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TNT Express

example case study

Planning and fine-tuning the parcel delivery network operated by TNT Express in the UK has been made quicker and easier with the use of OptiSite.

OptiSite has helped TNT Express to adjust the boundaries of some of the areas covered by 14 depots in the Midlands and Northern regions, balancing the demand placed on individual depots more evenly over the area.

Owen Carvalho, the project manager at TNT Express explains:

“OptiSite has made it much easier for us to examine the implications of adding, say, an extra depot, and comparing that with the cost of changing existing depot boundaries.”

David Baines, the general manager in charge of network strategy sums up:

“OptiSite has proved a very capable high-level strategic tool for us. There will always be a need to review the detailed implications of any operational changes, but OptiSite gets us to that position a lot faster than previous processes.”

OptiSite territory and network planning

How does OptiSite work?

OptiSite network planning and territory management solution uses a minimum cost model to allocate your calls and to determine the best location and number of sales territories, depots, engineers etc. Use OptiSite to:

create efficient territories:
cut costs
reduce travel time
improve customer service
save planning time

Sales territory, engineer or other field-force planning

OptiSite can help you to look at resource planning. Import your customer data onto the map and then let the powerful algorithms help to allocate customers to existing field-force operatives or new ones. Have some efficient representatives in a successful territory that you don't want to alter, fix those and then re-optimse the rest.

Depot network planning

Thinking about increasing your network or merging with another company? Need to cut costs? Use OptiSite to identify overlapping territories, to model amalgamating existing areas more efficiently or adding another site. Assign costs and capacities to depots and travelling distances so you can use OptiSite to look at the trade-off between capital costs and running costs.

Evaluate optimal arrangements of territories for different scenarios

You can easily import your own data, then using the power of OptiSite you can examine different scenarios. You may want to explore either a green-fields approach, or take into account your existing sites, or use a combination of new and existing sites.

Key Features of OptiSite network and territory planning

Use road network or crow-fly distances

OptiSite for GeoConcept can work with crow-fly or road distances. MapMechanics can supply road maps at different levels of detail for the entire world. For maps of Great Britain the road network can be enhanced with ITIS speeds, giving an indication of road speeds on individual road links.

Capacity constraints

Model includes resource costs and can be set to constrain workload allocated to every resource or to specific resources. For example each depot may have a different specified capacity or you might say any sales person can handle up to 150 accounts.

Fast auto colour feature

When the optimisation is complete, simply click to see the map coloured according to suggested territories. If two adjacent territories have a similar colour, select and randomise colour to improve map clarity.

Batch territory creation

High productivity features in the module allow you to save and re-run settings plus a batch mode lets you examine many scenarios in one run.

Need multi-tier, multi-product optimisation?

The OptiSite algorithms are able to handle complex scenarios such as three tier modelling (e.g. factory, regional distribution centre, customers). Call us now to discuss how our consultants can help you make the most of this powerful functionality.