x 20 = ___________ x 18 = ____________

# of Air / Vacs : ___________ x 12 = ___________ x 6 = ____________

BOX 2

**The total in Box 3 must be greater than 20000 Total of Column C 2 = __________________
in order to justify the placement of a new
technician in a brand new territory. A brand
BOX 3
new territory is defined as a territory without
any existing terminals** Total of Box 1 and 2 = __________________

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Where should a technician be placed within an allotment of machines for
maximum efficiency?

This can be determined by taking all of the possible coordinate points within a certain radius
and measuring the distance to all of the machine coordinate points, then calculating the point
totals and adding them up. The coordinate corresponding with the lowest point total is the
most efficient location to place a technician.
For more on this calculation, see “Calculating the distance between two points”

What Percentage of a current territory is being used?

As discussed earlier, the projected point totals can be translated into a percentage showing
how close the territory is to maximum capacity. The following pages show an excel
spreadsheet displaying these figures. This also gives a good outline and detail to the points
discussed earlier in the documentation.

How efficiently is a technician performing in comparison to what is actually

being scheduled in that territory?
This can be calculated by taking the actual point totals calculated (See “Actual point total tech”)
and comparing them to the actual hours worked by the technician (for the same time frame).

If the actual points scheduled are less than 1720 for the month, then we need to find the total
amount of unscheduled points and subtract that from the actual points worked. This removes
all unscheduled time from the technician’s hours for the month and leaves us with the amount
of scheduled hours (or points).

This number then needs to be divided into the actual scheduled points for the month:

Actual Pts scheduled / (Actual hours worked – ((1720 - Total actual pts scheduled) / 10
pts))

If the actual points scheduled are equal to or greater than 1720 for the month, then the tech efficiency
is equal to the actual points scheduled divided by the actual points worked.

Actual Pts scheduled / (Actual hours worked x 10)

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Spreadsheet

Territory Usage Territory Name

Projected: 104% Actual (Avg): 101% January '10 December '09
Terr Eff Rating: 99% Tech Eff Rating: 94% 95%
198 168 Actual Hrs Wrk'd: 198.04 180.55
Projected Figures Actual Figures Technician Name
Year Month Week Day Year Month Week Day
Total PTS ------------ ------------------ --------------- --------------- 21468 1789 413 83 20778 1732 403 81
Percentage --------- ------------------ --------------- --------------- 104% 104% 103% 104% 101% 101% 101% 101%

SVC Calculation # of Terminals Points / Year / Month / Week / Day January '10 Year (Proj) Month (Actual) Week (Avg) Day (Avg)
PLACEMENTS 88 --------------- --------------- 2896 241 56 11 SVC 4200 350 81 16
MERCHANTS 126 --------------- --------------- 2005 167 39 8 MISC SVC 480 40 9 2
AIR/VAC 2 --------------- --------------- 34 3 1 0 SCH CONFLICT 5532 461 107 21
MISC SVC 19.6% --------------- --------------- 969 81 19 4 SCH OT 660 55 13 3
SCHED CONFLICT 17498 --------------- --------------- 3970 331 76 15 TRV 2844 237 55 11
SCHED OT N/A --------------- --------------- 647 54 12 3 ROUTE 8712 726 169 34
TRAVEL HOME N/A --------------- --------------- 2580 215 50 10
ROUTE N/A --------------- --------------- 8367 697 161 32 Total PTS 22428 1869 435 87
Percentage 109% 109% 109% 109%
Route Calculation Cycle Approx Hrs # of Stops Points / Year / Month / Week / Day
GR A 3 9.14 18 1584 132 30 6 December '09 Year (Proj) Month (Actual) Week (Avg) Day (Avg)
GR B 3 7.38 14 1279 107 25 5 SVC 3480 290 67 13
GR C 3 7.79 18 1350 113 26 5 MISC SVC 1320 110 26 5
MUSK A 3 6.61 13 1146 95 22 4 SCH CONFLICT 1824 152 35 7
MUSK B 3 8.51 14 1475 123 28 6 SCH OT 696 58 13 3
MUSK C 3 8.84 12 1532 128 29 6 TRV 3144 262 61 12
ROUTE 8664 722 168 34

Total PTS 19128 1594 371 74

Percentage 93% 93% 93% 93%

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Calculating the Distance between Two Points
To calculate the distance (in miles) between two points, you will need to know the coordinates
(latitude and longitude) of each point. Use the formula below:

((ACOS(COS(RADIANS(90-Latitudeof pt 1))*COS(RADIANS(90-Latitude of pt 2))+SIN(RADIANS(90-

Latitude of pt 1))*SIN(RADIANS(90-Latitude of pt 2))*COS(RADIANS(Longitude of pt 1-Longitude
of pt 2)))*3958.756)

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