Claassen Logistics: Better results with new tour planning system

The first step

Claassen Logistics specializes in distribution on a fine scale. From its headquarters in Tilburg, sixty to eighty trucks depart daily for addresses in the Benelux. The planners have been using software for many years to prepare the route planning. "When I started in planning almost nine years ago, we were already working with tour planning software," says Sebastiaan Kolijn. "But that was a fairly static system that was no longer maintained. It took three quarters of an hour to generate a plan proposal with it."

Kolijn, like Sander Peijs, holds the position of business controller within Claassen. Together they are responsible for the optimization of processes and systems. In 2019, Kolijn was closely involved in the search for a new and flexible tour planning software. The choice fell on PTV Route Optimiser ST, particularly because of its ability to plan interactively. "We were looking for a system that automatically creates a plan proposal, but also offers the ability to adjust it by manually shuffling shipments," Kolijn explains. "That allows planners to improve route planning based on their own knowledge and experience. In principle, the previous system also offered that possibility, only it took three quarters of an hour each time to recalculate the adjusted route planning. With PTV Route Optimiser ST, it takes less than 15 minutes. Planners therefore have more room to play with shipments and tours."

Interface

Equally valuable is the automatic data link between PTV Route Optimiser ST and the TMS. When an order is placed and approved in the TMS, it is immediately transferred to the new tour optimization software. The planners therefore always have an up-to-date overview of the number of orders received and can make a good estimate of the work ahead of them. 

That overview was missing in the old situation. The planners first had to export the orders from the TMS to a text file and then import it into the tour planning software. This did not always go well. If an address contained double quotes or other strange characters, the tour planning software would repeatedly crash. "In addition, all orders could only be exported once. If an order was subsequently changed or deleted, the planner had to manually adjust it in the old tour optimization software. That meant we had to make a printout from the TMS and hand it to the planner," explains Peijs. "That's asking for trouble. If a planner forgot to take out an order, it was still in the route planning the next day," Kolijn adds.

Trial run

Claassen commissioned Route Optimiser ST in April 2020 after a few months of implementation time. That's less than a month after the start of the pandemic, which had a major impact on our operation. "That makes it hard to say how much benefit the implementation has brought, but at least we can say that with the new tour planning software, we need to use fewer vehicles to get all the shipments out," Kolijn says.

Nevertheless, less than four years later, Claassen decided to switch to a new tour planning software. That is PTV OptiFlow, the system added to PTV's product portfolio in late 2022 through its acquisition of Conundra. "Last fall, PTV told us that they were achieving appealing results with this system at other distribution companies. That's why we decided to run a trial. For a week we scheduled the same tours with both PTV Route Optimiser ST and PTV OptiFlow. It quickly became clear how fast and powerful PTV OptiFlow's algorithms are. We saw that in the kilometers, hours and costs, but also in the speed with which the planning was made," Kolijn says.

The new planning

Fully automated

PTV OptiFlow is a tour optimization system in the cloud that enables fully automatic planning. Within ten minutes, the planner has a plan proposal that requires little or no adjustment. Four years after its introduction, Claassen has stopped using the principle of interactive planning. This is a conscious choice, Kolijn emphasizes. "We saw that planners were increasingly making adjustments based on feedback from drivers and customers. Adjustments that made route planning better in their eyes," Kolijn explains.

With the growing number of adjustments, Claassen saw the dependence on planners increase. "Whereas we want to become less dependent on planners. The team in Tilburg has five planners, but for the result, it should not matter whether Jan, Piet or Klaas is at the controls."

With PTV OptiFlow, the focus is now on the work prior to generating a plan proposal. Instead of adjusting the plan proposal afterward, they now need to make sure the order data and constraints are properly in the system. Kolijn: "If that is the case, adjusting the plan proposal afterward is also no longer necessary."

Flexible software

The fact that PTV OptiFlow produces better route planning is not only due to the better algorithms, but also due to the wider setting options. Take as an example the order in which loading and unloading orders are scheduled. "We prefer not to have to load another pallet immediately after the first unloaded pallet. Because then the drivers are constantly shifting that pallet for the rest of the trip," Kolijn knows. "Ideally, we prefer to schedule pickup orders a little later in the trip so that drivers have more room to maneuver. OptiFlow offers more variables for that."

Another example concerns the ability to set penalties. In PTV Route Optimiser ST, something could or could not be set; a middle ground was not possible. "In PTV OptiFlow, we can attach a fictitious penalty to each constraint. In principle, the system follows that restriction, but if it is more advantageous to take the penalty, the system can still exceed that restriction. For example, if a driver is within the Amsterdam city ring, we want him to perform all stops within this city ring before leaving the area. We can now enforce this through a penalty," Kolijn explains. "As a result, we can now put certain insights from the planners into the system anyway."

Getting used

After extensive testing in November and December, Claassen decided in January to permanently switch to PTV OptiFlow. The implementation involved little, Peijs assures. "We chose not to link PTV OptiFlow directly to the TMS, but to Route Optimiser ST. Because PTV already had a standard link between the two tour planning systems, we therefore did not have to make a new data link."

Initial experiences are positive, although planners still have to get used to having fewer options for adjusting route planning. "That takes time. If planners keep seeing that OptiFlow produces better route planning that also turns out to be reliable and realistic, that confidence will come naturally."

In any case, Peijs expects planners to take less time. "With our very first planning system, the goal was to finish around 10 p.m. at night. With PTV Route Optimiser ST, that has already shifted to an earlier time. With PTV OptiFlow, we are trying to push that even further ahead. That means we can start loading the vehicles in the warehouse earlier and communicate the planning to the drivers earlier," Peijs says.

Optimization

That PTV OptiFlow, too, will eventually result in lower transportation costs is a given for both business controllers. "How much we will save is difficult to predict. We are currently still in the optimization phase. By playing with the settings, we are trying to get the most out of the system. That remains an ongoing process," Peijs says.

Kolijn adds that cost savings are ultimately not the main goal. In Claassen's business strategy, customers come first, employees second and costs only third. "Of course transportation costs are important. But if we can satisfy our customers more by settling for a little less efficiency, we will certainly do so. And if we manage to keep drivers happy, that also benefits efficiency."