OPTIMIZER — THE PLANNING ENGINE INSIDE METHODICAL APPS
GAThe best plan that breaks none of your rules.
Rosters, routes, production sequences, stock across depots. Optimizer works through the possibilities and finds the best plan that meets every rule you set — then puts it in the app your team already works in.
Inside Methodical apps and Custom Apps · Data stored in India
WHY IT'S HARD
Small problems, enormous numbers
Four people, three shifts a day, one week: more than 4.5 billion possible rosters.
Add a second site, a leave request, a machine that needs cleaning between colours, and the number stops meaning anything. A spreadsheet and an experienced planner find a plan that works. Optimizer finds the best one — and when no plan can meet every rule, it tells you.
HOW IT WORKS
Rules, a goal, a plan
What must always be true. No one works two shifts in a row. A machine runs one job at a time. Deliveries reach the shop before 1 pm.
What "best" means for you. Fewest kilometres, least idle machine time, most shift requests met.
The best plan it can find that breaks none of the rules — and, when no plan can meet them all, it says so.
INSIDE THE APPS
Ready-made, not a new tool to learn
You don't learn a new tool. Optimizer is a set of ready-made planning components our team builds into Methodical apps and Custom Apps — so the roster, the route or the production sequence appears in the app your team already works in.
The hardest part of a planning app is the planning. With Optimizer that part is already built and tested, so our team starts from it rather than from a blank page.
WHERE IT APPLIES
Every industry has a planning problem like this
Each of these is a set of rules and a goal. The engine is the same; the components change.
- –Sequencing orders across shared machines to cut idle time and changeovers
- –Balancing work across the stations on an assembly line
- –Cutting sheet or coil to order with the least scrap
- –Routes for delivery vehicles and field teams, with loads, breaks and delivery windows
- –Stock levels across warehouses and depots
- –Lining up inbound and outbound trucks at a cross-dock
- –Monthly rosters that respect rest rules, skill mix and leave
- –Operating theatre slots against surgeon and ICU-bed availability
- –When and how much cash to send to each branch and ATM
- –Spreading capital across loan tiers within risk limits
- –Planning maintenance outages without putting supply at risk
- –Deciding which plants run, hour by hour, to meet demand at the least cost
- –Turning flight legs into crew duty patterns
- –Assigning rooms and vehicles to bookings
IN PRODUCTION
Running today, inside SalesNet
Field visit planning
LIVEEach rep's visits for the month: which shops, on which day, grouped so each day's stops sit close together, in the order that covers the least road distance.
In daily use by a sanitaryware manufacturer's field force for more than six months.
When a rep is absent or a day is disrupted — heavy rain, a local closure — the days affected can be planned again.
WHERE IT'S GOING
What we're building next
What-if plans
IN DESIGNChange a rule or add a machine, and see the new plan beside the old one before you commit to it.
Why no plan fits
IN DESIGNWhen the rules can't all be met, Optimizer will show which ones clash, so you know what to relax.
Mix and allocation problems
IN DESIGNThe best product mix for a plant, or the best split of a budget, alongside schedules and routes.
Bigger plans
IN DESIGNPlans across several plants, depots and teams at once, not one site at a time.
Call it from your own software
IN DESIGNYour developers will be able to send Optimizer a problem from your own systems and get the plan back.
ROADMAP HONESTY
Limits and honest commitments
Optimizer isn't a tool you use on its own. It comes inside a Methodical app or a Custom App we build for you.
A plan is only as good as the rules and data it's given. Setting those up with your team is part of the work.
Bring the plan your team rebuilds every week.
We'll show you what the best version of it looks like.
Inside Methodical apps and Custom Apps · Data stored in India