About Setting the Best Values for Contract Rules

The best values for contract rules refer to the values that can provide the most desired run results.

Note: Caution should be used in assigning values to the desired rules. The best values must be within the minimum and maximum values of the corresponding contract rule. If 0 is entered in the Weight field of a contract rule in the Union Contract dialog box, the contract rule is not used as a desired characteristic regardless of any value in the Best column.

When the system searches for potential runs, the best rule is used to zero in on a particular characteristic of a run. In effect, when you type a value in the Best column and assign a weight to this value, you are telling the system that a run with this value is most desired. The lower the value you type, the less you desire to use it.

As the system searches for runs, it applies a cost plus penalties against the run. The farther a run is from the desired characteristic, the greater the penalty and the greater the cost. If the found run is far enough away from the desired value, it is assigned a cost greater than the invalid run to which it is being compared, and subsequently, it will not be selected.

The values in the Weight column of the Run Type frame allow you to assign a numerical value rather than a specific parameter to express the relative importance of the rule on the entire run. In this case, the value you assign acts as a bonus rather than a penalty. When you add a weight to a run type that is greater, for example, 20,000 compared to the weight of 15,000 of another run type, it will be more cost effective and, therefore, have a greater likelihood of being selected.