Vehicle Routing Case Study

Description

Create a detailed transportation plan that provides the optimal multi-stop routes for existing shipments. The routes that are created consider the constraints of your hours of operation, warehousing, cross-docking and transportation assets.

Sample questions this use case addresses

How can I can analyze my historical shipments and identify opportunities to reduce transportation costs and increase efficiencies?

Where and when should I use 3PLs (third party logistics providers), LTL (less than truckload) shippers, or a private fleet?

Is my logistics service provider leaving value on the table?

How do I calculate the true cost-to-serve for individual customers on my routes?

Are my delivery zones optimally defined?

Do my delivery zones need to change due to my facility footprint?

Typical use case inputs

Historical or planned orders

Available assets

Asset configurations and constraints

Lanes capacities and costs

Shipment restrictions

Business hours and special asset needs for different customers

Supplier locations and windows for backhaul pickups

Typical use case outputs

Shipment consolidations

Fleet sizing plan

Transportation mode selection decisions

Periodic shipment balancing and scheduling

Continuous move (pickups & drop-offs) lanes

Hub (and spoke) strategy design

Transportation Optimization value

There are many routing tools that offer day-of-execution level routing, track and trace, and dispatch support. These tools assume a fixed or given network strategy and don’t help you explore how your network could perform in different configurations. The combination of end-to-end modeling, rich optimization algorithms and visualization techniques allow an organization to consider the impact of countless what-if scenarios in a simulated environment to identify plans to reduce costs while increase assets utilization and service levels.

Customization

Level Required: Medium

Details of Customization:

DDM

Medium level of customization required. Pending vehicle routing problem scope, customization may include data on available assets, asset configurations and constraints, lanes capacities and costs, shipment restrictions, business hours and special asset needs for different customers, supplier locations and windows for backhaul pickups.

Model Building

Medium level of customization required. Transportation Optimization AMB can be used as a good starting point. Pending on problem scope and details available, could incorporate details such as asset availability, additional costs and constraints, shipment restrictions, business hour and special asset needs for different customers, supplier locations, and windows for backhaul pickups.