Select Optimisation Options and Start Scheduling
To start automated planning for the current distribution centre, on the upper toolbar click the
button. You can also click the dropdown button next to the button and select one of the options:
You can run planning for either 1 day or for multiple days (for more details, see Multi-day Optimisation ).
When the planning session is in progress, the below pop-up window is displayed. When running for the first time, planning can take considerable time, due to all the distances being calculated by the system.
After planning is finished, the Planning result window is displayed. It shows how many existing orders for the date selected were planned successfully.
View Scheduling Results
On the Gannt chart, the scheduled routes for particular vehicles are displayed as follows:
On the left section of the screen, there is a list of vehicles. If orders are planned for the vehicle, the vehicle card will display: vehicle number, driver name, route mileage, cost, total working time, total weight, total driving time, color marker for the route, vehicle maximum and used capacity.
Hover the cursor over the route timeline bar to see the pop-up window with the relevant order information.
Click the route timeline bar to see it on the Map section, in a corresponding color:
After optimisation is completed, you can edit your schedule using manual planning, if necessary (how to plan manually, see Manual Planning section).
Lock Schedule
Lock the planned schedule. To lock schedule for all vehicles, click the
button ("Lock schedule") located in the upper toolbar. You can lock schedule for each particular car. For this purpose, right-click the particular car timeline on the Gantt Chart and select the Lock run action in the context menu.
Now you can send schedule (or order details) to drivers. You can do it from the Planning screen or from the Track & Trace screen. On the Planning screen you can send schedule details for all drivers by clicking the
button in the vehicles upper menu or individually to each driver by clicking the same button on a vehicle's card(after you lock the schedule, the flashing
icons will appear on the vehicle card):
For more details about sending order details to drivers from the Track & Trace screen, refer to the Sending order details to drivers from Track&Trace screen section.
Recalculate Schedule
When you change any settings that can influence the scheduling process (either default or day-specific settings) MaxOptra will match the new settings with the existing schedule. It will then prompt the user to recalculate the whole schedule for the selected day.
When settings are changed, the Optimise button becomes a yellow Recalculate button:
By clicking on the Recalculate button you will update the schedule. So, you can change all the settings you want first and then click Recalculate only once.
Schedule optimisation is also available when the Recalculate button is on. If you need to schedule new orders, you can open the dropdown next to the Recalculate button and select the optimisation option that suits you. In this case the system will also recalculate the existing schedule considering the updated settings.
Note
The schedule is recalculated only for the selected day. Settings in the past/future are not changed.
Recalculation cannot be undone or redone using the Undo/Redo buttons.
Recalculation only becomes available if there are orders scheduled for the selected day.
If you change the settings of a vehicle or driver, which have no scheduled orders for the selected day, recalculation is not required.
The recalculation warning will also appear when settings are changed via API methods importVehicles, and importPerformers.
Settings that can influence scheduling and subsequently cause schedule recalculation are provided on pages: DC parameters,Vehicle parameters,Driver parameters,Account settings,Settings window etc.
Note When your run is locked, the details are sent to the driver, and you have to update the schedule, the system can react in one of the two ways. If the parameter(s) you changed can influence orders sequence or run duration (availability hours, correction factor etc.), the flashing envelope button will appear on the vehicle's card after schedule recalculation, which means that updated details need to be sent to the driver again. If the parameter(s) you changed do not influence orders sequence or run duration (cost per hour, vehicle requirements etc.), then no schedule update will be sent to the driver after recalculation.