New and noteworthy

We have implemented minStartTime, maxStartTime, and maxEndTime to replace the now deprecated startTime and endTime. Adding maxStartTime opens the possibility to get recommendations for fixed-start visits (these are visits where minStartTime equals maxStartTime).

We have added a capability to specify preferred vehicles for a visit. When set, the visit can be assigned to a shift of one of the specified vehicles if possible. You can specify these as modelInput.visits[].preferredVehicles when submitting a new route-plan. Refer to the OpenAPI Spec for details.

We have added activeDateTime and shutdownDateTime attributes in model run information.

We have added a new KPI for the load balancing constraint that we introduced with v0.30.0. See the feature guide for load balancing or the Timefold Platform UI for a description of its meaning.

We have enabled multi-threaded solving for this model. Based on our benchmarking results, the maximum number of threads is limited to 4 for now.

The desired maximum number of threads can be specified by the maxThreadCount attribute in Run configuration. The default is 1.

We have added a new constraint to the model that allows you to balance the workload across technicians based on their time worked. The constraint also allows for historical data to be considered. This can be useful when you want to balance the workload based on past hours worked by the technicians.

More information can be found in the feature guide for load balancing.

Priority is now defined as a number between 1 and 10 (both included), with 10 being the lowest priority and 1 being the highest priority. The default priority is "6".

Please see Upgrading to the latest versions for additional details.

Added includeDependencies as a new parameter to the VisitTimeWindowRecommendationRequest API. With this parameter you can select whether you want to check for possible dependent vehicle shift plans that might be influenced by a recommendation. If the recommendation for a visit puts it before other visits, it might change the arrival, start of service and departure times of the previously planned visits. If those have relations to other visits (e.g. visit groups, visit dependency), the recommendation might also affect other vehicle shift plans. By setting the includeDependencies parameter to ALL, these dependencies will be part of the response.

We have replaced the existing demo datasets with new ones that are more realistic and better showcase the model’s features.

The new demo datasets cover basic Field Service Routing capabilities, Visit Dependencies, and Visit Groups.

Added minStartDateAdjusterIncrement to the minDelayTo VisitDependency. The value determines how many times the minStartDateAdjuster is applied. This allows a more precise control over the delay.

More information can be found in Dependencies between visits under Visit dependency with minimum delay as a point in time

Added capability to specify vehicles required by a visit. When set, the visit can be assigned only to a shift of one of the specified vehicles. More information can be found in Visit assignment restrictions.

Added VisitDependency capability to specify additional conditions between dependent visits, such as requiring both visits to be assigned to the same vehicle (not the same vehicle shift). More information can be found in Visit dependency with coordination.

When defining Visit Groups, you can now specify they need to be aligned at the end of the Visit. You can use this if two or more technicians need to be present for a Visit at the end of the job. E.g. both technicians need to be present to finish the task after preparation work was done by one of them.

More information can be found in Visit Group reference.

Added VisitDependency capability to specify a delay to the next day/week/day-of-week, more information can be found in Visit dependencies.

0.20.0 is backward compatible with 0.19.0 and no migration is required.

Fixed validation of all model input date-time attributes to require the timezone offset.

Validation now rejects a vehicle without any vehicle shifts.

0.19.0 is backward compatible with 0.18.0 and no migration is required.

All ISO 8601 "Local date time (unqualified)" types have been replaced by ISO 8601 "Local date time with offset to UTC" (Coordinated Universal Time) to support multiple time zones.

Please see migrating from 0.17.0 to 0.18.0 and Time zones and daylight-saving time (DST) for additional details.