Resource Schedule Start and End Location Profiles

Shippers sometimes have multiple facilities that are in close proximity to each other with the carrier contract specifying that the carrier can start and finish at any of the locations within the group.  Prior to this enhancement, Work Assignments required a single start location and a single end location with connecting segments to and from the NFR points that represented the domicile locations of the carrier.  This new feature allows Work Assignment Shipments to start and end at any of the locations in the location profiles. If the starting and ending locations are NOT on the profile, a new shipment segment will be added to the Resource Schedule start location and end location as a NFR stop.

The Resource Schedule and Resource Schedule Instance can have both the LOCATION and the LOCATION PROFILE populated.   The profile will take precedence and if the locations do not fall in the profile, the location will be used with the NFR stop.   The example shows that condition. .

Business Benefit

The addition of the profile supports the shipper case where the contractual terms with the carrier allow starting and stopping at multiple locations and do not require the addition of a movement to a specified location. This is a change in behavior for the Work Assignment Logic that represents the actual usage.  Clients will benefit since they no longer have to remove these "extra" shipment segments and the additional costs are no long part of settlement.

Steps to Enable

The primary configuration change is to configure the Resource Schedule to contain new profiles for the Starting Location and the Ending Location.

Resource Schedule

Please note that the Resource Schedule Instance also has these new profile fields.

The following example shows 3 fictitious locations in Denver that are the shipping locations of a consumer goods retailer.   For example, Location A could handle Appliances, Location B could handle Household Goods and Location C could handle Building Materials.  Outbound shipments may start at any location.  These shipments do NOT involve a transfer between shipping locations as consolidation is not allowed.  The shipments may be direct shipments or multi-stop shipments and they will likely be configured with a depot to preserve the Hours of Service needed to return.  The Work Assignment is looking to pair an outbound with an Inbound.  The inbound can return to any location and does not have to return to the original starting location,

Location Profile Example

Here are two examples of a Multi-stop outbound shipment that is paired with an inbound shipment.    One outbound shipment is paired in the way back to the city and the other outbound shipment is paired on the most distant point.

Inbound and Outbound Example

Inbound and Outbound Example 2

Here is a different example of 10 orders including a multi-stop.  There are 5 Outbound shipments and 5 Inbound shipments. Two smaller orders combined into a multi-stop so there was an extra inbound shipment.  That shipment starts at the NFR stop as per the prior logic.

 

 Colors

The Green NFR stop represents a case the start of the first shipment is not starting at a location within the profile.  Brown represents Outbound Shipments and Blue represents Inbound Shipments.

Work Assignment Example Map

This is a map of the work assignment shipments.

Work Assignment Example Map

Tips And Considerations

The process to add NFR stops or to use the profiles is a post-process of the Work Assignment after the Optimization Logic.