Nov 11
14
More and more e-tailers are trying to make shopping more convenient for their cash-and-time-strapped customers. Aurora, the umbrella company of fashion stores Oasis, Warehouse and Coast, claim they now deliver clothes in under 90 minutes.
And they aren’t the only ones to follow this shift; many companies, including ASOS and John Lewis, offer same-day delivery. Ecommerce websites are shifting their focus onto the delivery process as a critical way to improve customer retention. Companies now face constant pressure to manage their mobile work forces to be more competitive, productive and to achieve overhead reductions. As a result, freight directors constantly need to consider more innovative route planning and optimising tools.
With effective dynamic scheduling algorithms, companies can handle these complex delivery demands while significantly reducing their overall costs. The inevitability of change throughout the course of a day dictates route re-prioritisation at a moment’s notice. Dynamic scheduling achieves levels of responsiveness that aren’t simply possible with a fixed schedule: it’s a living document that will keep running until your project has been completed.
A static schedule might initially represent a good model of the timeline and costs, but in a fast-changing environment it will quickly decay. Manually updating scheduling systems is labour-intensive, open to mistakes, and won’t make the most of resources. Priorities can change at the drop of a hat, and as they do, companies need to have clear visibility of the location, availability and statuses, in order to make immediate decisions.
Route optimisation tools will quickly work out an initial schedule based on the list of deliveries and vehicles, taking into account factors such as timeslot preferences and vehicle capacities. Then, throughout the day, it’s possible to integrate real-time information with the system, such as additional waypoints or depot stops, while your drivers are still on the road.
The system can be set up to monitor the progress of drivers, letting the business (and its customers) know exactly where they are and when they currently plan to arrive at future waypoints, taking any delays on the route into account. The route can be tweaked automatically, for example inserting a waypoint into the most efficient place in the remainder of the route; or it can be tweaked manually, removing or adding waypoints into positions of your choosing. Whether you wish to add another delivery, stock-up at the depot or simply avoid congestion, the vehicle tracking and dynamic scheduling functions will allow you to adapt the route without re-doing the entire optimisation.
It’s pretty clear how adoption of this kind of technology can give some companies a competitive edge. However, this technology isn’t exclusive to just ecommerce fields. In industries directed by a large amount of legislation, the recording, tracking and reporting of resolution time-frames is a significant task, with penalties for failing to comply. Dynamic scheduling can automate and record information, prioritising the workloads in order to meet constitutional targets. In fact, any organisation that deals with a high volume of reactive, unpredictable visits will inevitably find dynamic scheduling invaluable. We’re also seeing increasing uptake in the public sector, for applications such as riot control and other real-time emergency service activities.
As organisations strive to be more competitive and efficient at the same time as meeting increasing expectations, dynamic scheduling could be the pivotal tool to success in the future.
Back to businesses, it’s certainly encouraging to see increasing involvement at the end of the supply chain, and the realisation that things can be done better. They have to be improved, across the board, but let’s take a look at an example purely from ecommerce: the Office for National Statistics reported that Britons spent £539m online each week last September, out of £5.61bn total sales. That 9.6% share is the largest on record – more than three times the 3% share back in early 2007, and a 30% increase on a year ago.
With this kind of growth, consumers are demanding more – and what’s the main thing online commerce lacks over its bricks-and-mortar counterpart? Instant gratification. While businesses have been examining analytics, poring over product pages and endlessly optimising their websites, all-too often that vital touch-point – the moment when the customer receives their goods – has been ignored. The same principle applies for B2B as it does for B2C. Ultimately, no matter how exceptional your customer’s journey is, if they don’t receive their goods conveniently and in time, they won’t be a customer for long.
With Aurora’s innovation in delivery, will it be too long before we see roaming fulfilment vans prowling the M25 corridor, waiting for their next orders – and constantly re-evaluating the best route in which to make them?
Posted in Ecommerce news by 
