Deployment of RouteSmart & RaaS

Deployment of RouteSmart-for-ArcGIS & RaaS for optimising waste collection routes: Commercial waste, recycling & related materials

Introduction

The business case for deploying route optimsiation solution in the collection of domestic waste & recycling is proven, with the vast majority of local authorities and their contractors having such technology in place for many years.

Waste & recycling collection is an expensive operation due to labour costs, fuel, vehicles and insurances. Creating optimal routes significantly reduces these costs through reduced drive time, more collections per route, reduced fuel costs, a more balanced workload across an area and is often used for ‘what if’ scenario modelling (such as when bidding for a new contract).

Historically private waste & recycling companies have chosen to invest in fleet management software, vehicle tracking and on-board cameras over route optimisation. This is due, in part, to the poor routing results provided by non-GIS based route optimisation solutions that only route to postcode level rather than geocode (x, y or lat/long).

Those private waste & recycling companies that have adopted GIS based route optimisation technology have seen savings in fleet operations by as much as 25%.

GIS route optimisation is not solely concerned with the routes for that day – the technology also has a significant role to play when it comes to cycle day and workload planning.

A key component of any GIS based route optimisation solution is the location data. And by ‘location’ we do not just mean postal address. GIS based route optimisation can route to a geocode (x,y coordinate/latitude and longitude) so can route to a farm shed, a lay-by, cricket pavilion, etc.

Integrated Skills Limited (ISL) have been working with in the waste sector since 1987, and is one of the most well-known suppliers of GIS based route optimisation solutions in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

ISL have supplied both RouteSmart for ArcGIS for ‘master’ route optimisation initiatives, and Routing-as-a-Service (RaaS) for the on-going dynamic optimisation of routes to meet the complex needs of one of the biggest operators in this sector. In addition, ISL created and hosted an address validation service to ensure source location data was accurate for route optimisation purposes.

Master Route Optimisation

RouteSmart for ArcGIS is built specifically to address the challenges of waste & recycling collections (and bin deliveries), and can handle a handful of locations over a small geographical area or millions of customer sites on a national scale.

The algorithms can balance collection days over time to create workloads in contiguous geographic areas.  The number of days a customer collection can change forwards or backwards is controlled by the user to minimise impact through simple settings and sophisticated solvers to manage the level of business change.  ‘Clean sheet’ approaches can be taken, maximising optimisation, but with the associated business-as-usual challenges.  Following many years of experience ISL would always recommend modelling a number of options to analyse costs Vs. benefits.

Once collection days have been balanced daily routes can be generated easily to provide even workloads across the waste & recycling collection teams.  This step can be processing by either RaaS or RouteSmart for ArcGIS. Both consider a wide range of important parameters including:

• side of street working
• bin locations – not always at the ‘address’ but, for example, in the back alley
• length of time serving the bin
• time window restricted access

ISL’s experience working nationally in this sector has reinforced our belief in the need for, and importance of, accurate bin-to-bin planning rather than postcode to postcode planning.  Precise route sequences are essential for smooth operations in the field. ………

For the ‘master’ route planning Integrated Skills can either:

1. Conduct the master route planning on a consultancy basis providing the client with the optimised & balanced routes
2. Train an in-house ‘core competency’ team. None of team need to have GIS or IT experience prior to the project starting. A good understanding of the business process it more important. Typically teams are up and running in a matter of weeks creating routes, reviewing results and fine-tuning routes and sequences with input from drivers, all with tools available in the RouteSmart desktop environment.

Dynamic Route Optimisation

Master route optimisation is one stage in the process.  With balanced collection days (and a set of pre-planned master routes available as back-up) attention turns to maintaining optimum performance – the management of client loss & gain often called ‘churn’).  Route optimisation for commercial waste & recycling must reflect the dynamic nature of customer churn.  To address this challenge ISL offer RaaS, a cloud-based optimisation engine capable of generating optimised routes and sequences within minutes.

To account for new and ex customers services location data is sent to RaaS for routing on a daily basis (can be more or less often).  Within minutes RaaS creates all the optimised routes and sequences.  Key parameters used for master route optimisation are adhered to.  Data transmission in and out of the system is via APIs with no user interaction required in this fully automated process.

Regular (daily, weekly, monthly) planning for routes ensures our clients are always operating optimum routes and able to release capacity within the vehicle fleet for redeployment into other business critical functions.

Location, Location, Location

ISL is an Ordnance Survey partner, and expert in the application of various data sets including:

• Highways
• Address Base

The use of these data sets in combination enables our route optimisation tools to create routes to an accuracy of less than 5 meters: If the bin is located in a back alley, side street, communal bin store, the 3^rd field on the campsite, etc – we can route directly to it!

On the street

Once a route is optimised, you have a choice as to what degree you want operatives to work optimally.

• The optimised sequence of meter reads can be exported to mobile devices. This allows operatives to chose how they move between the optimised sequence of stops.
• The optimised sequence and the optimal route (the bit between each stop) can be downloaded to mobile devices

There is a significant hardware cost implication here as downloading the optimsied route with the optimised  sequence requires are higher specification of device as it needs significantly more processing power.

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

Regardless of whether you manage an in-house or outsourced meter reading team, whether you are a contractor or energy supplier, domestic or commercial meters, the application of GIS based route optimisation/planning has proven its ability to deliver cost savings and drive up productivity through efficiency savings. The power of GIS can be delivered via consultancy services, through ISL’s hosted RouteSmart-for-ArcGIS solution and/or dynamically via our RaaS Cloud offering.

A typical route optimisation project for the waste & recycling sector

• Project Initiation Meeting
  • Identify project aims and objectives with the client
  • Agree timescales
  • Discuss data requirements – both for input to RouteSmart and output to client systems
  • Discuss service pattern objectives, ie, 2 day per week collections – Mon/Wed or Tue/Fri

• Address Geocoding (if required)
  • Address lookup to identify latitude and longitude (Ordnance Survey data)

• Data Import
  • Streets – travel speeds, road routing information, restrictions, service
  • Facilities – depot and disposal locations
  • Service locations – bin locations, individual addresses, service times, weights, time windows

• Data Validation
  • • Visualisation of data in RouteSmart for ArcGIS
    • Analysis of data and benchmarking
    • Recommendations to resolve data gaps and for data improvements

• Collection Day Modelling
  • Multi-day scenario planning (‘service day’ planning) that accounts for differing collection frequencies across collection locations

• RouteSmart Modelling
  • • Scenario modelling (as per agreed specification) to review options such as, modified working hours, depot and disposal locations, fleet requirements
    • Models reviewed by client and preferred option selected

• Detailed Route Design
  • Preferred option worked up to a full set of detailed optimised routes
  • First-pass route editing undertaken
  • Map and route sheet outputs provided to the client for review and feedback

• Route Editing and Finalised Outputs
  • Client feedback entered in to the optimised model
  • Final map and route sheet outputs provided to the client

• Go Live
• Post Go Live Route Review
  • If required, following roll-out, enter client feedback based on first 8 weeks of operating new routes
  • Provide updated map and route sheet outputs