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Transit & Toll
at Freight Solutions 2003 •
Odyssey Handy Hints • FAQ's •
About Us |
Hello and
welcome to the fourth edition of InTransit
eq , the newsletter that will be “ e ”-mailed
you on a “ q ”-uarterly basis. We try
to include articles that appeal to our clients
and/or our prospects and other friends in the
industry. If there is something you'd like to
read in future editions please provide feedback.
Of course if you are not interested in being
included in our circulation list, please unsubscribe
where indicated right at the bottom of this email.
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| Supplier
of the Year! |
I
am very pleased to announce that Transit
Computer Systems has been named the Australian
Freight Industry “Australian Supplier of
the Year”!
VTA Executive Director Phil
Lovel presented us with the trophy at the
14 th Awards Dinner.
He said that “the
submission showed benefits of up to 30%
from cost savings in fleet usage, improved
customer service, improved asset utilisation,
management of realistic delivery schedules
(driver safety) and reduced on-road vehicle
numbers.”
I accepted the award with pride and am
delighted with this accomplishment. It's
fantastic that 30 years of providing solutions
that save our clients millions of dollars
every year have been recognised in this
way.
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However we wouldn't
have been able to win the award if not
for the very strong client testimonials
included in the submission, and the great
Transit team.
The award points to
an increase in awareness of routing and
scheduling systems in Australia. But we
are some way behind the times compared
with our overseas counterparts. In the
UK and USA, the majority of operations
with 10 or more vehicles use routing and
scheduling systems.
In Australia the users
are mainly limited to the largest manufacturers
of food and beverage products. This is
astonishing given that in our experience,
most multi-drop operations with more than
5 vehicles will get a return on investment
within the first year of implementation.
Nicola Williams
Managing
Director
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| Transit assist
Cadbury Schweppes |
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Cadbury Schweppes' beverage
division recently appointed Transit Consulting
to assist with their internal response for the
transport contract tender in Victoria and New
South Wales.
The expiry of the contract with the current incumbent was seen as a good opportunity
to assess whether outsourcing was still a viable option, or whether an in-house
company fleet would be more advantageous.
One of the most common exercises conducted by Transit Consulting is to assist
companies that are submitting responses for transport tenders. Tender documents
often contain a lot of data, which amounts to a lot of manual work in understanding
the scope and resource requirement before a cost model can be developed.
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Transit Odyssey
can be used very effectively to provide the data
required for input to the cost model, within
a short period.
Transit Consulting helped Cadbury Schweppes
determine: the optimal location for the transport
hubs; the optimal delivery days for customers
to ensure vehicle utilisation was balanced over
the sales cycle; the optimised schedules for
each day over the sales cycle; and the most appropriate
fleet configuration.
The output was then used as an input to the Cadbury Schweppes cost model. The
result highlighted whether outsourcing was a cost-effective option, by comparing
submissions from third parties with their own submission.
Scott Dowell
Client Support
Manager
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| Transit & Toll
at Freight Solutions 2003 |
Damian Scott from Transit Computer Systems and Steve
Innes, the National Operations Manager of Toll's Food
and Beverage division, gave a joint presentation at
the Freight Solutions 2003 conference in September.
The presentation was entitled "Implementing a
scheduling and route optimisation system across in-house
and outsourced transport."
"Our experience is that you can expect about
a 20% reduction in your transport resources as a reasonable
average benefit." Damian commented. "But
a successful implementation requires acceptance from
all interested parties: the drivers, the schedulers,
the operational staff and management. You must have
local input and involvement otherwise resistance builds,
your chances of success go down and your costs rise.
"Also, make sure that you're after an operational
solution not a perfect solution. The operational solution
will save you money; the perfect solution will send
you broke! As with any other business the Pareto principle
applies: 80% of your savings will come with 20% of
your effort. |
"The ultimate gift of a
routing and scheduling system is that you are required
to draw out the things that are kept in people's heads
and the business rules that have been adopted. What
you can't measure you can't manage."
Steve continued: "Our customers want innovation through technology and
they want cost-downs. The days of a person sitting with a piece of paper routing
vehicles are long gone. We recently implemented a scheduling system in a small
business that was $3.5m revenue to us and instantly there was a $0.5m savings.
I can't stress how important these packages now are to our survival in the
industry.
"The key to a successful implementation is to get the people who are using
these products to be committed. You have to use operational people who are willing
to embrace the use of the technology. You need to have local input from your
customer and need to have the customer on side.
In today's transport industry
people want more time window constraints on their deliveries.
A person with a piece of paper just can't
do that and so they can't provide the customer
service that the customer expects." For the full
transcript of the presentation, click
here.
Nicola Williams
Managing
Director
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| Odyssey Handy Hints
- The importance of a base line |
Part 1 - Calibrating
the system
It is vital to perform a baseline analysis
whenever a schedule optimisation is performed. Over
the next three eq's we will explain why baseline creation,
and its analysis, is an essential skill required to
get the best out of Transit.
A baseline is a "base case" schedule - what
is happening now. Before creating new schedules it
is important to have a method by which you can compare
what you are currently doing.
For operational users
who schedule every day, choose a "typical" day
for your baseline, and then use that data for modelling
the new scenarios (such as different fleet, different
depot, etc.).
If you are not a daily user of Transit it is even
more important to form a valid baseline because it
allows you to (1) calibrate the system; (2) expose
the hidden business rules; and (3) perform a like-with-like
comparison. |
There are many "environmental" variables
in making a Transit model: how the traffic affects
your operation, how long the drivers work, how long
it takes to serve a customer, etc. The calibration
process enables you to set these environmental variables
to make workable schedules for your business.
By forcing
the system to match how you really did a particular
day's work you are able to manipulate these environmental
variables until the electronic model matches your reality
- this is called calibration.
Everyone's reality is different. By taking a day of
actual schedules that you know a lot about, you are
able to ensure the things that are important to your
business are part of the model. This means the model
can not be accused of being "unrealistic".
You take into account the variables that are important
by establishing the right environment.
In the next edition we will discuss the hidden business
rules …
Damian
Scott
Operations Director
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| FAQ'S |
| How do I keep a load
or route I'm happy with?
New functionality has been added into Transit Odyssey
that allows you to keep a load or route you are happy
with even if you want to re-run the rest of the schedule.
This is undertaken in the Schedule Manager by right-clicking
on the trip header and selecting "confirmed".
When you run a schedule, the confirmed loads are untouched
and the remainder are reorganised around them. As such,
Odyssey now gives you the ability to optimise additional
orders, even when your vehicles are already on the
road.
Can Transit keep
drivers in areas they know?
The change from fixed routes to fully optimised routes
can be a scary one and keeping your drivers in an area
they know can help them adjust. With Transit Odyssey,
you can achieve this either with access codes or an area
list.
Access codes can be used to represent each driver area.
You may have C for Country, S for South, E for East and
so on. You give each customer an appropriate access code
based on its geography and then you specify access codes
on the vehicles that you want to service the area. Odyssey
will not put a Country customer on an East or South truck
because you have told it these vehicles cannot get access.
With the area list alternative you specify that certain
localities cannot be delivered to on the same trip. With
an area list, the restriction is trip based, rather than
vehicle based, so Odyssey has more flexibility to create
efficient schedules. In addition, all localities do not
need to be included in the list. If you exclude localities
on the boundaries of each area Odyssey is free to improve
efficiency by deciding which area these customers should
belong to on any given day.
Using either approach would give drivers time to adapt
to the change from fixed to dynamic routes. Then you
can slowly move them out of their comfort zone and eventually
reap the efficiency rewards of removing designated areas
all together.
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