Delivery-zone redesign

Vehicle routes and delivery-zone assignments were compared in separate scenarios, including redistribution after a distribution-center consolidation.

Industry: Retail distribution
Decision family: Sequence optimization
Evaluation scope: Operating-data scenarios

Customer identity and identifying operational details are withheld.

The operating decision

Keeping existing store assignments can limit route improvements, while changing the network also changes each center’s workload and vehicle needs.

Inputs: Store order volumes · Existing center assignments · Delivery windows · Vehicle capacities · Driving conditions · Cost assumptions
Decision: Vehicle-to-store assignment · Visit order · Center-to-store assignment under redistribution scenarios
Constraints: Center operating hours · Fixed delivery windows · Vehicle access · Load capacity · Multi-trip runs

How it is approached

Improve routes within the current network
Keep center-to-store assignments fixed while adjusting vehicles and visit order under actual operating conditions.
Compare redistribution choices
Examine a partial redistribution of affected stores and a wider redesign across service zones as separate scenarios.
Use a common cost basis
Evaluate fixed vehicle cost, fuel and extra trips together, preserving the baseline and scope of each scenario comparison.

From a new route to a different service network.

Scenario comparison

AS-ISCurrent dispatch, current store assignment

Route optimizationcenter assignment kept · vehicles and visit order adjusted

Partial redistributionclosed center's stores reassigned to the remaining centers

Full redistributioncenter-to-store assignment redesigned across all zones

Original operating-data scenario comparison: the existing plan, new routes, partial reassignment and full zone redistribution. Original relative bar lengths are retained; modeled comparisons are not realized operating savings.

Operating-data scenarios

Validation & scope

These are potential cost differences from scenario analysis on operating data, not savings realized after deployment. Maps and cost analysis came from separate presentation materials and were not confirmed as the same run. Sequential scenario differences must not be added together.