Feature Requests

Can we expand the functionality of the recommendation endpoint to allow more than one visit to be taken as input? To be discussed how the suggestions for the groups of visit (not visit group!) would interact.

It would be useful to set a maximum total travel distance per shift, similar to the existing maximum shift travel time constraint. Some use cases are better expressed in kilometers/miles than in minutes (for example when distance-based cost, vehicle range, or contractual limits matter more than duration).

Profit will need to be positive numeric value that will be maximized over the solution and might need precedence over assigning (mandatory) visits.

Today Timefold supports travel by car or bicycle (or other OSRM profile but only one). For some use cases certain employees travel on foot and/or public transport while other travel by car. Ideally the system also helps deciding who will travel on foot and who better travels by car but this could be an extension later on.

Ideally, we should be able to schedule a visit that takes a full day, even if FIXED/FLOATING breaks are defined on the vehicles. In such a scenario: scheduling a full day visits would remove the break from the day and the break can just be assumed to be taken during the service duration of the visit.

In some datasets visits don't get assigned. In this scenario: The visits are 'optional' Part of their time windows fall after the current planning period. Their time windows start days before the planning period. The 'prefer visits scheduled to earliest day' therefore comes with a large score, even for the earliest possible shifts. This prevents them from being assigned, as it's 'cheaper' to not assign them.

This is a request to be able to account for depot stock levels of non-renewable materials when optimizing field service routes. In some scenarios, visits require specific consumable materials or parts (for example, wood from a depot). The model should consider the availability of these non-renewable resources when assigning visits to technicians and depots, ensuring that planned visits are feasible given current stock levels. This would help prevent infeasible plans and improve coordination between inventory management and route optimization.

This is a request to introduce a way to express preferences for assigning certain visits to specific vehicles or employees. Similar to the existing preferredVehicles setting at the visit level, this would let planners favor assigning particular visits to nurses or drivers who prefer or are best suited for them, while still allowing flexibility if needed.

Imagine a scenario where 3 visits need to happen at the same location. Each visit would take about 15 minutes (some preparation, the task, evaluation). But if you would do them together, the total time of doing all 3 together might be shorter than 3 times 15 minutes. This is a feature request for the Field Service Routing Model to support automatic collapsing of visits in such scenarios.

This is a request to prefer routes of vehicles to start far away and then move closer to home, as technicians like leaving early to avoid traffic, but don't like being stuck in traffic at end of a shift.