Limit number of stops per cluster?

[Marko Cancar]

Hi,

One of my partners is evaluating the xCluster (planClusters) and he wants to know whether it is possible to define a maximum number of stops for a specific territory center.

Is this possible? How?

What do we have to consider?

Thanks,

Marko

[Bernd Welter]

Hello Marko,

in xCluster 2.20 we invented some PlanClustersOptionsthat approach what your partner requests:

name: activityCapacitiesAreAbsolute
type: Boolean
required: no
default: false
available since: 2.20

This feature can be used only when clusters are specified. If set to true, activity capacities are taken as absolute upper bounds for specified clusters according to their input sequence. The parameter imbalanceTolerance does not play any role. This means, it could happen, that a planning location remains unplanned in the end. Furthermore, it could happen, that a cluster facility is not allocated to any planning location, i.e. the respective ClusterReport.numberOfLocations is zero and the respective ClusteredLocations.locationIds is empty.

Be aware that the parameter deals with the "activity" and not with the "number of assigned stops". Therefore your requirement can be handeled with setting the locations activity to 1 each.

Here's an output example:

In this example I applied an absolut limit of 50 for one of the centers (blue = Siegburg) while the other centers get 1000 (way more than available stops).

No absolute activities defined: all territory centers get more or less the same part (25% of the 300 locations)

Bernd