Introduction to Clear Abacus

Introduction to Clear Abacus 1

Introduction to Clear Abacus

[email protected]

www.clearabacus.comVisit us:

Contact us:

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.clearabacus.com/


Document Scope

① About our product

② Case studies

③ Pilot projects

④ About our team


Our Product:• A transport planning & optimization engine accessed through a RESTful web service• Software used to model and optimize transactional transport decisions

Software in Brief

Customer

Data: -Carrier rates & schedules -Locations & operating hours -Product profile for upcoming shipments

Transport Plan: -The load & route plan for all products -The expected cost of the transportation -Identify any products which can’t make their deadlines at destination

Clear Abacus


Is Tailored for:• Transport decisions made once per day up to once per week. • High-complexity transport problems (temperature control, hazardous goods, SKU

kitting, multimodal, multiple overlapping carrier contracts, complicated constraints, and so on)

• Complex optimization goals, such as a blend of transport cost reduction, inventory carrying cost balancing, capacity smoothing, and risk management

And Differentiated by:• Subscription basis, without up-front charges, commitment periods or minimum

spend. • Cloud computing (no hardware costs, no license fees)• Narrow but deep feature set. No attempt to be a complete TMS nor to be a portal for

collecting data from multiple parties• Strong underlying optimization technology (data model, algorithm implementation,

natively built for SaaS and parallelization)

Software in Brief


Software Details

Data Input and Output

• Our client’s provide a snapshot of their supply chain setup (costs, locations, vehicles or other resources, business rules, etc.) along with the data on products which must be transported. This comes as a single XML file

• The XML is submitted using a REST API web service. This can also be uploaded manually through our Flight Control website.

• Data is not persisted to a database by Clear Abacus, nor do we accumulate and integrate multiple data sources. This simplifies data management and security.

Optimization

• Clear Abacus takes incoming optimization jobs and manages them through a queuing system called “Flight Control”

• The queuing system spins-up new “agent” servers on a cloud computing provider

• The job is assigned to multiple heterogeneous agents

• The agents represent unique algorithmic approaches to the optimization task, or similar algorithms but with diverging configurations

• Every 1-2 seconds the agents report their best personal best plan. The overall best is made available at any time for downloading

Other Features

• For clients who are not comfortable constructing XMLs from their core IT systems we offer an Excel integration option

• Highly effective modeling language for quickly setting up a client for optimization

• Especially effective for optimizations running in longer time periods

• Little or no software screens to learn for the user… in fact, it can be run as a “solver” engine behind a client’s preferred front-end system.


Key FeaturesLoad and Route Optimization

• Load building and routing, including factors such as typical equipment requirements, complex timetables for transport activities, multi-leg transport planning, etc.

Multi-Stop Vehicles:• Easy modeling of multi-stop vehicles, including pickup or delivery actions at each stop, and dynamic or fixed routes.

Resource-Enabled Transport Planning:• Transport plans can be enabled by resources (such as a route which can be executed using different vehicle sizes). The resources

add a secondary dimension of constraint and optimization• Support for sub-resources as well, such as a vehicle with variable partitions which must be optimized in terms of size or

temperature settings.

Restrictive Attributes:• Restrictive attributes can be added as categorical variables or continuous variables, and are used to control the transport

planning.

Clients Declare Units:• The application supports new units which will drive the optimization, declared by the client at run-time, including unit-to-unit

relationships, i.e. declaring a pallet as being part of a sandwich pallet.

Cloud Deployment & Scaling:• On-demand spin-up of new agents including checkout and installation on cloud virtual machines

Supply Chain & Solution Visualization:• The application generates a number of reports and visualizations of the client’s supply chain and the optimal transport plan.


