RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION FOR REAL-TIME TASK ASSIGNMENT IN MULTI-PROCESS ENVIRONMENTS

A novel and useful system and method of decentralized decision-making for real-time scheduling in a multi-process environment. For each process step and/or resource capable of processing a particular step, a service index is calculated. The calculation takes into account several measures, such as business level measures, operational measures and employee level measure. The decision of which process step a resource should next work on or what step to assign to a resource is based on the service index calculation and, optionally, other production factors. In one embodiment, the resource is assigned the process step with the maximal service index. Alternatively, when a resource becomes available, all process steps the resource is capable of processing are presented in order of descending service index. The resource then selects which process step to work on next.