The Challenge

For the initial study, we were given the data for 684 reps over 21 districts. We were also given the outlet locations for over 50,000 outlets with a required visit frequency of up to 6 visits. The planning period was 4 per week and 5 per day.
In addition, the sales reps were divided up by skill level:

• HAM: Higher Account Manager
• AM: Account Manager
• SR: Sales Rep

The outlets were also categorized by type of outlet and which type of rep was allowed to visit them. The HAMs were allowed to visit all of the outlets while the AMs and SRs were only allowed to visit those outlets appropriate to their skill levels. Sleep-outs were also permitted.

The Solution

MasterRouter was used to regionalize both the outlet types and which reps were allowed to visit them. Each set of regions was categorized into regions.

For the “Inland District” region (see image below) there were 23 sales reps assigned (8 HAM and 15 AM) to 1813 outlets. 5 of these reps had sleep-outs and an average of 16 outlets were visited daily and the average daily travel distance was 79 km.

The Results

This methodology was applied country-wide. All outlets were now being visited by the correct personnel according to all required contract periods and SLAs, and, this was done much more efficiently with over 5 million kilometers of travel distance being saved annually.