1. Distinguish between routing and scheduling and between routing and zoning. Ex

Question

1. Distinguish between routing and scheduling and between routing and zoning. Explain how routing and scheduling can interact to complement the planning of an efficient day’s work.

2. A company that rents office equipment to businesses pays its salespeople a commission equal to the first month's rent. However, if the customer cancels or fails to pay its bills, the commission is taken back, even if the customer cancels 10 months later. Is this policy fair? Why or why not? Why would the company have this plan?

Explanation / Answer

1 Routing is the finalisation of the route that a vehicles will take in delivering or collecting the material and the sequence of stops it will make during the course of action. Scheduling is the activity that calculates and assigns the arrival and departure time at each stop en route and assigning the drivers the duties according to the schedule.

Zoning is the finalisation of routes for delivery and pick up within few designated zones in which each vehicles will be operating. One zone is assigned to each vehicle and most optimal route is chalked out to complete the activity.

Routing and scheduling can minimise the distance travelled by a vehicle to cover different points within a geography and reduce the waiting time at each point by pre assignment of work at those points. It an also help in assigning the work to the personnel, thereby making optimum utilisation of resources. Scheduling takes into account the uncertainties and sudden changes in operational conditions to take corrective action within time to minimise the negative impact of the event.

2. The policy is not fair. The commission should be in accordance to the length of association with the customer, with certain minimum period. 10 months is significantly long period seeing that many contracts have duration of 11 months. The company probably has this policy in mind to ensure that the contracts made are long term. Putting the burden of defaulting customer in the salesperson is unprofessional. It is by no means possible to determine the future performance of the customers in paying the bills, except in few cases where the customer is a noted defaulter. By doing so, the company wants to shift the entire burden of business uncertainties on the salespeople, while incentivising them with a months' rent, which is likely to come back to the company in many cases. The percentage of incentives should be given to the salespeople according to the length of association of an account with the company, subject to a minimum of say four or six months and maximum of 12 months, to be paid at the end of the 12 month period.

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