Average Travel Speed Per Hour

The average travel speed for field service engineers in the service region, used when the Optimizer calculates the Cost Function.

Average Travel Time (Minutes)

The amount of travel time that the ABS adds to an activity when calculating the duration of an activity (work time + average travel time).

Constraint Set

The constraint set that the ABS and Optimization Engine use in optimizing the schedule for the selected service region, defined in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Constraint Sets view and the Administration - Scheduling screen > Constraints view.

Cost Function

The cost function that the Optimization Engine uses in optimizing the schedule for the selected service region, defined in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Cost Functions view.

Cost List

A cost list for labor, used for calculating overtime costs. Costs Lists are defined in the Administration - Pricing screen > Cost List view (see Pricing Administration Guide).

Minimum Travel Time

If the calculated travel time between two activities is less than this time, the Optimizer uses this time.

Parent Region

The parent region creates a hierarchical set of service regions. Thus, when the parent region is selected on the Dispatch Board, not only are the parent region's employees listed on the Gantt chart, but also listed are the child service region's employees and the employees of any of the child region's descendants.

NOTE:  Selecting a parent region does not impact scheduling with the ABS or the Optimizer.

Parameter Set

The set of parameters that the ABS and Optimizer use, defined in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Parameter Sets view.

Schedule

The name of a schedule that the ABS uses. Schedules are defined in the Administration - Data screen > Schedules view.

Time Window

The name of a set of time windows defined in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Time Windows view. A Time Windows view defines the interval of time that should be allocated for starting an activity. The ABS uses time windows. For more information, see Time Windows View.

Time Zone

The name of a time zone used by the ABS and Optimizer. Time Zones are defined in the Administration - Data screen > Time Zone Administration view (see Applications Administration Guide).

Travel Cost

The cost of travel per unit of travel. The Optimizer uses this value when calculating the Cost Function for a schedule.

Travel Unit of Measure

The unit of travel (miles or KM) that the Optimizer uses when calculating the Cost Function for a schedule.

Coalesce ABS

Clicking this button may improve a selected appointment schedule by removing the time gaps between booked appointments. This asynchronous request is carried out for one service region at a time.

Load ABS

Clicking this button erases all data for a service region in the ABS cache and reloads this data from the database. For each service region, this is an asynchronous request to the Siebel server.

When you restart the ApptBook component or click the Load ABS button, all the data in the service region must be loaded into the ABS cache. If a limit of 10,000 rows has been imposed and there are more than 10,000 activity records in the service region, then all the required activity data will not be loaded. To resolve this, do the following:

1. Create a new Named Subsystem for the ABS.
2. Set the parameter, DSMaxFetchArraySize, to -1. Setting the parameter to this value does not impose any limits on the number of records allowed.

Load Optimizer

Clicking this button erases all data for a service region in the Optimizer cache and reloads this data from the database. For each service region, this is an asynchronous request.

When an optimization is in progress, this request is not sent to the server. The user receives an error message.

Optimize

Clicking this button sends a request to the Optimization Engine to run an optimization on the selected service region. The Workflow Manager or repeat requests can start an optimization.

Stop Optimization

This command sends an asynchronous request to the Optimization Engine to stop an ongoing optimization of the selected service region.

Stopping an optimization may not be immediate because the Optimization Engine completes the solution that is in process and saves this solution in the database.

Stopping an optimization is a manual process; the Workflow Manager or repeat requests cannot send this command.

Load

Clicking this button sends an asynchronous request to the Siebel Server to load the selected activities into the ABS or Optimizer cache.

Based on the values of the Planned Start and Planned End field for an activity and the start and end times for the ABS and Optimizer horizons, the data goes either to the ABS or Optimizer cache.

Normally, use the Workflow Manager instead of this button to load activities.

The Load request cannot be carried out for a repeating activity.

Unavailable

When you select an employee record and click this button, it instructs the Optimizer that the selected employee is unavailable for a time defined in the Administration - User screen > Employees view > Employee Exception Hours subview. Clicking the button sends an asynchronous request to the Optimizer to load the data for the selected employee, including exception hours, and reassigns or reschedules activities.

Before using this command, the administrator may have to add a new record to the Employee Exception Hours view describing the time that this engineer is unavailable.

Load ABS

Clicking this button sends an asynchronous request to the Optimizer to refresh the data for one or more selected employees in the ABS cache. This command must be initiated manually or by the Workflow Manager; do not use a repeat request.

Unload ABS

Clicking this button sends an asynchronous request to the Optimizer to remove the data for one or more selected employees from the ABS cache. This command must be initiated manually; do not use a repeat request.

Name

The name of the set of time window mappings.

Default Time Window

The time window applied to activities of any duration, if the Time Windows Details view does not have a mapping for an activity of a specific duration.