Guidelines for Obtaining Good Results for Optimization

This topic provides guidelines for obtaining good results for optimization.

The following recommendations can help you to obtain good optimization results at the best speed:

• Make sure that the Optimizer is on its own process in the server key mappings. This guideline is the most important way to return good results from the Optimizer.

Run the Optimizer when the server has a light load, preferably overnight. For more information, see Setting Up Server Key Mappings.

• Examine the Optimizer heuristic settings for the scheduling parameters.

  In general, a higher number produces a better result quality, but the time to find a solution is longer. Most companies find that setting the Optimizer heuristic parameters to 5 or 6 and running the Optimizer for 3 to 4 hours is sufficient. The Optimizer - Timeout parameter determines how long the Optimizer is run. For more information, see Creating Parameter Sets for Schedules and About Heuristic Methods for Schedules.

• Check the service region setup because more constraints lead to a faster solution.

  The Optimizer frames the scheduling problem as a solution space to explore and find the best answer. More constraints mean that the solution space decreases, and the Optimizer must explore fewer permutations to arrive at the best solution. For more information, see Defining Service Regions.

• Subdivide your field service engineers into types to help speed up optimization.

  For example, a cable company has several different activity types (cable install, cable problems, cable modem install, and cable modem problems). Specific field service engineers handle each type. Even in a large service region of over 50 engineers, the company can receive optimum solutions quickly because the engineers are subdivided in this way. The Optimizer solves several small problems instead of 1 large problem.