Service management for multi-compartment vehicles

• US 20060089863A1
• Filed: 09/15/2005
• Published: 04/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: RedPrairie Holding Incorporated
• Original Assignee: RedPrairie Holding Incorporated
• Inventors: Belleau, Marc, Schupbach, Richard
• Application Number:
  US11/227,447
• Publication Number:
  US 20060089863A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing

Abstract

A process and method for optimizing the placement of at least one depot stop within a predetermined delivery route. The invention provides an evaluation of each compartment in a multi-compartment vehicle in order to determine the optimal placement of depots along the route. This optimization is performed both for deliveries and pick-ups along the route, which results in a reduction of costly returns to the depot in the middle of the route.

Claims

1. A system for optimizing the placement of at least one depot stop within a predetermined delivery route, said delivery route including deliveries, pick-ups or a combination thereof of at least two different services, for a multi-compartment vehicle, each compartment being associated with at least one service and being characterized by weight, volume and capacity and by incompatible services, said system comprising:

means for assigning starting quantities to each compartment;

means for evaluating said compartments in order to determine an optimal placement of said at least one depot stop, said means being adapted to;

create a transaction for each service at each stop;

scan each transaction to determine whether it is a delivery or a pick-up;

in the case of a delivery, for each compartment, determine if the service is incompatible, if there is underflow or overflow of the compartment and if the delivery can be split and reduce the quantity of the service in the respective compartment by using starting quantity if necessary;

in the case of a pick-up, for each compartment, determine if the service is incompatible, if there is overflow of the compartment and if the pick-up can be split, and updating the quantity of the compartment if the pick-up can be inserted into the compartment; and

repeating the steps until all services including previous stop services have been treated at said stop and moving to the next stop, where if said means determine an overflow condition, or an underflow condition, a depot stop is inserted into said route.

2. A computer implemented method for optimizing the placement of at least one depot stop within a predetermined delivery route, said delivery route including deliveries, pick-ups or a combination thereof of at least two different services, for a multi-compartment vehicle, each compartment being associated with at least one service and being characterized by weight, volume and capacity and by incompatible services, said method comprising the steps of:

assigning starting quantities to each compartment;

calculating an optimized placement for a depot virtual position for said vehicle based on services required by said customers and capacity of said compartments in order to avoid unnecessary stops at depots, said step of calculating including the sub-steps of;

creating a transaction for each service at each stop;

scanning each transaction to determine whether it is a delivery or a pick-up;

if it is a delivery, for each compartment, determining if the service is incompatible, if there is underflow or overflow of the compartment and if the delivery can be split, and then reducing the quantity of the service in the respective compartment by using starting quantity if necessary;

if it is a pick-up, for each compartment, determining if the service is incompatible, if there is overflow of the compartment and if the pick-up can be split, and updating the quantity of the compartment if the pick-up can be inserted into the compartment; and

repeating the above steps until all services including previous stop services have been treated at said stop and moving to the next stop;

inserting a depot stop in said route when an overflow condition or an underflow condition has been determined.