Objective: Preferred resources

Use the preferred resources objective to prioritize jobs that already have a specific resource assigned to them.

Overview

The concept of preferred resources revolves around jobs that already have a specific resource assigned to them. These assignments could be due to various factors, such as prior knowledge, expertize, or operational requirements.

Preferred resources are a significant factor when working with pre-existing/tentative schedules. For example, if a rough schedule was created early and optimization is fine-tuning the schedule with updated data.

Typically, this constraint is described as “minimizing disruption” in schedules that are already partially defined. For an empty schedule it has no impact.

Assigning weight to the preferred resources objective

When weight is assigned to preferred resources, it signifies the importance of keeping the job assigned to the original resource, even if the optimizer identifies a potentially more optimal resource for the task. In other words, the weight acts as a constraint, instructing the optimizer to prioritize the assigned resource, regardless of potential alternatives.

The weight assigned to preferred resources is relative to the other objectives. For example, if the weight assigned to preferred resources is 20, and the weight assigned to balance workload is 60, the optimizer will prioritize balancing workload over preferred resources.

Assigning no weight to the preferred resources objective

In the absence of a weight assigned to the preferred resource, the optimizer gains the freedom to potentially replace that resource with another, potentially better-suited resource based on other defined objectives. This allows the optimizer to optimize scheduling outcomes without constraints related to specific resource assignments, providing more flexibility in achieving overall optimization.