Auto Calibration - dps-int.se · version 2.1 -- February 2010 -- Mohammad Arif & Helen George...

version 2.1 -- February 2010 -- Mohammad Arif & Helen George- 1 -

Auto Calibration

version 2.1 -- February 2010 -- Mohammad Arif & Helen George- 2 -

- 3 -AUTO - Calibrationversion 2.1 -- February 2010 -- Mohammad Arif & Helen George

Contents

The Guide .............................................................................................................................6

You - The User ................................................................................................................6Introduction ....................................................................................................................7Auto Calibration Process Descriptions ...............................................................................8Scheduling Processes ......................................................................................................8

Build Groups ..............................................................................................................8

Build Clusters .............................................................................................................8

Build Chains ..............................................................................................................8

Sort Orders ................................................................................................................8

Build Routes ...............................................................................................................8Optimising Stages (Post Schedule) ....................................................................................9

Optimise Routes .........................................................................................................9

Depot Overrides .........................................................................................................9

Substitution Checks .....................................................................................................9

Combine Trips ............................................................................................................9

Vehicle Swapping .......................................................................................................9Standard Workarea Parameters ......................................................................................10Cluster Mode ...............................................................................................................10

Cluster Radius ..........................................................................................................10

Cluster Control .........................................................................................................10

Consolidation ..........................................................................................................10

Deviation .................................................................................................................11

Deviation Control .....................................................................................................11

Penalties ..................................................................................................................11

Factors ....................................................................................................................12Auto-Calibration Set-Up .................................................................................................13

To switch Auto-Calibration On: ...................................................................................13

Opening Auto-Calibration .........................................................................................14Deviation .....................................................................................................................15Cluster Radius ..............................................................................................................15Run Details ...................................................................................................................16Chain Capacities ..........................................................................................................16

Reset File .................................................................................................................17

Temporary Restrictions ...............................................................................................17

- 4 - Auto - Calibrationversion 2.1 -- February 2010 -- Mohammad Arif & Helen George

Schedule Exit Option: ...............................................................................................18

Execution Limit .........................................................................................................18

Substitution ..............................................................................................................18

Optimisation ............................................................................................................19

Limit ........................................................................................................................19

Trip Reduction ..........................................................................................................19

Obey Vehicle Bans ..................................................................................................19

Do Chains ..............................................................................................................19

Break Chains ...........................................................................................................19Using Auto-Calibration ..................................................................................................19Current Performance Audit .............................................................................................20

Setting the Deviation Value ........................................................................................20

Calculating Deviation: ...............................................................................................22Calculating Cluster Radius .............................................................................................24

To Calculate Cluster Radius: .......................................................................................24

Reports ....................................................................................................................25Standard Options ........................................................................................................26

During Auto Calibrating: ...........................................................................................26

Before/After Auto-Calibration: ...................................................................................27


The Guide This manual will guide you through set up, explain Auto-calibration settings, and then advise you of Best Practise when using the Auto-Calibration tool.You may need to revise the standard and advanced parameter settings to complete the calibration process. Please refer to the LogiX Training Manual for explanation on Parameters and Advanced Parameter settings.

You - The User

You will need to be an experienced user of LogiX and LogiX Parameters before attempting to use Auto-Calibration.

Support Help Line:

Open week days - 9.00 am – 5.00 pm

Tel: 0121 585 6633Fax: 0121 585 6303

Email: [email protected]


Introduction

The LogiX Suite is a very comprehensive system that works effi ciently when it has been effectively calibrated.

The process of ‘calibrating’ can be lengthy and arduous because it involves experimenting with numerous parameter settings, and analysing all of the results to identify the most effective settings for your operation.

The Auto-Calibration software is designed to speed up this process by allowing the user to calculate a range of results simultaneously, for ‘cluster radius’, and ‘deviation’ parameter settings. The results produced are displayed in report format, and as a comparative graph to identify the optimum settings for their operation and allowing rapid completion of the calibration process.


Auto Calibration Process Descriptions

The following descriptions are an aid to understanding of the processes the system will follow in order to calculate routes. In the following processes the orders are stored in memory, in list form. The lists are a way of connecting sets of orders together so that all members of the list can be identifi ed at any time.

Scheduling Processes

Build Groups

Groups of orders are placed into lists according to the Group Numbers in the imported Data. All orders with the same group number are placed into a single list.

Build Clusters

Clusters of orders are generated according to the Cluster Type and Cluster Radius settings. The clusters are loaded into memory lists so that any single order can identify the other orders in its cluster.

Build Chains

Chains are built by locating all orders that can be delivered to an address in identical ways and in any order. The size of the chains can be controlled by the workarea parameters or the size of the largest vehicle.

Sort Orders

The order well is sorted into a sequence that will give the best results, taking in to account all the Parameter Weighting Factors in the workarea. The individual orders are sorted and Groups, Clusters and Chains are ignored.

Build Routes

Route building takes account of all the data and produces Routes containing as many orders as the workarea, parameters and penalties, allow without breaking any rules.


Optimising Stages (Post Schedule)

Optimise Routes

After the initial building of routes, the routes are rebuilt one at a time one at a time, placing the orders in the best sequence. Many different combinations are tried in order to evaluate the most successful sequence.

Depot Overrides

In Multi Depot workareas orders are initially allocated a Depot according to Time/Distance. If these orders are still unscheduled at this stage they have the temporary Depot constraints removed to assist in allocation.

Substitution Checks

This process tries groups of orders on other routes to ascertain if they would be better served by another route. This process can be lengthy as there are many combinations to try.

Combine Trips

If any of the routes now have trips that will fi t on other routes and save a route being run, the trips are combined and the route deleted to save vehicles and drivers.

Vehicle Swapping

The above changes may have produced routes with larger vehicles than required and each route is checked and vehicles changed if required.

NOTE: If the above processes are run again, routes that changed in the previous optimisation will go through the above stages once more.


Standard Workarea Parameters

The parameters shape the way the Auto-Scheduler behaves and therefore is useful to highlight those that impact on your results, when using the Auto-Calibration tool.

Cluster Mode

The Cluster types available are:

0. Call Point (all orders for each Call Point Reference) 1. Map Reference (all orders for a Map Reference)2. Radius (all orders within a radius)

Cluster Radius

LogiX identifi es a logical centre point to a cluster, and then attempts to add orders to it within the defi ned radius.

This is only used if Cluster Mode 2 is set.

Cluster Control

During scheduling the system can take a long time to complete the breaking of a large cluster or chain. To control this, the Cluster Control is set to a value that will simplify the task following a lengthy cluster breaking operation, typically 50-80% but the quality of the result may be compromised.

The current Cluster mode is decreased by 1 if the insertion success % drops to the Control Value. The Cluster type is raised again following an increase of insertion success above the Control Value.

In the case of Chains, once the chain is broken it cannot be rebuilt.

Consolidation

Consolidation controls the sequence of orders at a call so that they are grouped in set ways.

Consolidation = 0, 1, 2, 3


Where 0 = Grid Reference

1 = Grid Reference and Call Point.

2 = Grid Reference and Customer Name

3 = Grid Reference and Call Point and Customer Name

Deviation

This controls the spread of routes during Route Building and can be defi ned as:

The Deviation % of twice the distance from the Depot to the order location.

This distance is the maximum distance that a route can be extended by, to include the order.

Deviation Control

It is possible to control how hard it is for the system to place an order on a route that is taken outside the deviation limits.

This is achieved by the use of the following in the PL.INI

DeviationScore= n

Where n = 1 Deviation turned off

3 Default

4 New Trip within expected will be done fi rst.

6 Any possible New Trip will be done fi rst.

9 Never exceed Deviation limit.

Penalties

When the system is deciding which route an order is best placed a score of penalties is totalled. These penalties include:


Wait Penalty (the % of waiting time that is encountered). Night Penalty (a % of an over-night that is encountered).

Factors

Factors are used to change the initial sort of orders prior to scheduling. The top orders are offered routes fi rst and therefore act as route formers and also get the ride if vehicles are short. The more diffi cult the problem the more the factor puts the order up the queue waiting for vehicles.

The following factors may be changed:

Time Factor (Time taken to Load/Unload) Load Factor (Size of Load) Distance Factor (Time from depot) Access Factor (Any Access Constraints – Vehicle Band, Time Windows etc.)


Auto-Calibration Set-Up

Your LogiX system is automatically loaded with the Auto-Calibration software but will need ‘switching on’ to enable you access to use it.To activate the application, simply place a tick in the Auto Calibration check box in the Master Workarea folder. Once the master confi guration fi le has been edited and saved, any subsequent workareas copied from the Master, will have access to the Auto-Calibration tool.

To switch Auto-Calibration On:

Open the ‘Auto Advanced Parameters’ window by clicking on the below button from the Auto engine

Click the ‘Auto Calibration’ check box to switch on Auto Calibration


Opening Auto-Calibration

You will see the Auto-Calibration tab from within Auto-Schedule once the Auto Calibration check box has been checked.

Steps:

Open Auto-Schedule from within plan by clicking on to the icon displayed that is found on the left vertical tool bar within Plan LogiX.

Click onto the View LogiX parameters icon

Click on the Calibration tab to open the calibration set-up screen


Auto Calibration OptionsThis section identifi es the options available to you when using the Auto-Calibration tool and explains their functionality. It is advisable to follow the method of use in section 6.0, ‘Using Auto-Calibration’, to ensure that you are able to use these options effectively.

Deviation

LogiX calculates the deviation as a percentage of the return journey from the depot to the call point that has the highest scheduling priority (those with restrictions applied such as access, load, distance, weight, etc). It will then assign tasks/orders to this journey but only if the total distance of the route does not increase by more than the deviation distance.

To calibrate the deviation setting, you will need to check the radio button.

Cluster Radius

LogiX identifi es a logical centre point to a cluster of orders, by using the radius amount specifi ed by you (km).

When calibrating Cluster Radius, ensure that you have checked the Cluster Radius button.


Run Details

Once you have chosen which setting you wish to calibrate, you will need to specify a measurement range for your results.

By specifying intervals, or steps within this range, you are able to manage the amount of results produced, and time it takes to produce those results.

Chain Capacities

Chains are built by locating all orders that can be delivered to an address that have identical characteristics (time windows, location, name, delivery date, vehicle bans for examples). Once the orders are grouped together, LogiX sees them as one order.

The Chain Capacity is used to limit the size of the chain and should be no larger that the size of the largest vehicle otherwise it will always be larger than any vehicle capacity and therefore will be left unallocated.

Chain capacity measurement will be identical to the load unit set within parameters. The load units in the above example are kilo and cube.


Reset File

It is possible to consolidate report data after each sequence of scheduling based on the identifi cation ‘Key’, or report the results from the last scheduling sequence only by selecting the reset fi le option.

Temporary Restrictions

You are able to manage the behaviour of the scheduler each time it is run by altering the Temporary Restrictions (for more permanent scheduling behaviour, contact Support)


Schedule Exit Option:

The fi xing control will stop the scheduling at various points and create the output fi les. This can be used to analyse the results of the scheduling operation at various points in the scheduling cycle.

No Early Exit means that it completes the next 5 steps listed below Exits After fi rst Route Building operation has tried all orders (no optimisation takes

place) Exits After fi rst Optimisation but before Depot Overrides (see 3.1.2) Exits just Before Substitution checks (see 3.1.3) Exits After Substitution checks Exits After Combination of Trips (see 3.1.4) Exits following ‘n’ Minutes since last insertion of order

Execution Limit

It is possible to limit the execution time when calibrating.

The system will stop what it is doing when the limit is reached and create the output fi les as if it had fully completed the schedule. This may leave the workarea in a pre-optimised state with less effi cient routes but can be completed manually if needed.

