A couple of days ago, we hosted a Logistics Optimisation webinar. We covered some challenges of Logistics Chains and talked about how graphs, graph technology, and Hume can help you tackle them.
Intro to Logistics and the Goals of Logistics Optimisation
Logistics is a complex and growing field. The number of parcels shipped every year is continuously rising. Not only is the amount of parcels shipped higher – which alone adds on complexity, but customer expectations are also changing. According to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, global parcel shipping revenue was $430 billion in 2020 – a 27% increase since 2019.
Many companies aim to send their orders on the same day it was placed, reducing delivery times and increasing customer satisfaction. There are also rising sustainability issues and concerns, adding to the amount and complexity of the challenges logistics companies are facing. And let’s not forget the ever-present challenges connected to cost savings. These are just some of the challenges logistics chains face in the present day.
How do graphs fit in?
Luckily, graphs and graph technology can help tackle these challenges. Graph Theory itself has its foundation in a logistics problem. The problem was to find a path through the city of Königsberg crossing each of the river Pregel’s seven bridges only once. In 1736, Leonhard Euler proved that the problem had no solution and laid the foundation of graph theory.
So you can tell already that logistics and graphs may be a good fit. What exactly can graphs help with when it comes to logistics challenges? On a high level, graph analytics enable you to represent a problem in a way that makes it easy to understand, analyse, and solve. In this webinar we chose to focus on the problem of finding the best routes – which, graphs can also help you do. With the help of graph algorithms, you can find the best routes efficiently and fast. You can also feed more data into the graph – e.g., about traffic conditions, and analyse the routes in the light of more data.
How can Hume help?
As you may know, Hume is our graph analytics solution. It helps you connect data from different sources and analyse it historically and in real-time. We highlighted some of the features of Hume that can be especially helpful in logistics optimisation.
Data Orchestration allows you to ingest, clean, and manipulate the data to Hume.
Automated Alerts notify you of changes in your data, making sure you stay on top of changes and react quickly.
Actions – custom cypher queries – speed up your analysis.
Geospatial and Temporal views allow you to bring the spatial and temporal contexts into your analysis.
Real-time updates – with auto-refresh Actions, you can follow the changes in your data in real-time.
Styles and Grouping help you understand your data more quickly – already by just looking at it.
Advanced Expand lets you build a query visually, without the need to code.
Demo
We started the demo by looking for any orders that should be dispatched the next day. We analysed these orders and verified the existence of an available vehicle near a specific order. Then we selected other orders that went to different locations and found the best route to dispatch these orders. This route, as well as historical, or real-time data can be shown on a map. Finally, we walked through how to set up alerts to receive notifications of new developments and changes in your data.
Watch the recording from the webinar:
Watch the recording from the webinar:
Wonder what Hume can do for you? Request a demo and speak to one of our industry experts to find out.
