{"id":4704,"date":"2018-03-01T14:58:09","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T14:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/?p=4704"},"modified":"2026-01-28T09:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:40:00","slug":"how-planning-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/01\/how-planning-works\/","title":{"rendered":"How Trip Planning Works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/i><\/span> Download PDF<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Planning is an iterative process of assigning orders to the best possible trip. The outcome of each iteration is a hypothetical cost that the system calculates. The cost parameters considered in each iteration are:<\/p>\n

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  1. Distance Cost:<\/u> Distance cost is calculated as variable cost for using the delivery associate * distance (in meters) between 2 orders.<\/li>\n
  2. Fixed Costs:<\/u> You can enter a fixed cost for a delivery associate. This gets added to the iteration cost if the delivery associate is assigned an order.<\/li>\n
  3. Cost of unassigned orders:<\/u> The concept behind planning is to assign as many orders as possible efficiently. To achieve this goal, the planning engine applies a penalty to every unassigned order. Consequently, the greater the number of unassigned orders, the higher the cost of the iteration, which in turn leads to suboptimal planning.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The objective of planning is to reduce this cost as far as possible. The least cost iteration is considered as the best plan and becomes the output of the plan.<\/p>\n

    While calculating the cost, the planning engine also considers the following parameters;<\/p>\n

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    1. Distance between successive orders:<\/u> The planning engine aims to assign the nearest order based on the current location of the delivery associate. During the allocation process, the planning engine also verifies whether assigning the order would keep the delivery associate within the maximum distance limit that has been configured. In other words, the engine ensures that adding the order will not cause the delivery associate to exceed the distance limit set for them.<\/li>\n
    2. Start time\/End time of the order:<\/u> When assigning the order to a trip, the planning engine also takes into consideration the time it would take for a delivery associate to reach the customer. The order would be assigned only if the delivery associate would be able to reach the customer in the timeframe mentioned in the order.<\/li>\n
    3. Skill set required by the delivery associate to fulfill the order:<\/u> Some orders may necessitate specific skills or specializations from delivery associates. When creating a delivery associate profile in the system, you can specify their specialization or skill set. The planning engine will then assign the order to a delivery associate only if they possess the required skills to fulfill that particular order. If an order doesn’t require any specialized skills, it can be assigned to a delivery associate without specific skills, allowing for flexibility in assignment.<\/li>\n
    4. Order capacity and delivery associate capacity:<\/u>\u00a0When\u00a0creating a delivery associate<\/a>\u00a0into the system, you specify the maximum number of orders, weight, and volume they can carry in a single trip. Similarly, when\u00a0adding an order<\/a>, you can enter the weight and volume of the order. As you add orders, the available capacity of the delivery associate decreases. When the planning engine assigns a new order, it ensures that the delivery associate still has the capacity to accommodate the new order. This capacity management helps optimize the allocation of orders to associates while considering their physical limitations.<\/li>\n
    5. Multiple orders at the same location:<\/u> If there are multiple orders at the same location, the planning engine would try and allocate all those orders to the same trip. Orders may still be assigned to different trips if the delivery associate does not have the skill set to complete that order or does not have the capacity to carry another order from the same location. Order can be assigned to another trip if the order time window falls outside the trip time window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Apart from cost calculation, the planning engine also considers multiple\u00a0planning parameters<\/a>\u00a0to allocate orders to the best possible delivery associate.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Download PDF Planning is an iterative process of assigning orders to the best possible trip. The outcome of each iteration is a hypothetical cost that the system calculates. The cost parameters considered in each iteration are: Distance Cost: Distance cost … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[106,319,320,321,412,1474,3010,3011,3013,3014,3017,3018,3019,3020],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4704"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27160,"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions\/27160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.loginextsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}