Solutions
Here is the current suite of somewhat simplified models provided by Solverscape. Companies can use them directly via Excel or APIs. More sophisticated models can be built on request. We also develop utilities for data extraction from Excel or Word files.
Vehicle Routing Model
Imagine that you are managing a warehouse in which items are placed on racks. Each item has a specific volume and a specific weight. You have a set of orders, each of which involves picking some specific items from different slots in the warehouse. You have a set of vehicles and we know the maximum volume/weight that a vehicle can carry. The Vehicle Routing Model finds the minimum no. of vehicles required to pick the items associated with all the orders. The same model can be used to deliver items from a depot to a set of customers in a city.
Project Scheduler
You are managing a project that has a set of jobs. Each job has a location, an earliest start time, a preferred end time and a latest end time. Each job involves the completion of a set of tasks, some of which have precedence constraints. You have a set of resources, each of which has a specific type and that type allows that resource to work on a task of a specific type. When a resource finishes one task and starts another, it incurs a task-switch over cost. The Project Scheduler finds the minimum no. of resources required to finish all the tasks.
Facility-based Quarterly Planner
You are creating a 12-week worker schedule for a set of facilities. Each facility has a specific requirement in terms of the no. of workers it needs on each day of the 12-week time horizon. worker works for a specific number of days in a week (say 5) and then gets a 2-day break. A worker can work either for the full 12-week term or for a short 4-week term. The costs of hiring a worker for the full-term and the short term are known. Facility-based Workforce Planner finds a worker allocation plan that can meet the facility requirements at the lowest cost.
Department-based Facility Planner
The Department-based Workforce Planner extends the Facility-based planner in that each facility has a set of departments. Worker requirements are now specified at the department level within each facility. We have a set of worker types such that a worker of a given type is eligible to work in a specific set of departments. A worker type can be seen as a set of skills. A worker of a specific type can be hired at a specific cost either for the full 12-week term or for a short 4-week term. The Department-based Workforce Planner finds a worker allocation plan that can meet the department requirements at the lowest cost.
Weekly Planner
You are a service provider (such as a call-center) trying to come up with a weekly plan for a set of employees working at a set of facilities that face customer demand that varies at an hourly level. Each facility is open 7 days a week from 6 am to 8 pm. An employee shift is 8 hours long and an employee needs to be provided with a 1-hour break during that 8-hour shift. An employee works for 5 consecutive days. The no. of employees required in each hour at each facility is known. The Weekly Workforce Planner finds the minimum no. of workers and their weekly shifts so that each facility has the required no. of workers in each hour.
Sheet Cutting Optimizer
A company needs to obtain a specific number of small rectangular pieces of paper/fabric/sheet metal from a larger rectangular sheet. The Sheet Cutting Optimizer provides the minimum number of larger sheets that we need and their cutting patterns so that we obtain the desired no. of smaller sheets with the least amount of waste.