Waitrose has been using ORTEC Time Slotting and Planning solutions for over 6 years, optimising a fleet of 1200 vans covering 2500 routes each day, operating from 185 branches including 3 large Customer Fulfillment Centers.

Powered by ORTEC’s innovative hybrid solution for Routing and Time Slotting, Waitrose displays delivery time slot options to customers in a fraction of a second. The time slots are not simply based on postcode lookups. They involve complex “along-the-road” calculations. The slots and associated delivery prices are based on actual orders and forecasted bookings. The engine calculates time slots dynamically, updating delivery slot availability with order basket changes or slot changes.

Since deploying ORTEC’s advanced planning solution, Waitrose has increased the number of delivery slots available for its online customers without increasing its fleet size. ORTEC has also been instrumental for Waitrose to increase flexibility in its service, allowing their customers to place orders and make changes to orders later in the day. Waitrose has greater visibility into their routes and can better analyze delivery performance and capability.

Time slotting optimization is a scalable cloud service which integrates with ORTEC’s Enterprise level advanced planning solutions.