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matters by John Darker, AMBIM
Transport and distribution consultants
No 4. W. S. Atkins and Partners
'omputer vehicle scheduling by 'Tripper" ?tains the advantages of manual control
FAMOUS REPORT, "Transport lining: the men for the job", prepared le two years ago for the (then) Ministry Fransport, drew attention to the need for nbined expertise in solving major ispott problems. Although more than a .en universities trained graduates in vant subjects—town planning, road jut, operational research, cost-benefit .lysis, etc--the urgent need, said the ort, was to bring the various experts ether so that real progress was made in ling with problems becoming more acute ler the pressure of population growth and -eased traffic densities.
W. S. Atkins Group Ltd is the holding tpany of a number of companies bearing Atkins name and dealing with a whole ge of consultancy problems including, in 2..nt years, transport and distribution :ters. The group chairman, Mr W. S. tins, who launched his consulting ineer's practice over20 years ago, was of the first people to realize that many ;e-scale projects involved a wide range of ertise. He therefore engaged specialists ;never he came across a problem outside own experience. So successful did this cy prove that today the W. S. Atkins up employs more than 1200 people.
Elle ranee of work undertaken by the up companies is enormous. Many jects are of direct concern to the road isport industry, though the Atkins ne is not widely known outside the top nagement of client companies. Some of largest vehicle manufacturers in the rid employ their services. Road istruction and the design of new towns I shopping precincts for the more :.ient delivery of goods are typical of ir work.
iome of the largest "muck shifting" Itracts in Britain, employing many nng vehicles, begin on Atkins' drawing rds. A relatively small project involving clearance of 180,000 Cu yd of spoil from lisused coal tip near Gorseinon, Swan, was recently approved by the Derelict id Unit of the Welsh Office.
ost consultants involved with ribution problems start with the client's sting premises—which may have been Ely designed a generation or more ago. W. S. Atkins are large enough to have been involved in two recent projects where the job involved both designing large warehouse premises and planning the distribution of the products. This is an ideal situation, allowing full attention to be paid to the design of sensibly wide access roads and advanced systems of mechanical handling of the materials stored (steel stocks) and their efficient distribution using computer scheduling of vehicles.
I learned from Mr John Askew, of Atkins Planning, an expert in the use of computers for vehicle scheduling, of the tight constraints put on the consultants by one steel stockholder. Orders received by 5.30 pm were required to be delivered anywhere within an 80-mile radius the next day. No loading of the vehicles could commence before 5.30 pm owing to the risk that late orders would mess up the loading sequence.
Using a powerful real-time computer, sales orders were processed to make up loads, determine delivery sequence, designate whether a rigid or attic vehicle should be used, calculate the driving time and mileage for each trip.
Dropping zones
In this exercise, because most customers are grouped fairly close together in industrial areas, the computer works on the basis of dropping zones—usually postal areas. The use of individual customer addresses would mean an excessively large data file and add considerably to the expense and complication of vehicle scheduling. For "greenfields" areas grid squares of 25 miles are used.
Atkins Planning has developed a new program for vehicle scheduling called "Tripper" which is designed to offer the benefits of a computer solution to vehicle scheduling while retaining all the advantages of complete manual control.
• This is a particularly valuable development because it allows schedulers to operate the whole process in their traffic offices by means of a terminal unit connected remotely to the computer. A suitable teletype machine can be installed for a rental charge of about £40 a month and the user is spared the high capital cost of owning his own computer. The use of
time-sharing for vehicle scheduling on a powerful computer such as Atkins' SIGMA 5 is likely to grow fast when operators of all sizes realize the tangible benefits.
Initially, a file is constructed which is unique to each individual user's requirements of all known delivery points serviced from one or more distribution points. The user's customers can be placed in zones or according to a grid reference. The computer then works out the relationship between all points to determine which, when grouped in pairs, offers the .greatest savings from a delivery 'point of view.
At appropriate intervals, normally daily order details can be input to the computer through the terminal in the form of vehicles available, order numbers, customer references, weights and any constraints on delivery times, etc.
To allow for maximum flexibility, "Tripper" will permit schedulers to vary lengths of working days, handle rigid and artic vehicles and impose weight, length and height constraints to ensure correct vehicle choice on the routes. According to the known savings the routes are then constructed and deliveries assigned to those optimizing on vehicle usage. Two-day journeys are permitted where necessary.
When all orders have been processed by the computer and a schedule produced the details are then printed on the• terminal teletype machine. Firstly appears a summary of fleet utilization, showing for each distribution point the number of orders handled, the number and types of vehicles allocated, the total mileage and loads and an overall distribution cost.
For each route constructed in the computer analysis a detailed schedule is , given stating the location point or zone with customer's name or address—whichever is specified by the user. The customer's order number and reference as well as weight of delivery is also given. As can be seen from the example report overleaf an indicator "Lis printed next to the last drop to highlight the fact. If desired a relevant specific first drop can also be designated. An individual route summary is provided as part of the schedule which includes confirmation on the type of vehicle
to be used both by capacity and whether rigid or articulated.
