Optimize orders

Optimizing plans a batch of orders into efficient routes before you send them out — working out the best sequence of stops and which provider or vehicle handles each one. Use it from Ready to Dispatch when you're sending a group of orders and want Nash to plan them together rather than dispatching each on its own.

Start an optimization

Select the orders you want on Ready to Dispatch, then choose Optimize to open the optimizer (titled Plan today's dispatch).

Set up the run

The Setup step walks through a few choices:

• Name this run — an optional label so you can tell runs apart.
• What are we optimizing for? — either use a saved strategy or set your own priorities. For what a strategy weighs, see optimization strategies.
• Which providers should we use? — the providers and vehicles to plan across.
• Any service-time tweaks? and anywhere the optimizer should avoid? — optional constraints on timing and areas.

Review and dispatch

When you run it, Nash optimizes in the background and then shows the Result. Move to Review & Dispatch to see the planned routes on a map, table, and timeline, and to pick which run to use if you tried more than one.

If a run fails, its card says so. When the optimizer reports specific reasons it couldn't plan the orders, they're listed on the card, and they're still there if you reopen the failed run from Activities.

On a large plan, narrow the routes down before you dispatch:

• Filters — under Route metrics, select Add condition to show only routes above or below a number of Boxes, Stops, Distance, or Duration. The same menu filters by provider type, route shape, and stop count. Each filter in effect shows as a chip you can remove on its own, next to a count of how many routes are showing.
• Sort — on the table and timeline, order the routes by stops, boxes, distance, duration, on-time performance, route number, or drive time.

Routes that are missing the number a condition needs are set aside, and a note tells you how many — select Show to see them. If your filters leave no routes, select Clear filters.

The table lists each route's Boxes and Duration, with its drive time underneath the duration.

Note

Some organizations can stop a run while it's still optimizing. If you see Cancel optimization on the Optimizing step, choose it and confirm to stop the run in progress — results you've already saved aren't affected. Availability varies by organization; reach out to Nash for access.

From there you have two ways forward:

• Dispatch — sends the optimized routes out. You'll see how many routes were dispatched and can track them in the delivery dashboard — see find and monitor deliveries. If a route uses your own drivers, an Assign drivers step follows so you can hand each route to a driver.
• Save as Draft — if your organization uses routes, you can save the result as a route to work with later instead of dispatching now. The saved route appears in the Routes area.
• View Routes — once a run's result is already saved as routes, this takes the place of Save as Draft, so you don't build a second set of routes from the same run. It opens the Routes tab on Orders, filtered to that run's routes; remove the Optimization activity chip to see all routes again.

You can also get to a run's routes from Activities: open the ⋯ menu on an optimization row and choose View Routes. If a later run reused some of those routes, they show under the later run instead, so an older run can list fewer routes — or none.

Availability

Some optimizer options — the multi-strategy optimizer and certain advanced settings — depend on what your organization has enabled. If you don't see one, availability varies by org; reach out to Nash.

If you'd rather group orders into a route without running the full optimizer, see create a route from orders.