Multistop: Split orders to keep within weight and volume limits

[svenhaul]

Hi all,
I wonder if there is a way in OTM to support the following business case:

Supplier A produces sofas (very heavy). 20 Sofas will fit into a truck before it
hits the weight limitation.

Supplier B produces cushions (very light but large). 1000 cushions will fit into a
truck before it hits the volume limitation.

Both suppliers are located close to each other and could be serviced with a multi-
stop shipment.

If there is an order of 25 sofas and 1200 cushions, the engine should

a) split the sofa order into, say, 15 and 10 sofas, and combine it with 400 and 800
cushions, respectively, ending up in two multi-stop shipments, instead of

b) fill up one truck with 20 sofas from supplier A (weight limitation), and one
truck with 1000 cushions from supplier B (volume limitation), and one truck with 5
sofas and 200 cushions as a multi-stop shipment.

Can this be done? The business case as such is quite common and currently planners are manually combining loads in the above mentioned manner.

Thanks for your ideas,
Sven

[joecallan]

Re: Multistop: Split orders to keep within weight and volume limits

Sven:

You want to look into the various offerings within the Solution Improvement functionality.

The Solution Improvement functionality is meant to enhance the quality of Multistop Shipments by performing several cost improving steps


The following steps are supported:

• Move order bundles from one shipment to another shipment
  
• Swap order bundles between two shipments
  
• Remove an order bundle from a shipment and send it direct
  
• Disband the shipment and send each order bundle on a separate shipment
  
• In addition, OTM also can perform LTL Splitting

[svenhaul]

Re: Multistop: Split orders to keep within weight and volume limits

Thanks, Joe.
From how I understand the documentation, I gather that the Solution Improvement function will look at two shipments at a time. For my problem, though, it would need to look at three shipments coming out of the initial bulk plan:
a) A shipment full of sofas (at weight limit, but not at volume limit)
b) A shipment full of cushions (at volume limit, but not at weight limit)
c) A multi-stop shipment with sofas and cushions (below volume and weight limits)

So, how could I get OTM to dismiss the c) shipment by rearranging the orders into two multi-stop shipments?

[joecallan]

Re: Multistop: Split orders to keep within weight and volume limits

I see what you are saying. Due to the way OTM bundles Orders, I don't believe that your scenario can automatically occur within Bulk Planning.