General Transportation Optimization options

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General Transportation Optimization options

Solver Setting

Use this setting to control the effort factor during Transportation Optimization, with a solution quality vs solve time tradeoff. This trade-off is achieved by controlling the heuristic search space. As the search space increases, so does the runtime and the likelihood of finding a better solution. The Solver Setting changes the values of multiple parameters to collectively control the heuristic search-space.

Typically, when first setting up your model, you may want to use the fastest setting to quickly assess the solution. As you refine the model, you can adjust the setting to expand searches during optimization. This can lead to a better solution, but will require a longer solve time:

Setting	Description
Fastest, Test Feasibility	This setting quickly determines a feasible solution. It does not use an improvement phase. This setting is recommended when you are first building your model to determine if the structure is valid.
Fast, Basic Search	This setting provides some improvement over the "Fastest/Test Feasibility" setting.
Default	This setting provides a balanced approach between speed and the search space for the solution. There are increased improvement iterations over the "Fast/Basic Search" setting, offering an increased search space.
Slower, Expanded Search	This setting increases the number of improvement iterations and search space. Performance may be slower than the "Default", but the solution is likely to improve.
Slowest, Advanced Search	This setting uses a significant number of improvement iterations, and allows a large search space for the solution. The solution is likely to be better than with other settings, but the solve time can increase dramatically over the lower settings.

To set this option in a scenario, select the “Transportation Optimization Options” table, the “Solver Setting” field and select the value as shown in the table above.

Optimize Fleet Size

When this option is selected, Transportation Optimization reuses assets to find the right balance between fixed asset costs and route costs. When this option is not selected, assets are not reused in the solution.

Assign A Unique Driver To Each Asset

In Transportation Optimization, multiple routes can use the same asset (referred to as a tour). By default, a new driver operates each route which means that drive times and duty times between rests are reset when a new route starts. The Assign A Unique Driver To Each Asset option controls the behavior as follows:

If this option is not selected, each route assigned to an asset is driven by a new driver. Drive times and duty times between rests are reset when a new route starts.
If this option is selected, the whole set of routes assigned to the asset is driven by the same driver and the drive and duty times between breaks are not reset at the start of each route.

To set this option in a scenario, select the “Transportation Optimization Options” table and the “Assign a unique driver to each asset” field. Select "Yes" for the default behavior (each route is driven by a new driver) or "No" to use the same driver for all routes assigned to the asset.

Last modified: Wednesday May 15, 2024

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