Appian Resource Calendar (ARC) is a cloud-based tool purpose-built for the lumber and building material distribution industry, digitizing the whiteboards, spreadsheets, and calendars used for routing like they traditionally have done. The user can either plan through simple drag and drop or via lassoing orders on the map.
Appian Resource Calendar is a specialized, Trimble-hosted web-based scheduling application purpose-built for organizations with a unique set of route planning and scheduling needs most commonly seen in the retail products industry. Some of the unique characteristics of Resource Calendar include the ability to plan and view routes in a calendar-style layout by asset or driver. View and plan routes days, weeks, or even months in advance. Leverage a robust reservation system that allows you to create placeholders for future deliveries, particularly when specialized equipment or a specific delivery day is required. Leverage the Point of Interest tool to clearly mark delivery locations that may not yet be displayed on commercial mapping.
Some of the key benefits of the application include automating manual routing methods that speed up the time it takes to plan routes. Provide organizational-wide visibility on the current and future delivery schedules so employees across various departments have a fast and easy way to view delivery information and finally, the ability to leverage robust optimization to minimize transportation costs, ensure the correct driver and equipment are assigned to delivery while adhering to delivery time window commitments made to the customer.
After orders are imported into Resource Calendar from the back office order management system, routers will have visibility to all of their committed work as well as orders that will need to be scheduled. Resource Calendar provides planners a number of ways to plan and schedule unrouted orders such as via the map view or by leveraging drag and drop capability on the calendar view by placing orders on the correct resources (drivers or assets) at the correct delivery times. The goal is to ensure customer service levels are kept high, resources are properly utilized and drivers remain happy.
Post-planning, finalized routes can be sent back to the order management system or Warehouse management system. Customers also have the option to leverage Dispatch capability through a companion module, DRTrack Connect, for driver assignment and route execution with live planned vs. actual tracking.