Options In Optimization
How is the new generation of products shaping up?
JOHN BENDEL
TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Consider two optimization products at opposite ends of the operations/dispatch spectrum. One is built to help dispatchers make tactical decisions hour by hour through the business day. The other helps analyze and optimize fleet strategies.
THE DISPATCHER’S NEW FRIEND
The dispatcher-helper, a new dispatch optimization module, is set for release by Maddocks Software, Inc., of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, in the second quarter of this year.
Recently, company president Bob Maddocks described Opt2Mate, an add-on to the existing TruckMate family of products.
Opt2Mate works with both truckload and LTL, where the LTL consists of relatively large shipments that lend themselves to handling in truckload operations. Like other TruckMate software, Opt2Mate runs in a Windows environment.
Maddocks said the new software considers point-to-point origin and destination, equipment specs, commodity types, delivery windows and driver parameters including available hours and personal preferences. But dispatcher-friendliness is a priority.
Opt2Mate is quick and simple to use, according to Maddocks. A dispatcher can run an optimization at any time simply by selecting a group of loads or shipments and clicking a mouse button or two. The dispatcher decides which items to run and which to leave out. At his option, the dispatcher can keep selected trips out of the mix to dispatch manually.
The answers arrive quickly. According to Maddocks, the program returns optimized results in spreadsheet fashion. An optimization involving a 100 x 100 grid of parameters takes only 24 seconds. So dispatchers can run an optimization while they have a driver on the phone or waiting by a mobilecom unit.
Opt2mate’s dispatcher friendliness doesn’t end there. “We were told that dispatchers often didn’t utilize optimization tools because they didn’t understand or trust what the computer was doing,’’ said Maddocks.
Opt2Mate was designed to explain its reasoning: why it made one recommendation and rejected another. The explanations are available in the optimization results.
“Of course, they can override them (recommendations) right on that screen and say I don’t care. I’m going to give him this load,’’ said Maddocks.
Maddocks said that trips can be assigned directly from Opt2Mate with a simple right mouse click.
The optimization routing is particularly kind to beginners. “It sort of runs like a Windows wizard,’’ said Maddocks.
Windows wizards, of course, walk users through software processes, taking one element at a time. This approach enables people unfamiliar with the software to use it effectively from the beginning.
Maddocks sees Opt2Mate as particularly helpful for greenhorn dispatchers.
“That new dispatcher who doesn’t have a clue what to do as he sits down the first day, he’s going to be making some pretty informed decisions,’’ Maddocks said.
Opt2Mate can report on which program recommendations were overridden by dispatchers. Maddocks said he expects the software will also be able to compare empty miles between fully optimized routes and routes changed manually or weighted to consider, say, driver preferences.
TRANSCENDING OUR MINDS
Appian Logistics Software, Inc., Oklahoma City, Okla., offers a more strategic optimization product called the Resource Scheduling Module, which works on top of another Appian product called DirectRoute, a routing optimization product itself.
Appian began business as a consulting company in 1987, said Executive VP James Stevenson. In 1991 they introduced their first product, a mapping program called Geo Whiz.
“We introduced DirectRoute in 1996,’’ said Stevenson. “It’s a stand alone product that runs in Windows; we also have a server version that will run on Windows 2000 or a Citrix server.’’
DirectRoute optimizes routing and scheduling primarily for private fleet and dedicated fleet operations. It works at street-address level but most typically is used in point-to-point, over-the-road operations.
Stevenson said that optimization software succeeds where human effort has no chance. The computer can deal with an enormous number of variables where the human mind has to “compartmentalize’’ options in order to reach decisions.
“Our software will go in and take pieces of information about shipments, such as size of the shipment, whether big cube, weight and pallets. We’ll take that information and look at where that stop is going to be. What are the time windows available for delivery? Maybe they have receiving hours all day; maybe they have an appointment Thursday between 9 and 10 in the morning,’’ said Stevenson.
“What it’s basically doing is putting loads together trying to optimize based on the minimization of whatever cost factors you put in. Typically in that scenario people are putting in cost per mile, cost per stop.’’
Stevenson said the Resource Scheduling module was developed in response to customer requests, most significantly from 3PLs (3rd Party Logistics providers) that wanted a strategic fleet optimization tool to help them bid on new business. Some opportunities involved taking over a private fleet.
Stevenson said a 3PL might go in and gather three months worth of operating data from a fleet and arrive at a “typical’’ week of operation. “I’m going to try to put a bid together and I’m going to base my bid on, okay, if we take over your fleet and take it dedicated, I’m going to have to run 37 power units and 42 drivers. They have to come up with that number somehow,’’ said Stevenson.
“We’ve taken the same optimization principles we used in routing and scheduling and we’ve put that into resource scheduling. Resource scheduling takes, say, 175 routes; you set up whether you have teams or singles, maybe you’ve got sleepers and non-sleepers. You want to run on a seven or eight day rolling DOT cycle. It goes in and figures out how many drivers and power units you need,’’ he said.
“They (the 3PLs) are looking at the week-in-the-life and they’re basically going to try to base a bid on what they can run that fleet for. That’s what they’re going to be held to,’’ said Stevenson.
The software is just as helpful to fleet operators as it is to 3PLs bidding on business, according to Stevenson.
