Objective: Resource rating

Use the rating objective to distribute work in favor of more suitable or higher-performing resources based on their rating.

Overview

The concept of Resource Rating allows organizations to influence which resources are preferred during optimization, based on their relative performance, experience, or suitability. Each resource can be assigned a score between 1 and 100, where 100 represents the most highly rated resource.

This is particularly useful when you want to steer job allocation toward top performers, such as those with stronger customer feedback, higher skill proficiency, or better historical outcomes, while still allowing the optimizer to weigh other operational factors such as travel time, availability, or job constraints.

The Resource Rating objective acts as a soft constraint, meaning it helps guide optimization rather than strictly enforce it. If no rating is provided, the optimizer ignores this signal entirely.

Assign weight to the resource rating objective

When weight is assigned to the Resource Rating objective, it instructs the optimizer to prefer resources with higher ratings, but only in proportion to the weight relative to other objectives.

For example, if two resources are both suitable for a job, but one is rated 95 and the other 70, the optimizer will prefer the higher-rated resource, unless another factor (e.g. travel distance or time window availability) carries more importance due to a higher weighting.

The weight you assign determines how much influence resource quality should have on scheduling decisions. A higher weight on ratings helps ensure your best performers are prioritised, but not at the expense of breaking hard constraints or severely impacting efficiency.

Example: If the weight for Resource Rating is set to 50, and the weight for minimising travel time is set to 100, the optimizer will favour travel efficiency over resource quality, but still factor rating into its decisions when travel impact is minimal.

Assign no weight to the resource rating objective

If no weight is assigned to the Resource Rating objective, the optimizer will ignore the rating field altogether. It will allocate jobs based on other constraints and objectives, such as skill tags, travel time, and availability, without any preference for higher, or lower-rated resources.

This might be appropriate in early rollout phases, or when you want full flexibility in job allocation without introducing performance-based bias.

By omitting the weight, you’re allowing the optimizer to fully focus on operational goals without factoring in subjective or qualitative resource preferences.

Use case: Solar Roofing Company

Objective weighting:

  • Minimize travel time: 40%
  • Resource rating: 40%
  • Soft skills: 20%

For a solar roofing company, the optimization strategy aims to balance performance, efficiency, and safety. Resource Ratings are weighted heavily to ensure that top-rated technicians, those with proven safety records, job quality, and customer satisfaction, are prioritised when allocating complex installations or high-value jobs.

Minimising travel time is equally important to reduce operational costs and improve daily throughput, especially when teams must visit multiple sites within tight windows.

Soft skills retains a lower weight but ensures that resources still possess the necessary qualifications or certifications (e.g., working at heights, electrical integration). This setup allows the optimizer to allocate the most capable and nearby team, without compromising on job requirements or resource quality.