Sourcing overview
Sourcing is a type of routing problem that’s applicable to use cases such as construction material transportation, dairy and produce transport, and waste management. In typical sourcing scenarios:
- Requests include pickups only
- Routes are often scheduled in advance and fixed
- Vehicles can start anywhere
- Vehicles end at the same location (e.g. warehouse, depot, etc.)
This tutorial provides a walkthrough of setting up a basic sourcing scenario and includes a sample JSON input file to serve as a starting point. You can use the input file directly in the Nextmv Cloud console or with the Nextmv Cloud API.
Sourcing defaults
The defaults for a sourcing scenario often include defining vehicle end location, vehicle shift start and end, vehicle speed, and stop duration. Specific properties applied to the stops and vehicles override default settings. Learn more about input schema defaults.
Field name | Notes |
---|---|
start | Starting position representing a depot or warehouse |
shift_start | Time that a vehicle shift begins |
shift_end | Time that a vehicle shift ends |
speed | Average speed in meters per second |
stop_duration | Estimated amount of time in seconds to service a stop |
Sourcing vehicles
Most sourcing scenarios typically start with values defined for vehicle id
and capacity
. Latitude and longitude can be defined for a start
location. If one isn’t provided, the vehicle starts its route at the first stop.
Field name | Notes |
---|---|
id | Name or identifier for a given vehicle |
capacity | Available vehicle space for arbitrary entities (e.g., maximum weight, volume, etc. of a given vehicle) |
Sourcing stops
Most sourcing scenarios typically start with values defined for stop id
, position
, and quantity
. The quantity
value in this case is always negative, in that it will reduce the capacity of a vehicle when it services that stop.
Field name | Notes |
---|---|
id | Name or identifier for a given stop |
position | Coordinates for a given stop |
quantity | Arbitrary entities for transport (e.g., the weight, volume, etc. of a given stop) |
Sourcing next steps
The Nextmv Cloud API is extremely flexible. There are many ways you can configure the input file to represent more complex business logic using penalties, time windows, and compatibility attributes.
Sample sourcing input data
The following is a complete sample of input data you can use with the Nextmv Cloud console or Nextmv Cloud API to get started with a basic sourcing scenario.