Crews

In BlockSim 8, crews are resources that are available for use throughout the project and can be managed via the Resource Manager. You can assign the crews to maintenance tasks.

The Crew window allows you to create, view and edit crews. It can be accessed by clicking the Create New or View/Edit icon in the Crew wizard, which is accessed from Crew fields in properties windows (e.g., the Crew for task field in the Maintenance Task window).

It can also be accessed from the Crews page of the Resource Manager by choosing Home > Edit > New, by selecting a crew and choosing Home > Edit > View or by double-clicking a crew.

The following settings are available to configure the crew:

The Crew Name field allows you to specify a name for the crew. You can replace the default name with your own name of up to 150 characters, if desired. Users with the "Manage other repository settings" permission can change the default names by choosing File > Manage Repository > Define Default Names.

Crew
- Direct cost allows you to choose or create a model to represent the direct cost per unit time to engage the crew (e.g., the hourly charge for the time that the crew spends performing the task). This field uses a cost per unit time model. If no model is assigned, it is assumed that there is no cost.
- Cost per incident allows you to choose or create a model to represent the cost per incident to engage the crew (e.g., if you have to pay a fixed fee instead of or in addition to the hourly rate). This field uses a cost model. If no model is assigned, it is assumed that there is no cost.
- Is there a limit to the number of tasks this crew can perform at the same time?: If you answer Yes, you must specify the limit in the Number of tasks field. For example, if the crew can only fix 3 components at any given time and 4 components fail at the same time, then the crew will not be able to fix the fourth component until one of the other components has been restored.
- Logistic Delay allows you to choose or create a model to describe the delay time before the crew can start the task. If no model is assigned, it is assumed that the crew can start the task immediately without any delays (i.e., immediate repair). The crew with the highest priority is always called upon first, regardless of logistic wait times for the crews. If a crew is needed and all crews are engaged, the crew with the shortest wait time is chosen to perform the task.

For a given simulation, a crew’s logistic time is constant across that one simulation for the task. It is taken randomly from its distribution or from its fixed time.

For on condition tasks, if the same crew performs the inspection and preventive maintenance and there are logistic delays associated with the crew, the logistic delays will be factored into the simulation for both parts of the task.

Identifiers allows you to enter additional identifying information that can be used to search for this resource.

Information about the creation and last modification of the crew is displayed at the bottom of the window.