Stock handling / limited availability

[Bernd Welter]

Cheers,

On last weeks Logistics Days Event I’ve been asked whether / how we can tackle the following challenge. As I am not aware of a standard approach I’d like to forward this story to you:

In xTourServer (both xTour1 and xTour2) the amount of stock in a depot is either “infinite” or “empty”. If a destination requires “x” pieces of what soever I usually define the depots that are “infinite”. Assignment is more or less simple if we do not have to face additional topics such as timeslots.

Let's start with this picture: just 2 destinations that require 4 palettes. Alltogether there are 3 depots with each giving access to an infinite number of palettes (xServer approach). If the total distance is crucial there are just two individual trips required. If the the number of vehicles is crucial then a single vehicle (let's estimate the capa is sufficient) does a good job.

But here's the challenge: What if the amount of palettes at the depots is limited? E.g. because

• The products are built just in time?
• The storage space at the depot is limited?
• Usecase garbage collection: usually not large number of objects (<100) but instead extremely focused on "individuals".

In this case the total deliveries to the two locations are supposed to be assembled from more than just a uniquze depot as the stock is limited. Different solutions are possible, e.g. based on either the red or the blue lines.

Here's the feedback from the competence center (credits to Tom H.):

In OptiFlow SaaS this type of problem can be tackled using the feature “depot quota”. This feature allows you to set a limit on the total input, output or throughput of a certain capacity at a given depot.
For example entering {capacity}:OUTPUT:2 in this field would limit the output of this capacity from the depot to a total of 2, approximating the leftmost depot in your diagram.

Important to note here is that the capacity granularity of your orders would be an important factor. OptiFlow does not allow for the consolidation of loads from different depots for a single order; meaning that in your example each unit of the given capacity would need to be modelled as a separate order for the solutions shown in your second diagram to be viable.

As for using DAPI, this use case does not have a standard approach as of yet that I am aware of. A simple case like the example listed could be approximated using vehicle capacities and depot constraints but more complex real life scenarios would bump up against some limits I fear.

Feel free to subscribe to this thread and to add your questions if any arise!
In the meantime I'll forward this requirement to Product Management.

Bernd