Examples of Optimization Results:

Visualization of the Transport Network:

Visualization of the Best Solution:

http://www.clearabacus.com/download/supply_chain_graph.pdf

http://www.clearabacus.com/download/solution_graph.pdf


XML

XML

Option 1... System Integration Approach

Customer

RE

ST A

PI

Queue D

istr

ibuti

on

Virtual Machines

New Job

Most Recent Best Plan

Assign New Job

Each Agent Anounces Their Personal Best Plan

Pool of Heterogenou

s Optimization

Agents

Machine Checkout /

Checkin


XML

XML

Option 2... Excel Integration Approach

Customer

RE

ST A

PI

Queue D

istr

ibuti

on

Virtual Machines

New Job

Most Recent Best Plan

Assign New Job

Each Agent Anounces Their Personal Best Plan

Pool of Heterogenou

s Optimization

Agents

Machine Checkout /

Checkin

Excel Mapping

Tool

Master Data or New Job


Case StudyTrucking


Case Study Overview

Case Study Data and Goal• Overland transport focus, particularly trucking• High and low security freight, temperature controlled, and ambient freight• 22 Vehicle types, ranging from double-deck lorries to inner-city vans, with various security and

temperature-control capabilities• Temperature control ranges on most products• 42 locations… a mix of pickup, destination, and cross-dock locations• Usual per-day volumes: ~150 transport orders, ~1,000 pallets, and 300k chargeable kilos• The client asked for a comparison between the Clear Abacus software’s best plan and a manual

solution from their transport analysts for all products being shipped on a selected day

Case Study Highlight• Directly compared manual vs. Clear Abacus solutions


Results Comparison

Simple Manual

• Emphasis on Route Planning• 1.5 hours of staff time• 141 equipment reservations• 17 Orders given multi-leg

routes• Two equipment types used• Total Cost = 72,152 EUR

Best Manual

• Emphasis on Load Building• 3 hours of staff time• 88 equipment reservations• 17 Orders given multi-leg

routes• Two equipment types used• Total Cost = 52,829 EUR

46% cost reduction compared to best manual solution

Clear Abacus

• Evaluated loading and routing• 2 hours of optimization time• 82 equipment reservations• 26 Orders given multi-leg

routes• Six equipment types used• Total Cost = 28,315 EUR


Case StudyLarge-scale tests


Case Study Overview

Case Study Data and Goal• 12 vehicle types• Two to three transit time options for most lanes• 7 origins, 2 cross-docks, 139 destinations• ~700 transport legs, about evenly split by service level and across 8 carriers• ~40k rates based on chargeable weight, equipment used, security, and source - destination• Temperature control and ambient, as well as high-security freight• ~11k orders… 55 million Kilograms and 150k pallets

Case Study Highlight• Multimodal context• Large scale testing, in terms of parallel computing and data volume

Case Study Goal• The client asked for a complete optimization of one year of operational data, run on a day-by-

day basis as it would have in real life. • The goal was to prove cost savings and also to do “load testing” on our parallelization ability


Optimization Results:

• Overall 24% savings. In Clear Abacus plans over baseline plans• 182 individual optimizations were run, each focusing on a 48 hour

window of product availability• The 48-hour window represents the visibility the client had at the

time the original planning decisions were made allowing for a realistic comparison of results


Pilot ProjectsHow we demonstrate expected impact


Gather Data

• Agree on scope for pilot (region, product class, etc)• Client sends Clear Abacus related network & shipment data• Agree on general business rules

Optimize

• Clear Abacus formats data as needed• Optimizer is run for agreed time, matching

expected operational limits

Critique Results

• Results are compared to a known baseline, and reviewed for feasibility by the client’s staff

• Possible need to re-run with different business rules if something was missed

Clear Abacus Piloting Process & Timeline

~2 weeks duration

Contact us: [email protected]



About Our Company


Who is Clear Abacus?

Strategy

Vision

Bring new technologies to supply chain optimization

Develop market-leading software for transport planning decisions in the once-per-day to once-per-week time range

Software offered on a subscription basis

Product


The Team

Josh Bryan:• Co-founder• BS @ University of Missouri,

Columbia• MS @ University of Illinois,

Chicago• Published researcher in artificial

intelligence• US patent holder• Responsible for technology &

development

Ryan Zhao:• Principal Consultant• BSE @ University of

Michigan, Ann Arbor• Background in supply chain

software implementation• International work

experience• Responsible for solution

consulting

Jonah McIntire:• Co-founder• BS @ University of Missouri,

Columbia• MS @ University of Missouri,

Columbia• Published researcher in supply

chain visibility• Broad global work experience• Responsible for solution

consulting


[email protected]

www.clearabacus.comVisit us:

Contact us:


http://www.clearabacus.com/

Technology

Introduction to Clear Abacus