Booking a Dependency Group

A set of jobs between which there are dependencies is called a dependency group.  Within a dependency group, the dependencies themselves are between pairs of jobs: a target job and a dependent job.  (Because dependencies are symmetrical, either of the two jobs can be chosen as the target job and, consequently, the other as the dependent job.)  There are two types of dependency: a time dependency and an operative dependency. A time dependency is defined in terms of each job’s ETA or ETF (where ETF is when the working part of the job finishes).  The following uses of dependencies have been validated and are described in section 6.8.3:

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There are circumstances when a job is booked based on a customer request and then subsequently that job is examined and a decision is made that a dependent job is required (whether it be a part is needed or a helper is needed).  The jobs themselves and the dependencies between them in this case are just the same as in the case when both jobs are booked at the same time (above).  Jobs that are already in ServiceOptimizer must be resourced, otherwise SP_DEPENDENCY_ON_UNRESOURCED_JOB (573) (573) is returned.

Note: The pre- and post-optimization auto-allocation operation ignores jobs that are in a dependency group, i.e. they are candidates for neither allocation nor de-allocation.  However, Importance is used during job booking: a new job in a dependency group can be booked into the schedule in place of a job not in a dependency group of lower Importance Cost, but a job in the schedule that is in a dependency group will never be de-allocated as part of a booking operation.

Example Usage

Part Pick-Up

In the simplest example of a part pick-up, there are two jobs in the dependency group booked at the same time: the main job is an ‘SLA’ type that would otherwise be booked with JobBookRequest (see 6.6), and the dependent job is to pick up a part needed for that SLA from another location such as a parts depot or a drop box. 

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• both jobs must be done by the same operative.

Two Man Crew

A two man crew is a dependency where there are two jobs to be done at about the same time by more than one operative either at the same location or different locations.

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In the following example of such an JobDep struct, the SLA is the target job and the pick-up is the dependent job: