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Tourplanning+ module

Introduction

The Tourplanning+ module helps you plan and optimize how your employees drive between places/tasks. F.ex. if you have 5 employees who need to visit 50 places/tasks in the next week, in which order should these places be visited in order to minimize the time spent driving?

You select a period and some users, and you are then presented with a map showing the existing planning and how the employees should drive; you can then optimize the route to find better routes.

You can add unplanned tasks to the routes, and these will then be included in the optimization.

You can manually change the routes, usually after optimization, if you have very special needs that Microbizz cannot handle. The routes are not saved automatically, so you can experiment all you like. Notice that any optimization and planning that are done in the Tourplanning+ module are not saved until you click on the Save button.

Equipment (from the Equipment+ module) may be planned.

Appointments are taken into account when planning a route.

What’s in this module?

The Tourplanning+ module provides a user interface for selecting which tasks to plan and who to plan them for. The main screen provides 4 different view:

Calendar view - this shows all the selected users and dates and allows you to select which of these should be displayed in the route view and map view.

Route view - this shows users and dates that were selected in the calendar view, and shows the tasks that are assigned to the user for each date, i.e. it shows what the users should do on each day.

Map view -  this shows the same tasks as route view, but on a map so give you a viusal idea of where your employees will be going.

Auto-plan log - this shows the result of the algorithm; it is only filled after you have clicked on the Run auto-plan button.

At the bottom of the screen are buttons for saving, running the auto-plan optimization and for discarding any unsaved changes.

Notice

The algorithm looks for the cheapest plan, not the shortest. You set what an hour of work costs, what a kilometer costs and what overtime costs. The algorithm finds the arrangement with the lowest total. When a plan looks wrong, the cost settings are usually the reason and the fix.

It can only plan what it can measure. Every task needs a locatable address and an estimate, and every employee needs an address to start from. Most reports of odd behavior turn out to be one of these missing.

Locking protects an agreement. A locked stop is never moved by you or by the algorithm. Use it for work promised to a customer, and use it sparingly, because locking everything leaves the algorithm nowhere to put the rest.

Get started

The first thing to do is to setup the URL and password etc for the optimization server. This is something only Microbizz should do.

Make sure that the employees have a valid address - otherwise the algorithm can't say which employee are closest to a task.

Also consider giving the employees static work weeks; without static work week Microbizz will just use its own idea of when the employee starts working. Holidays, sick days and other absence recorded in the planning module are respected. The algorithm will not plan work on a day an employee is away. If you change somebody's absence, run the planning again so the change is taken into account.

Make sure your tasks have an estimate - if the algorithm doesn't know if a task takes 1 hour or 5 hours it cannot say when there is room for the task. Similarly all tasks should have a geo location.

Workflows

Tidying up a week that is already planned

Select the employees and the period. Look at what the map shows. Run the auto-plan, review the suggestion, and save it if it is better than what you had. This is the weekly routine for most planners

Finding a good slot for a new task

Select the team and the period in which the task could reasonably be done. Add the task to the unplanned leg and run the auto-plan. The algorithm picks the employee and the day where the task costs the least extra driving. Save if you agree.

Limitations

There are a few limitations to the route optimization algorithme:

  • You cannot optimize more than approx. 1500 places/tasks/plannings at one time

  • All plannings and tasks must have a geo location and an estimate

  • All plannings and tasks must be in the same country

  • All users must have a geo location