Assign Work Schedules for Servers

ASQ allows users to assign cyclic work schedules to servers at each service centre. An example cyclic work schedule may look like this:

Shift Times	0-40	40-100	100-120	120-180	180-220	220-250
Number of Servers	2	3	1	2	4	0

This schedule is cyclic, therefore after the last shift (220-250), schedule begins again with the shift (0-40). The cycle length for this schedule is 250.

In order to define this work schedule, it must be given a name. Let’s call it my_special_schedule_01.

In the parameters.yml file, under Number_of_servers, for the given node enter the name of the schedule. The cycle_length must also be given. An example is shown:

cycle_length: 250
Number_of_servers:
  - 'my_special_schedule_01'
  - 3

The equivalent way to add this to the parameters dictionary is by first adding the cycle length:

'cycle_length':250

And then under number of servers, add the schedule name:

'Number_of_servers':['my_special_schedule_01', 3]

This tells ASQ that at Node 1 the number of servers will vary over time according to the work schedule my_special_schedule_01. This schedule hasn’t been defined yet. To define the work schedule, add the following lines to the end of the parameters.yml file:

my_special_schedule_01:
  - - 0
    - 2
  - - 40
    - 3
  - - 100
    - 1
  - - 120
    - 2
  - - 180
    - 4
  - - 220
    - 0

And equivalently, adding the following to the parameters dictionary:

'my_special_schedule_01':[[0, 2], [40, 3], [100, 1], [120, 2], [180, 4], [220, 0]]

Here we are saying that there will be 2 servers scheduled between times 0 and 40, 3 between 40 and 100, etc. The final shift denotes 0 servers between times 220 and cycle_length, and then the schedule cycles to the beginning. This fully defines the cyclic work schedule.

Note:

• If more than one work schedule is defined, the same cycle_length must be used for the entire system.