The true definition of dynamic scheduling

By Jane Geary, Marketing Manager, Magenta Technology

In the world of transport planning and route optimisation, ‘dynamic’ is an overused and often misused term. For those of us, myself included, who want to get pernickety about this very subject, I can confirm that the real dictionary definition refers to dynamic as being something that reacts to change as it happens.

Dynamic – an overused and abused term

So why is it that so many people in our industry refer to the fact that they do ‘dynamic’ scheduling when in fact this is not the case? Running routes with predefined volumes is not dynamic in its truest form; it’s a way of generating next day routes based on real order volumes.

The Maxoptra solution is truly dynamic; it really is! If your vehicles or field service engineers are out on the road, our system allows you to make dynamic changes in real time. Just drag and drop a call onto the route from your planning screen and you can immediately see if it’s feasible. Later calls are recalculated and you can manage the impact of later arrival times or missed deliveries further on in your plan.

The technical bit

Specifically designed for businesses where the day’s plan can change at any time once a vehicle or service person has left the depot, Maxoptra’s dynamic scheduling provides full visibility of what is happening in real-time, allowing complete operational control and providing a superior customer service. All the information you need to track individual drivers, service personnel and vehicle resources is shown on screen, displaying current jobs, routes and unallocated work on a map and in a timeline. Maxoptra has been designed to make human interactions easier, with simple drag and drop and intuitive interfaces for the PC, tablet and smartphone to keep your mobile workforce informed and in control at all times.

This allows you to compare planned vs actual activity, empowering you to make the best decisions faster to optimise operational efficiencies. Our clients across all industries regularly see savings of at least 20%.

And so ends today’s rant

That’s dynamic! Do it in real time while your vehicles and engineers are out on the road, not the night before after order cut-off. So chose your software carefully – if you really want dynamic scheduling, just make sure that’s what you’re actually getting.