How important is adaptation and flexibility?

Two words with which our software has literally grown up. We designed it to be able to easily incorporate additional constraints based on a mathematical model.

We quickly learned that there are a large number of customer-specific requirements in scheduling. And our SaaS solution learned quickly. It has already been fed with requirements such as maximum trucks per day, paired goods, special stacking options such as layers or lighter on heavier containers, to name just a few. We are also open to new requests and can add additional constraints without ever having to change the skeleton of the algorithm.

We have never seen many of the above things in Excel solutions, no matter how well thought-out they may be. For good reason, we call it immature or only suitable to a limited extent for complex, operational transportation planning. That’s why we have our grown-up optimization software, which plans trucks with many constraints for you with ease and is happy to replace its playmate Excel.

The measure of correct capacity utilization

When is a truck 100% utilized? When all 33 pallet spaces are occupied? When 100% of the loading meters are filled?

In practice, we approach this question with mathematical pragmatism. A truck has two dimensions: Weight and volume. We don’t really care how many parking spaces the truck has. Numbers are ultimately derived from the filled truck volume and the container volumes used anyway. What is relevant for the software in planning is minimizing the residual volume that we leave in the truck as much as possible when we schedule containers in the cargo space. At the same time, the algorithm also tries to fill the target value of the maximum permissible total weight in order to plan this dimension optimally for heavy goods. As a result of mathematically optimized planning, even dispatchers sometimes have to realize that 33 spaces for different container stacks may not be the real maximum.

Simultaneous planning

Further potential may be lost if the consideration of truck planning is limited to one transport at a time. We always try to consider the entire quantity of materials/transports to be planned. After all, it is of little help if all light goods fit optimally on the first truck in terms of volume, but the second truck with heavy goods scratches the 24.5 tons of total weight, but still has room for improvement in volume. Our motto: Keep your planning balanced.