Mr Askew said the computer scheduling was methodically compared with manual scheduling for several weeks and the experienced manual scheduler tried all his skill to beat the routings of the computer. During parallel tests a coin was tossed to determine whether the manual or computer system should be used on a given day. The results over a period showed definite cost savings of 10 per cent with computer routings using Commercial Motor Tables of Operating Costs as a yardstick.
The manual scheduler whose wits were exercised in the example quoted eventually became a convert to the new techniques. Some journey patterns he had never thought of in a lengthy experience were devised. Mr Askew stressed the need for some "selling" of the new operational patterns to drivers and he favoured a flexible system allowing some discretion, in practice, for both drivers and the transport manager.
Many, W. S. Atkins clients have been helped with depot design and location studies. The company employs two highly skilled model-makers and realistic models of major sites developed by its technologists are to be seen in profusion at the Epsom headquarters. A "ton-centre" model for a three-warehouse national distribution scheme with proportionate delivery weights to help with depot location studies, is in Mr Askew's office. Much more sophisticated techniques are used, in major studies, but the simple model gives a rapid indication of the approximate location of premises given known criteria of the distribution pattern.
One of the trickiest problems faced by transport operators is to determine the most economical time to replace vehicles. The PORPA computer program. developed by W. S. Atkins and Partners (program for the optimization of replacement policies of assets) is capable of use with most types of plant and machinery but it is particularly relevant to vehicle fleet owners. make a decision with major financial implications. It is possible with the PORPA program to simulate every possible replacement policy—in steps of three months—over a period as long as 60 years. Using discounted cash flow techniques it calculates the best time for an asset to be replaced so that total costs are minimized.
Among the data considered are the cost of asset, its resale value at different times, repair and running costs, income earned, corporation tax and investment grants. Before the advent of large, high-speed computers, the extensive calculations required would not have been feasible. A computer can find its way through these and other factors involved and so enable a decision to be based on all relevant facts.
To allow for uncertainty about some factors, for example whether or not a vehicle in its third year will require a new back axle, the program has an optional feature which allows data to be fed to the computer not simply as single figures but as ranges of possible values with minima, "most likely," and maxima. Sampling techniques are used by the computer to select different figures in the ranges as its input data.
Many medium and large companies in recent years have taken the advice of consultants on the strategic planning of their future. I was frankly surprised to learn that W. S. Atkins and Partners have undertaken major surveys of whole industries both here and abroad.
The strategic study of a whole industry could be of interest in road transport. One Atkins planner I talked to said the firm was ideally equipped to do a major survey of the road transport industry whose cost structure and charging pattern leaves so much to be desired.
A survey in depth could be expected to establish the present facts about the road transport industry; provide technical commercial and economic studies of options in the various specialized fields of operation; prepare forecasts and more highly developed options for the industry; develop recommended policies and prepare a final report While the public furore over the Government's decision to site London's third airport at Foulness continues to simmer, an Atkins director, Mr A. V. Hooker, with a good deal of local support, has prepared detailed plans for the development of Severnside.
Mr Hooker proposes a new deep wati port on reclaimed land in the Sevel estuary with extensive sites for shore-bast industries, a major airport, a large wat storage reservoir and a new river crossir linking the site to Avonmouth. He believ this complex of inter-related developmer would constitute a major growth poi providing employment to offset redundam in the traditional primary industries South Wales and counter-balancing t] continued and disproportionate growth SE England and the West Midlands.
Exciting proposals
His paper Severnside of the futta outlining the technical and econom considerations, was presented a few morn] ago to the Institution of Civil Engineer West country road hauliers who we incensed when the Portbury scheme w, vetoed by the previous government, would think, find the Severn estuary propose even more exciting. For the construed( works would provide years of work ft quarry tipping operators alone, and once , operation, all kinds of road transpo operations would benefit.
The airport would deposit thousands holiday-makers from the new world wl could be prime targets for the marketir managers of coaching firms. Mar specialized road transport operations sut as air freight collection in the We Midlands would develop as the airpc became widely used.
Mr Hooker thinks that a new riv crossing of the Severn will be requirt urgently when M4 and M5 and tl Newport-Worcester and Cardiff-Merth: trunk roads have been completed. As I says, the Severn Bridge has become ti node point of the motorway system servir Wales and south-west England. The bridl has vastly stimulated industrial developme and traffic exceeds the forecasts made on a few years ago.
A new crossing downstream from t Severn Bridge could be by tunnel— construction another major source of we for hauliers—if reclamation work for t projected airport /seaport extends t Monmouthshire shore to within three ml of the Avonmouth side. The saving of miles in length compared with the prem Severn Bridge route would partly offset t extra cost of a tunnel.