Solutions Overview





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	Solutions Overview

Recollections of Uncertain Travel I was sitting in a doctor's office patiently waiting when a mother arrived with her child who appeared less than two years old. They crossed the rug-covered waiting room and while the mother sat down the little girl wandered around. After awhile the girl ventured over to a tile hallway that led to the examining rooms. The girl gently touched the tile floor with one foot while keeping her other foot firmly planted on the rug floor of the waiting room. This incident pointed out a clear lesson in behavioral psychology on human learning. The mother introduced her daughter to the rugged floor area dispelling any doubt in the girl that the area might be unsafe to travel around. The tile floor however represented an uncertain travel area to the girl until she "experienced" it through her cautious testing. Much like the little girl's travels, planning a corporation's shipments involves, in some instances, high levels of uncertain travel. What ARCLOGIX has done in is to remove as much of the uncertainty as possible. -- W.S.






The 21st Century's Atlas to World Trade Management

"Where is a TMS
solution required
versus simply a
tracking of a
shipment from
loading dock to
unloading dock?"

The answer:
"Whenever there
is an interest
in what happens
in between."

Optimization of the trip with constraints...

A retailer's traffic department wants to manage inbound traffic from their vendors, but must build multi-stop inbound moves to convert LTL shipments to the less costly TL moves with full trailers.
A carrier wants to margin his services (equipment) by maximizing the use of that equipment over high volume traffic lanes.
Because delivery cost involves a high cost of transportation, a manufacturer must factor in when orders hit the loading dock so that optimal transportation cost savings can be achieved while meeting promised delivery dates.

All of the above examples point to a need for management software beyond simply tracking an order and the shipment.

The

software provides the shipper and the carrier, the customers, as well as the supplier or vendor a means to manage the shipping process via the Internet without losing any of the advanced optimization functionality of the load building and routing, fleet optimization and post-shipment accounting software.

Rather than offering separate Web-based systems as is often the case in the TMS process,

integrates across all players in the transportation process, a Web-based communications tool whose focus is on the ease of message transfer between the common players involved in the TMS process:

Corporate - Traffic (the centralized planning of distribution flow).
Corporate - Internal (all internal view-only access to transportation data).
The Shipper (the execution player, where the freight is actually shipped from).
The Receiver (the customer, a warehouse or DC, or transfer point such as a cross-dock, pool point, or consolidator).
The Carrier (the actual entity managed).

Transportation Models

ARCLOGIX's solutions are defined by the transportation models in

. In its most simple form the model represents the alternative ways to ship freight that optimize the use of equipment and the loading and routing of a shipment.

analyzes all possible ways of shipping an order, then a set of orders, and the software then combines those results and selects the best alternative. Possible Alternative "models" are defined by the rate structures negotiated with the carrier, whether a private fleet, dedicated fleet, or common carrier.

The complexity of the transportation model(s) is illustrated in "Inbound and Outbound Solutions", which covers the resulting types of models or shipments planned for a retailer for a select set of freight. The types of moves include:

Vendor(s) through a consolidator to a DC1
Vendor TL to a DC1
Vendor LTL to a DC1
Multi-stop pick-up at vendors, TL to a DC1, then continuing on to DC2
Multi-stop TL store delivery
Backhaul involving a store delivery, a dead-head to a vendor for pick-up and the shipment's delivery to DC1
Direct vendor to store delivery.

The approach ARCLOGIX has taken is to build on a core set of transportation models that solve for types of distribution patterns, and then test to see which model(s) provide the better solution(s) for the freight currently shipped. "Better" may be driven by any combination of minimal cost, optimal use of the equipment, or some logistics strategy constraint. Models can be static for a set time period; or involve dynamic planning, that is, involve a constant update with new information.

ARCLOGIX adds to the core model option, usually at the request of existing or new customers, by adding a new model. An example is the "Merge-in-Transit" solution. The solution involves both a difficult coordination of the timing of shipments through the cross-dock and to customers, but also compares if the shipment should go through the cross-dock or directly to the customer.

This approach of ARCLOGIX, adding new models that reflect existing logistics strategies, ensures that

matches the way the transportation logistics community actually works versus reflecting a TMS that cannot be implemented because the information structure does not exist to support it's use.

New models are added to the core software. This allows us to incorporate the approach you want to transportation management without rewriting the software and the software development history of ARCLOGIX.

is "built on the before", not a product of performing a 180° change in direction. This provides stability. We operate in the true spirit of pioneers -- of explorers of new vistas.

The "Continuous Move" solution focuses on optimal use of equipment. In this case, given equipment availability, the model "maximizes" the use of trailer space while "minimizing" the use of equipment by picking up and dropping off orders in an attempt to keep the trailer full at all times.

The "Closed Loop" solution is likely the oldest example, but rarely implemented effectively by either the retailer or the manufacturer. The example shown is for a retailer with either a private or dedicated fleet at Cross-Dock1.


Technology The systems architecture involves both a structure and process architecture, in turn defined by the business logic specific to the ARCLOGIX software. First, though, the application is a Windows-based, n-tier system with the client and application objects interconnected via COM+ statements. The system can be decomposed into: A Web client connected to a Web Server, then to the application, and a traditional GUI client front end; and the application layer containing the business models and the database layer.

The application layer contains the process architecture -- the transportation business models. The application contains business objects that define some transportation data analysis process and functions (e.q., rating; fleet optimization). The business objects are linked to the database to retrieve data and update processed information. The COM+ statements network the business objects to the clients, telling the system which business objects to use and when. The COM+ statements actually define the specific model's process for commonly used business objects.

The final tier is the database tier with OLEDB / ODBC connections to the application layer.


Versions Available

The versions of offered address both configuration requirements and budget: , Enterprise Wide Solution , Local Area Solution The functional components of each can be found by selecting the version.

The EW solution is intended for the traffic management of a high volume of orders/shipments from a centralized traffic management location with potential decentralized use of the system, but centralized control of the software and information. EW is a true client/server, multi-tier system with distributed data sources, utilizing both the traditional client as well as a Web-based client. The databases supported are IBM's DB2, Oracle and Microsoft's SQL Server. EW has the full functionality.

The LA solution is intended for a traffic management environment where the software will run exclusively on PCs and be resident in the traffic department on it's local area network. LA is less costly than EW and easier to implement. The database for LA is Microsoft's SQL Server. While LA is intended for a local area network, it can be run remotely through its Web interfaces or using Microsoft's Terminal Server software. The functionality of LA is limited to basic TMS requirements.