Substitution

This process tries groups of orders that are assigned to one route, to another, to see if the substitution is more effi cient and will continue this process until it has found the most effi cient sequence of orders for each route.

The size of the group is determined by the substitution setting, the more aggressive the substitution, the smaller the group size and the


harder the system has to work, increasing the length of time it takes to complete this process.

Optimisation

You are able to specify a sliding scale of the depth of optimisation.

Be warned, heavy optimisation may take a considerable amount of time to process because there could be thousands of different combinations of orders that the system will try together on a trip before deciding on the most effi cient sequence.

Limit

During optimisation, the program will not consider any change that increases the driving time by more than this limit, even though it is possible that waiting time may be decreased. In normal practise this is unlikely and serves only to cause the program to evaluate many unnecessary changes.

Note: You may experience unallocation of orders if the waiting time set is a very small entry, especially if adhering to tight time windows.

Trip Reduction

Trip reduction allows for smaller trips to merge, decreasing trip numbers and adheres to trip parameters.

Obey Vehicle Bans

Toggles to obey or disobey vehicle access restrictions.

Do Chains

Toggles to switch chains on or off.

Break Chains

By selecting Break Chains, chain limits will be ignored.Note: Once a chain has been broken, it cannot be rebuilt

Note: It is possible to select Do chains and Break Chains when scheduling, to allow the system to break the chain if required.

Using Auto-Calibration

The LogiX scheduling system relies very heavily on the setting of all the parameters in order to give the user the exact form of schedule desired. It is therefore very important to invest time to set the parameters correctly. The generalised parameters settings that come as a default in the system work well but will need tuning in the system is to be used in a live environment.


Current Performance Audit

The fi rst stage in setting a live system’s environment is to model the work that is currently being performed by the fl eet. This involves the building in LogiX, routes that are run by the fl eet.

The modelling of the current work will involve tuning the vehicles speed settings and the work at each call point calculations. If these are correct the LogiX routes will refl ect the actual timings of the routes run by the vehicles. It is most important that this stage is completed accurately because all auto-generated routes will rely very heavily on these parameters.

Method:

The fi rst calculation that needs to be made is the time it takes to deliver or collect the product values that are fed to LogiX. The work done by the present delivery system can be analysed to fi nd the required timings for all of the LogiX products. If this is not the case it will have to be worked out with care and then double-checked.

The speed of the delivery vehicles must be found and translated into the LogiX parameters and time of day busy hour speeds. Careful checks of the existing Fleet timings will produce useful indications.

Having set up the delivery times and road speeds the user must now model the actual deliveries being performed so that the timings given by LogiX may be compared with the actual runtimes achieved by the drivers.

It must be remembered that the system cannot foresee unusual circumstances and will perform to the average for several routes or indeed several days. It is therefore important when checking LogiX times against actuals that there is an understanding that some parts of all routes will vary in accuracy during comparison. Once it is seen that individual legs of journeys are getting close, the emphasis should really move to averages or the totals for routes or days. In this way the vehicle movements during the day can be checked in total against the LogiX total driving time and the total delivery times can be total and checked separately against the LogiX route data.

If the routes are heavily affected by the busy hour congestion, then these settings must be very carefully set up within LogiX. It is possible for the times of day to be altered as well as the percentage change in road speed. This process may take a little time to complete but will make a very fi rm foundation for the auto scheduling results to base themselves on. Without this work LogiX will be building routes based on guesswork, which will never be accepted as practical routes.

The Deviation Value is the next important setting to determine.

Setting the Deviation Value

Let us fi rst consider what deviation is:


Deviation controls the way that routes are built. Deviation is a mechanism to decide when to start a new route. Deviation is calculated as x% of the return journey from the depot to the order. If by adding the order to a route, the routes length does not increase by more than the

distance calculated by the deviation the order can be added.If no acceptable route can be found, a new route can be started.

If a new route cannot be started, then the deviation rules can be broken.

