Logistics & Distribution Optimization Systems

Our Logistics & Distribution Optimization-based Systems provide following competitive advantages:

• Significant cost reduction benefits.
• Improved labor utilization.
• Reduced mileage costs by optimizing routes and finding back-haul opportunities .
• Consistent application of company polices and DOT rules.
• Improved Employee Satisfaction.
• Assignment of routes to personnel based on seniority and  other considerations.
• Strong ROI justification.
• Systems pay for deployment in a year or two.

Distribution Problems

• Local Area Distribution.
• Wide Area Distribution.

Local Area Distribution

• Pickups/deliveries over a wide area.
• Multi-day itinerary for drivers.
• Very specific DOT restrictions/ work rules.
• Driver preferences by seniority during route assignment.

Examples:

1. Furniture delivery.
2. Medical Supplies delivery/pickup.
3. Drinking water delivery.

Wide Area Distribution

• Pickups/deliveries over a wide area.
• Multi-day itinerary for drivers.
• Very specific DOT restrictions/ work rules.
• Driver preferences by seniority during route assignment.

Examples:

1. Distribution of products to stores & warehouses.
2. Finished automobile delivery to dealers.

Planning

• Primary objective is cost minimization/ Profit maximization.
• Solve planning problems for a multi-day horizon typically a week.

• Requires good forecast of demand.
• Optimization solutions include :

1. Routing and scheduling heuristics.
2. Column-generation techniques.
3. Shortest-path / Network flow over Time-space networks.

Planning Needs

• Useful for resource planning purposes.
• Provides input to Operational Systems.
• Integrates with Enterprise Resource Management Systems.

Operations

Primary objective is to maintain feasibility and minimize disruption to Planned solutions at a minimum cost.
     --Requires  input from planning including :

• Planned routes.
• Resource assignments.
• Interfaces with Enterprise Resource. Management Systems for real-time. delivery/pickup information, resource status etc.

Operational Requirements

• Heuristics-based solutions to minimize the impact disruptions/ inadequacies in forecast.
• Strong IT Solution that incorporates a wireless solution for sending/receiving field-data.
• Smart, Live user interfaces.

BitsOfCode Approach

Multi-phased approach to development and deployment.

• Phase1 : Requirements gathering / analysis.
• Phase2 : Package selection or custom solution.

1. Identify vendors.
2. Perform gap analysis.
3. Decide a vendor or custom solution.

• Phase3 : Pilot implementation.
• Phase4 : System-wide ramp-up.
• Phase5 : Continuous future support.