Dynamic scheduling – delivery slots on demand?
Dynamic scheduling – delivery slots on demand?
The guy who can give the narrowest time window for deliveries is the one who will clean up." So said Paul Palmer of routing and scheduling specialist DPS International this June during the launch of a new Web-enabled client-server version of his firm's LogiX system.
Also in June, during the Institute of Logistics and Transport's annual conference, Bernard Auton of Unipart Technology Logistics commented: "Lack of capability to reschedule journeys dynamically is one of the biggest problems for home deliveries."
Take these two observations together and you begin to see why dynamic rescheduling could become a real growth area in the coming months. It's a familiar concept, but has not so far been implemented widely. Now interest appears to be hotting up.
What does it mean exactly? Well, suppose you've prepared the call sequence for a fleet of trucks or vans with a mainstream routing and scheduling package. With dynamic routing and scheduling you could change the call sequence after they've taken to the road to reflect delays, failed deliveries, new collection requests or changed priorities.
Taxi control centres and parcels and courier offices do this manually, of course. The trick is getting the routing and scheduling system to re-optimise outstanding calls automatically.
GAP IN THE PROCESS
"There's a gap in the fulfilment process," says Chris Wright, former IT head of Ryder's UK operations. For his own part, he aims to fill that gap with a new integration system called Skillweb which he launched this year, using GSM phone-based data links to connect an office-based SQL Server database with handheld terminals carried by drivers. (He has been using Intermec units, but says others would also do.)
It takes advantage of recently-introduced replication capabilities in Microsoft's SQL Server database system, allowing a data subset listing deliveries to be downloaded to the handheld terminals, The remote units report back any exceptions to the schedule (either by polling or through ad hoc messaging), and the server then passes the information back for rescheduling, finally downloading the updated programme to the driver's terminal.
Apply a similar concept to the forward planning of home deliveries, and you come up with a system that allows shoppers (whether on the Web or in the high street) to pre-book delivery slots in real time. Descartes Systems, which acquired the Roadshow routing and scheduling system, has already implemented just such "self-scheduling systems'; and so has UPS Logistics Technologies, whose Transportation Suite is now offered in Britain by Bar Code Systems.
Chris Wright's Skillweb, too, has developed a forward-planning version, which provides interaction between the scheduling system and a retail store or Web site. Wright has been working with the LogiX system, but says others would also be appropriate.
Kingswood MapMechanics, the UK supplier of rival system TruckStops, has been involved in similar exercises in the past, including one controlling the movement of prisoners to and from courts. Kingswood, incidentally, is also the main distributor of AA digital mapping, and is now able to supply a data feed from the AA Roadwatch traffic monitoring system to help mapping and routing systems reflect real-world driving conditions more accurately.
CONVERGENCE
Clearly you can't reschedule vehicles to deliver something they haven't got on board in the first place, but you can re-plan existing journeys. The concept also works if drivers are carrying stock that is not custom erspecific (as in a van sales operation), and is fine if they're making collections. Rescheduling also makes a great deal of sense for field service staff, where it may be the driver that counts, not the goods.
Indeed, real convergence could be in prospect here between systems for the logistics and field service sectors. A good example of such a "cross-over" product is Taskforce, a new system from APSolve which was designed for scheduling field engineers' calls according to various pre-set parameters. For example, when an engineer has finished one job, he or she sends a message to base via a handheld computer, and the system automatically finds the nearest job that fits both that engineer's skills and the time window provided by the customer.
In an e-commerce environment, customers ordering online could specify what day they want delivery, what time they prefer to have the goods, and whether they will be out at any time.
APSolve says it can take account of the average time taken between certain streets or hold-ups due to road works (just the kind of information available from AA Roadwatch). If an extra delivery needs adding to the schedule, or a return needs to be picked up, Taskforce can re-plan the schedules, The product is available as a managed service on an ASP basis.
The quest for ever more time-specific deliveries could mean the dynamic scheduling trend picks up momentum rapidly. Getting it to work properly, though, is no mean task. To some extent the real trick lies not so much in the technical wizardry as in the integration skills to make it hang together. Perhaps it's people offering these who will really clean up.
