The ‘suggest function’ gives visibility on the impact for operations of a suggested schedule change. Every time a new order is to be added, the user gets up to five scheduling suggestions, each time indicating the impact: e.g. the extra driving time that will be added to the operation.
What the ‘suggest functionality’ basically does is a mini exhaustive search solve with that difference that we keep up the best n solutions found. As it is only for suggesting 1 extra Job into the solution, the search effort is quite limited, fortunately. The result will list the possible time slots the new job can be assigned to, with its attributing score.
As the suggest function allows for live insertion of new orders in to a planning we also call this function Live Scheduling
Where to use?
Think of customers visiting your portal to make an appointment, or planners trying to fit it in a last-minute request. There too solvers can deliver an optimal solution. However, you do not want to re-run the full optimization process every time a new order comes in. That would be complex, inefficient and time-consuming. Our solution has been to add a ‘suggest function’ to our OnRoute API, allowing software developers to build excellent customer experience in no time.