Under normal running conditions the deviation value you use to decide when a new route is needed rather than add an order to the existing routes. As the vehicle Fleet available is used, the rules of deviation are broken in order to get as many orders scheduled as possible. This situation will affect the particular value of deviation.

To clarify the effect of deviation the following settings need to be made:

The system should be made to stop scheduling by setting the value to –1 (or Early Exit) from the Expert tab

The system must be prevented from breaking any deviation rules. To do this, the system will set Deviation Score to 9.

Consideration should also be given to turning clustering off by setting the Cluster Mode to –1, as this will speed up the optimisation process in most cases. This is also set by the system.


Calculating Deviation:

Open Auto-Schedule from within Plan on the horizontal toolbar Click Parameter Defi nition to check and/or amend your settings (refer

to the Automatic Scheduling section from within the Plan LogiX Training Manual)

Click on the View LogiX Parameters icon

Click on the Calibration Tab

Click on Deviation

Select your calibration range


Click on OK

Select Auto Calibration to complete your task and set the application to process

The chosen work area is repeatedly scheduled using the above settings and the results noted in each case. The results of the schedule will show the number of orders that have been scheduled under the appropriate deviation value. The number of km must also be considered and the maximum orders scheduled at the lowest distance will normally indicate the best deviation factor.

The use of this factor will normally provide the best end result, as the maximum number of orders will have been scheduled under ideal conditions.

On completion, you will need to click OK to view the system reports

NOTE: Once you have analysed your reports and chosen your deviation setting, you must change the deviation within your parameter fi le prior to calibrating your Cluster Radius.


Calculating Cluster Radius

Let us fi rst consider what clusters are…

Clusters are geographical groups of orders. The scheduler will try to keep all orders within a cluster together. If one order within a cluster cannot be kept with the others, the system will try another

option. If clusters are too large the number of “options” becomes too great. If all options are exhausted the cluster will be broken into its constituent orders.

Clusters work well in low density planning scenarios.

To Calculate Cluster Radius:

Click on the ‘Calibration tab’ Set your Calibration Range Click on Cluster Radius

Slect the AutoLogix Tab and set the Deviation to the number calculated in the previous excercise

Click on OK Click Auto-Calibration to complete your task and set the application to process. Analyse your Cluster Radius results Identify the optimum Cluster Radius setting


You are now able to amend your Deviation and Cluster Radius settings within your Master Workarea folder and then complete the calibration process by altering other parameter settings and analysing the results through Access Reporting.

Please remember that as your demand database changes, your optimum settings may change and is therefore recommended that you calibrate your system settings periodically and with several different data sets.

Reports

The reports identify routing outcomes based on your parameter and calibration settings; for examples, cost per order, number of trips, number of overnights, and allocated orders. This information is used to select the optimum settings for your operation.

An example of a Deviation Report:

An example of a Comparative Graph:


Standard Options

By right clicking anywhere on the on the Auto-LogiX window exposes a pull down menu

During Auto Calibrating:

Finish Scheduling -- will fi nish the current sequence calculation

Cancel -- Stops the calculations immediately

Hide Gauges -- will take away the attempted, allocated and optimised progress bars

View Current Auto-Calibration Statistics -- allows you to see what stage you are at in the calibration process.


Before/After Auto-Calibration:

Schedule -- Starts the Auto-Calibration process View Schedule Report -- Displays the last Auto-

Calibration report View Parameters Defi nition -- views the scheduling

parameters View Advanced Parameters -- allows access to

LogiX parameters and calibration settings View LogiX AutoSchedule -- takes you to the

standard Auto Schedule Help fi les Exit LogiX AutoSchedule -- exits this module View AutoCalibration Report -- views the last

Calibrated report.

Auto Calibration - dps-int.se · version 2.1 -- February 2010 -- Mohammad Arif & Helen George...

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Transcript of Auto Calibration - dps-int.se · version 2.1 -- February 2010 -- Mohammad Arif & Helen George...