Characteristic
Short description
Workload options are a tool for the user to specify daily and weekly workload preferences in the PlanVisits use case.
If there is a work overload and not all visits can be planned, the visit order's score is a tool to specify its importance.
Workload can be reduced by allowing overnight stays in hotels.
Use
The field worker's workload can be specified to improve his/her working conditions.
- Avoid work overload
Less important visit orders may remain unplanned to avoid work overload of the field worker.
- Distinguish between desired and maximum workload
Additionally to the maximum allowed workload (e.g. defined by the law), the desired workload (e.g. defined by the field worker's individual contract) can be considered.
- Workday dependent workload
The workload of the field worker can depend on the workday, e.g. short workdays on Fridays can be considered.
Detailed Consideration
General
Set daily and weekly workloads (see WorkloadOptions) for the field worker and assign a score to each visit order to define it's importance if not all visits can be planned because of work overload.
To allow visit orders to be partially planned, i.e. to allow that one or more visit weeks may be skipped for a visit order, set allowSkippingVisits to true. Otherwise, either all visits of a visit order are planned or none.
After processing a PlanVisitsRequest, xCluster delivers the result in the corresponding VisitsResponse including the ids of visit orders that are not be planned at all (see visitOrderIdsNotPlanned) and the ids of visit orders that are skipped for some visit weeks (see visitOrderIdsSkipped).
Only specify WorkloadOptions if it is really necessary (i.e. if there is a work overload or workload differs between workdays) to avoid unnecessary long calculation times.
Overnight Stays in Hotels
Workload can be reduced by allowing overnight stays in hotels. To activate this feature:
- Set maximumOvernightStaysPerWeek to a value greater than zero.
- Input an array of potential hotels. The algorithm may pick a subset of these hotels with the aim that overnight stays at these hotels will reduce travel times and lead to less unplanned orders.
- If maximumOvernightStaysPerWeek is NOT set but hotels are given, an error message will be returned.
- If maximumOvernightStaysPerWeek is set but NO hotels are given, all visit order locations will be considered as potential hotel locations.
- You can influence which hotels are chosen (resp. ignored) under which circumstances by setting suitable values in OvernightStayOptions.
The Response
The VisitsResponse consists of:
- Visits assigned to each visit week consisting of visit days.
- If the option for optimizing daily visit sequences has been chosen, visits are output in that (almost) optimal sequence.
- If some visit orders remain unplanned or are (see skipped) for some visit weeks, they have lower scores with high probability.
- Information about overnight stays and chosen hotels is contained in each visit day.
Good to know
WorkloadOptions vs. WorkloadBalancing
You have to differentiate between WorkloadOptions and WorkloadBalancing, that are two different use cases and cannot be used at the same time.
| WorkloadOptions | WorkloadBalancing | |
|---|---|---|
| When to use it | Work overload, visits may remain unplanned | No work overload, all visits will be planned |
| Desired/maximum workload depends on workday | Desired/maximum workload is the same for every day | |
| How to use it | Set WorkloadOptions | Set improveDailyWorkloadBalance |
Maximum vs. desired workload
If no desired workload is specified for a workday, the algorithm will try to exhaust the daily and weekly maximum workload.
If desired workload is specified for a workday, the algorithm tries to get as close as possible to the desire. I.e., there may be unplanned visits even if the maximum workload is not exhausted. The desired workload will only be exceeded in exceptional cases where it is difficult to find a feasible solution. The daily and weekly maximum workload will never be exceeded (except for some estimation errors - see section about Estimated travel times below).
Estimated travel times
During optimization, travel times of the field worker are calculated based on an estimation to save performance.
In the final response (if determineShortestVisitSequencePerDay is set to true), daily and weekly travel times are calculated exactly (with respect to the daily visit sequences and the given distance mode)
Therefore, the resulting workload of the response might slightly exceed the given maximum in some special cases.
Related Topics
| Showcase | Plan Visits |