Modify Network Routing to Handle Operational Locations

Operational Locations are used to provide more granular locations for street addresses when the rating location is very generic.  The best example is the commonly used nomenclature for ocean ports.  The UNLOCODE (United Nations Location Code for the port of New York is USNYC and this is used for rating.  It is very poor when sending a truck to a pier as USNYC covers a very large area.  The OPERATIONAL LOCATION is very handy for this.  While OP LOCATIONS have been part of OTM for a long time, they have not been compatible with Network Routing.  That is the point of this enhancement.  OP Locations can also work for Rail Intermodal and that is the example.  Operational Locations are used to provide more granular locations for street addresses when the rating location is very generic. 

Operational Locations and Network Routing work together with Capacity.

The example, for rail intermodal is a problem where the last leg is a multi-stop and has capacity constraints which impact the previous leg.  Network Routing is needed to plan the final leg first but it cannot set the path for the previous legs.  This requires the generic approach. Instead of discrete terminals on Network Legs and classical routing, the Equipment selection and capacity determines the carrier for the rail leg.  This is done on the third leg, and propagated to the second leg by "re-use" equipment.  Operational locations, which specified the proper ramp with street address is done last in the workflow.   The end result is that with "capacity" on both legs, this approach is needed to make the proper routing.  It is interesting that routing is not done first before movement planning.  This is an exception case.  NR is needed for the sequencing.

Steps to Enable

Operational Locations are invoked with a flag on the leg.  In 24C, this flag was exposed on the NR leg. Previously it was only accessible on the itinerary leg.  Capacity on the legs only complicates the setup.   In this case, capacity was required on the 3rd leg, which was also a multi-stop leg.  That required changes in the Network Routing Logic Configuration.  Setting ALLOCATE SERVICE PROVIDERS BY OM GROUP to TRUE and setting HANDLE PARTLY PLANNED ORDERS to "Disband All Related Shipments" are both required.  This allows the logic to use Capacity on the OM on a "leg by leg" manner and once capacity is used up, the NR process recycles(replans) to find available equipment that has capacity.  This is tricky to set up as the enhancement for OP LOCATIONS impacts NETWORK ROUTING under most cases.  The requirement was to make OP LOCATIONS compatible with NETWORK ROUTING.  

Tips And Considerations

This enhancement is not just a simple change to one feature.  It is usually highly interactive with other features since the business application that drives it requires multiple features.