Since the initial release of Nextmv Cloud and API in December 2020, we’ve seen the product gain more traction and adoption with customers across industries — from food delivery to construction material transportation and beyond. That early release focused on exposing the core capabilities of our API. The next logical step was to lay the groundwork for a scalable information architecture and begin building more features for robust routing and dispatch applications.
We’re pleased to share that we've done just that with this latest Nextmv Cloud release, which:
- Improves user experience and navigation with updated formatting and layout, adjusted color schemes, informative tooltips, a visual representation of value function composition, and more.
- Streamlines detailed analysis of returned solutions with a new dropdown menu for paginating between all identified solutions as well as charts that break down different key views of each of those solutions
These updates are meant to be experienced. So I invite you to sign into Nextmv Cloud or create a free account. Let’s look at a few of the new additions.
Solution value composition
We added in a dynamic visual representation the value function composition. As you click through and modify input files, this visualization updates to reflect additions or subtractions of earliness, lateness, and unassigned penalties.
Solution explorer dropdown
It's one thing to ask a solver to find the best route and have it returned to you. But it's also natural to wonder: What were the other feasible routes and what do they look like? You could always answer this question with Nextmv Cloud, but it involved several manual steps. Now, with every run of your app, Nextmv Cloud returns multiple results for you to flip through in a handy dropdown menu.
As you click through each result one by one, you’ll see the route description and map change for you to visually explore. This is a fast way of visually exploring how different solutions play out.
It’s one thing to explore returned solutions one by one. It’s another to take a step back, see the bigger picture, and explore them in aggregate. This release makes that possible as well.
Solution evaluation charts
Nextmv’s solver finds the best solution in the runtime you give it, while accounting for your configured constraints. With the Dispatch app, the best solution is the one with the smallest value, where the value is the sum of the total time your fleet spends on the road plus any penalties accrued.
The dropdown to explore the different solutions is great for analyzing routes and other details solution by solution, but we wanted to provide a visual way to quickly evaluate the returned solution values through a few different lenses: solution value over time, solution value composition, and vehicle value composition.
Solution value over time
How long does it make sense to run your app? At what point do I see diminishing returns on runtime? This chart helps you answer these questions and make adjustments as needed.
Solution value composition
Sometimes it’s helpful to understand what factors are contributing to your returned solutions. Are more stops going unassigned than you thought? Are vehicles showing up too late? Are earliness penalties having too strong of an effect? This type of quick insight can help you explore other ways to configure your app by shifting start and end windows, adding another vehicle, adjusting lateness and lateness penalties further, and more.
Vehicle value composition
Each vehicle has an associated value that gets added together to arrive at the final solutions the Nextmv solver returns. This chart shows the visual breakdown of how much each vehicle in the fleet contributes to the solution value. Is the distribution of routes balanced? Is one vehicle contributing more than the others? This chart offers a quick way to answer these questions and more.
Get started with Nextmv Cloud for free
These updates are just one step forward on an exciting journey we’re taking with Nextmv Cloud. You can get started with these powerful capabilities by creating a free Nextmv account. And for additional guidance, check out our documentation for getting started.
We hope you enjoy the latest updates. And we look forward to sharing more soon!
