Table 28. Scheduling Parameters
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Month Start Date |
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Number, 1-28 |
Determines what day the month starts on. Used for constraints that are defined in terms of months. Most users will set this to 1. The default value is 1. |
Use Assignment Manager |
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1/0 |
Whether to submit the activity to Siebel Assignment Manager to receive a list of engineers capable of performing this work. This should be set to 1 to use the AM, unless all employees in a service region have the same skills or all are eligible to do all the jobs. The default value is 1. |
Week Start Day |
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Number, 1-7 |
Determines what day the week starts on. Used for constraints that are defined in terms of weeks. Most users will set this to 1 (Sunday) or 2 (Monday). The default value is 1. |
ABS - Activity Category |
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Order number for the Activity Category LOV. |
When loading in activities into the ABS, only those with the specified category will be loaded. The default value is all categories. For example, to only load activities with a category of Repair Activity, do the following in the order shown:
- Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > List of Values view.
- Query for the LOV type, FS_ACTIVITY_CLASS.
- Record the order number for the category you want to exclude (that is, Repair Activity).
- Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Parameter Sets view.
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- Select the parameter set for the specified Service Region and add the Variable value, ABS - Activity Category. This value is taken from the Order field of the Repair Activity LOV. The value can be comma-separated if there is more than one category listed. As a result, the ABS only loads activities with the category Repair Activity and ignores activities with other categories.
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ABS - Activity Status |
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Order number for the Activity Status LOV. |
When loading activities into the ABS, those with the specified status are excluded. Recommended default: Cancelled. For example, to exclude activities with a Cancelled status, do the following in the order shown:
- Find the order number of activities with a Cancelled status (the LOV type is EVENT_STATUS).
- Add the parameter, ABS - Activity Status. This value is taken from the Order field of Cancelled Status LOV. The value can be comma separated if there is more than one status listed. As a result, the ABS does not load activities with a Cancelled status.
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ABS - Days to End |
Yes |
Number |
When starting the ABS process, specifies how many days out the ABS should be booking appointments. It is always measured in number of days (not an absolute date) showing how far the schedule runs. Required for ABS. |
ABS - Days to Start |
Yes |
Number |
When starting the ABS process, this number specifies how many days out the ABS should start booking appointments. It is always measured in number of days, not an absolute date. Required for ABS. This parameter activates at 12 A.M., which means that if ABS - Days to Start is set to 1, the ABS starts booking appointments from midnight after the region was loaded (subject to the schedule used). NOTE: Activities that start in the past but end after the ABS - Days to Start value are still loaded to the ABS.
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ABS - Default Number of Slots |
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Number |
Specifies how many choices (maximum number of appointment slots) are returned to the user. A higher number of slots gives more flexibility, but may slow the ABS, as it takes longer to search for more slots. The default value is 5. |
ABS - Logging Level |
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Number, 1-4 |
Controls how much information is written to the ABS log stored on the server (ApptBook_xxx.log). The lowest level, 1, writes only basic information about the server activities, while the highest level, 4, writes detailed logs, showing all actions that occurred. NOTE: You must set the Appointment Booking and Optimization Execution event for the ApptBook component to 4 to generate log files when the ABS is loaded.
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ABS - Range of Heuristic |
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Number, 1-3 |
Determines the time range that the selection heuristic uses: 1 - day 2 - week 3 - month |
ABS - Selection Heuristic |
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Determines the logic used when finding time slots: 1 - Earliest First method. 2 - Resource Leveling method. 3 - Resource Loading method. See Heuristics for the Appointment Booking System for more information about these methods. |
ABS - Timeout |
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Number (minutes) |
Sets how long time slots are locked (in minutes) after the user requests them, but has not chosen one. After this time, the slots are released and made available for booking by other users. This is important if the user closes the browser or loses a connection, so that the slots are again available. |
Optimizer - Activity Category |
Yes |
Sequence number for the Activity Category LOV. |
When loading in activities into the Optimizer, only those with the specified category will be loaded. The default value is all categories. |
Optimizer - Activity Status |
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Sequence number for the Activity Status LOV. |
When loading in activities into the Optimizer, those with the specified status are excluded. Recommended default: Cancelled. |
Optimizer - Default Priority |
Yes |
Sequence number for the Activity Priority LOV. |
Priority used if no priority is set for an activity. |
Optimizer - Glued |
Yes |
Number (hours) |
The period, in hours, from now in which the Optimizer treats the schedule as frozen. No activity may be scheduled during this time period. |
Optimizer - Hard Latest Start |
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1/0 |
Whether the Latest Start value is considered a hard or soft constraint: 0 - Soft constraint 1 - Hard constraint The default is 0. |
Optimizer - Logging Level |
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Number, 1-4 |
This field controls how much information is written to the Optimizer log (Optimizer_xxx.log) stored on the server. The lowest level, 1, writes only basic information about the server activities, while the highest level, 4, writes detailed logs, showing all actions that occurred. |
Optimizer - Optimize Heuristic |
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Number, 1-8 |
The heuristic used to improve the optimization solution: 1 - Greedy search 2 - Steepest search 3 - Greedy search followed by a Tabu search 4 - Steepest search followed by Tabu 5 - Greedy search followed by Fast GLS 6 - Steepest search followed by Fast GLS 7 - Greedy search followed by GTS 8 - Steepest search followed by GTS where: GLS = Guided Local search GTS = Guided Tabu search See Heuristics for the Optimizer for more information about these methods. |
Optimizer - Consider Parts |
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0/1 |
Whether the Optimizer should consider parts in an engineer's trunk inventory when considering the engineer for assignment to an activity: 0 - No 1 - Yes |
Optimizer - Parts Period |
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Integer (hours) |
If the Optimizer considers that a service engineer has the parts required to solve a problem, this parameter tells the Optimizer how far in advance to consider parts. |
Optimizer - Save Interval |
Yes |
Integer (Minutes) |
The interval for committing the optimized or partially optimized schedule to the database. Shorter values mean that the database is more up to date, but frequent updates may have an effect on performance. |
Optimizer - Tardiness Cost |
Yes |
Number (Float) |
The cash value, in $/hour, of violating the Optimizer - Hard Latest Start soft constraint. |
Optimizer - Task Excl Cost |
Yes |
Number |
Penalty used in calculating the cost function if an activity is unscheduled. |
Optimizer - Timeout |
Yes |
Minutes (Integer) |
The maximum time in minutes for each optimization. |