Objective: Travel time

Use the travel time objective to minimize the travel time for resources.

Overview

Travel time refers to the duration required for resources to travel between different locations to fulfill assigned jobs. It accounts for the time spent driving between locations, impacting overall scheduling efficiency and resource utilization.

The travel time objective aims to keep the time resources spend traveling between locations to a minimum. This helps optimize scheduling outcomes by reducing the time spent on the road, allowing resources to spend more time on the job.

See Travel time and route optimization for more information about how Skedulo calculates travel time and how it is used in route optimization.

Assign weight to the travel time objective

By assigning a weight, you are indicating the importance of minimizing travel time as a scheduling priority. The optimizer will prioritize optimizing schedules to reduce travel time for resources, even if it means compromising other objectives to some extent, in accordance with the assigned weight.

For example, if the weight assigned to travel time is 80, and the weight assigned to balanced workload is 20, the optimizer will prioritize minimizing travel time over balancing workload.

Assign no weight to the travel time objective

When no weight is assigned to the travel time objective, the optimizer has the flexibility to optimize scheduling outcomes without specific constraints related to minimizing travel time. It can focus on other objectives, without being bound by the requirement to minimize travel time. This allows for more flexibility in achieving overall optimization, potentially resulting in schedules with varying travel times depending on the priorities of other objectives.

Note

It is crucial to consider that the primary objective and driving force of Skedulo’s optimization is to allocate as many jobs as possible. Regardless of other objectives, the optimizer will always attempt to schedule an allocation without violating any hard constraints.
This approach can sometimes give the impression that minimizing travel time is prioritized, even when the weight assigned to travel time is set to 0. This occurs when there are more allocations than available resources, and the optimizer seeks to find a solution that accommodates as many tasks as possible.
As a result, minimizing travel time naturally emerges as a consequence, as it allows for efficient allocation of tasks while minimizing the distance traveled by resources.

Use case: Broadband installation service provider

Objective weighting:

Minimize travel time: 50%
Work priority: 30%
Soft skills: 20%

For a broadband installation service provider, minimizing travel time is a primary objective to ensure the efficient deployment of technicians and timely service to customers. The faster technicians can reach customer locations, the quicker installations can be completed. Work priority holds significant weight to address urgent installation requests or critical issues promptly. Soft skills, such as effective communication and problem-solving abilities, are also valued to deliver a positive customer experience during installations.

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