Expert: Ahmed Salami - 11/12/2009

Question
Hi Ahmed

Dont know if this is the right forum for this.

I have a perplexing problem for which I believe only a mathematic whiz can provide a solution

I have a team who are into call taking (ie they handle incoming calls)

My delima is to find out their utilization effectively.


Our company requires that a person contribute around 192 hours a month. calculated as 24 days  or 22 working days in a month multiplied by 8 hours a day ( 24x8= 192 hrs)

My people on an average take around 1000 calls a month each and I estimate that they spend approx 5 mins per call

Based on that I derived at this formula -    1000 (calls) x 5 (mins) divided by 60 (min) to get the conversion in hours - so if a person takes 1000 calls then he/she gets 83.33 hours a month.

But this is where my delima lies

1) Is this method of calculation correct ?

2) as you can see by this method - they fall short by around 100 hours - even though I know that they have been utilized more- this method shows that they are  under utilized - any help or suggestion welcome

Please help


Answer
Hi Dimitrz,
1) Yes, your calculation is correct.

2) Well, there is definitely a flaw in the assumption that your team has been utilized more. Lets work backwards here. If a person works 192 hours a month spending 5 mins per call. Number of calls taken is
192 x 60 / 5 = 2304 calls per month.
Clearly, your team is in no way over-utilized.
You'll also find that on the average your team is working only 3.47 hours per day instead of the supposedly assumed 8 hours.

You can always get back to me.

Regards