Month Start Date

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

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

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

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.

• 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.

ABS - Activity Status

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.

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.

ABS - Default Number of Slots

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

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.

ABS - Range of Heuristic

Number, 1-3

Determines the time range that the selection heuristic uses:

1 - day

2 - week

3 - month

ABS - Selection Heuristic

Determines the logic used when finding time slots:

1 - Earliest First method.

2 - Resource Loading method.

3 - Resource Leveling method.

See Heuristics for the Appointment Booking System for more information about these methods.

ABS - Timeout

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.

CAUTION:  Do not set this parameter to zero (0).

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

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, in which the Optimizer does not change the assigned employees (and schedules) for activities. This period extends from the time when the optimization task begins until the time that this value designates. The optimization task begins when you click the Optimize button on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

For example, if you click the Optimize button at 10:00 A.M. and if you set this value to 4 (4 hours), the Optimizer does not reassign employees for activities (and does not reschedule activities) that are scheduled to take place between 10:00 A.M and 2:00 P.M.

Optimizer - Hard Latest Start

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

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

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

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

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 frequency with which the Optimizer saves results during optimization.

Because of this parameter, if an overall system failure occurs during optimization, some optimized results are not lost. For example, if the optimization time is 3 hours, and the save interval is 1 hour, the Optimizer saves results every hour during the 3 hour run. If the system fails 2.5 hours after the Optimizer starts, the first 2 hours of the optimization results are saved. When you restart optimization, the Optimizer uses the 2 hours of results from the previous run.

The time the Optimizer uses to save the results at the save interval is part of the optimization time. Saving the optimized results at the save interval uses extra resources and time. You need to consider both the importance of saving partially optimized results and the efficiency of optimization time usage. If losing partially optimized results because of a system failure is not an important consideration, set the save interval parameter to a time that is the same as or longer than the optimization time. Consequently, the Optimizer saves results only when optimization is complete. If losing partially optimized data because of a system failure is an important consideration, do not set the save interval parameter to less than 1 hour. Consequently, the Optimizer saves results infrequently and uses optimization time efficiently.

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.