Network Analysis

What Are Network Analysis Services?

Network analysis services are built into many ArcGIS products. The primary purpose of these services is to help optimize transportation challenges. This collection of services can be used to perform point-to-point routing, optimize a fleet of vehicles and their work for the day, calculate drive times, and show current and historic traffic maps to help make better decisions.

Simple Route Service

This service provides the ability to calculate a route, including route geometry, travel time, and driving directions. The service is typically used to determine the best route between two or more points for a given time of day. If one or more points are included in a route, they are processed in the order received and are not optimized for the best path. Typically, a simple route uses only a start and end point.

How Many Service Credits Does Simple Routing Use?

This table shows six typical levels of simple routing.

Number of Simple Routes	Credits Used
1,000	200
2,500	500
10,000	2,000
25,000	5,000
100,000	20,000
1,000,000	200,000

Below are some additional examples that illustrate the estimated number of service credits it would take to complete a project.

Scenario 1

A fire inspector typically has a series of planned sites to visit for a day. At the beginning of the work day the inspector calculates a route to the first site, determines an ETA and best path to the site. The inspector completes a total of 11 routes for the day including a return visit to the home office. The following example illustrates the total number of simple routes for a team of three inspectors per year.

Number of Simple Routes	3 inspectors x 11 routes per day x 240 work days per year
Total Number of Simple Routes	7,920 routes
Credits Used	1,584 credits

Scenario 2

A grocery delivery company has ten vehicles each delivering goods to 30 locations daily. The company has chosen to implement turn-by-turn navigation to guide their delivery technicians to each of their destinations, including 3 additional trips back to the warehouse to pick up fresh goods. Each driver drives a total of 31 routes per day but on average the driver is off route at least once per delivery and needs to get back on track. This additional request to re-route the driver counts as an additional route. In total, each driver requires 62 route requests per day to complete the work. The following example illustrates the total number of annual simple routes for a team of 10 delivery vehicles implementing a turn-by-turn navigation solution.

Number of Simple Routes	10 delivery technicians x 62 routes per day x 240 work days per year
Total Number of Simple Routes	148,000
Credits Used	29,760

Optimized Route Service

This service provides the ability to calculate an optimized route, including route geometry, travel time and also driving directions. The service is typically used to determine the best path between three or more destinations throughout a given day. Optimized routes produce the most efficient order of stops, helping to reduce total travel time and overhead.

How Many Service Credits Does Optimized Routing Use?

This table shows six typical levels of optimized routing.

Number of Optimized Routes	Credits Used
1,000	500
2,500	1,250
10,000	5,000
25,000	12,500
100,000	50,000
1,000,000	500,000

Below are some additional examples that illustrate the estimated number of service credits it would take to complete a project.

Scenario 1

A city work crew typically has a series of planned job sites to visit for a day. Some of these sites may need to be visited at specific times (time-windows) and the work may have different durations. At the beginning of the work day each crew member enters the location, arrival time, and duration. Based on this information an optimized route and itinerary that includes directions for each location, a map, and estimated time of arrival is generated. The work crew performs this operation daily. The following example illustrates the total number of annual optimized routes for a work crew of 6 technicians.

Number of Optimized Routes	6 technicians x 1 route per day x 240 work days per year
Total Number of Optimized Routes	1,440 optimized routes
Credits Used	720 credits

Drive Time (Service Areas) Service

The drive time service produces polygons that define the area measured over a period of time or a given distance from a specified location based on the underlying road network. The polygons are then typically used to summarize an external source of information such as the number of customers within the drive time.

How Many Service Credits Does Drive Time Service Use?

This table shows six typical levels of drive time use.

Number of Drive Times	Credits Used
1,000	500
2,500	1,250
10,000	5,000
25,000	12,500
100,000	50,000
1,000,000	500,000

Below are some additional examples that illustrate the estimated number of service credits it would take to complete a project.

Scenario 1

A city government has a responsibility to provide fire services to its community; there is an expectation that a fire truck will be able to service 90% of all locations within 5 minutes. The city is growing and needs to determine if their constituents are covered under their service policy. The city has their constituent’s locations geocoded as well as locations for each of their existing fire stations. The city performs a 5-minute drive time around each fire station and then selects all records that are reachable in five minutes; the percentage of covered locations is 92%. The analysis is run quarterly to determine the need for a new fire department.

Number of Drive Times	3 fire departments (service areas) x 4 analyses per year
Total Number of Drive Times	12 drive times
Credits Used	6 credits

Scenario 2

A multinational retailer is planning new stores in several targeted locations. Customers typically travel less than 20 minutes to visit the retailer’s locations and successful stores draw from a population of 100,000 people. The retailer has access to demographics for the area surrounding each location and wants to verify that prospective locations can effectively support their business. The retailer performs a 15-, 20-, and 25-minute drive time around each of 200 potential new locations and then summarizes the population within the drive time polygons to ensure they have enough customers for each new location. This planning exercise is re-run monthly to regularly identify prospective locations for new stores.

Number of Drive Times	3 drive time rings x 200 drive times run monthly
Total Number of Drive Times	7,200 drive times
Credits Used	3,600 credits

Closest-Facility Service

The closest facility service is used to find the closest location based on multiple inputs, such as the current location, distance, time of day, traffic conditions, number of facilities, and other factors. For example, mobile field workers and emergency service crews need to know the closest location to re-load supplies or deliver patients to a destination. Based on the inputs, the result is a list of facilities sorted by least cost, the corresponding routes, and driving directions.

How Many Service Credits Does Closest-Facilities Use?

This table shows six typical levels of closest facilities use.

Number of Closest-Facility Routes	Credits Used
1,000	500
2,500	1,250
10,000	5,000
25,000	12,500
100,000	50,000
1,000,000	500,000

Below are some additional examples that illustrate the estimated number of service credits it would take to complete a project.

Scenario 1

An ambulance company with 25 ambulances needs to constantly dispatch the ambulances to a patient pickup point and deliver the patient to the closest available hospital. After the ambulance has picked up a patient, the dispatcher provides a list of the 3 closest hospitals based on the patient location, current time, traffic conditions, and a cut off distance parameter. During a shift, each ambulance typically makes 5 calls. There are 2 shifts per day, 365 days a year.

Number of Closest-Facility Routes	25 ambulances x 5 calls per shift x 3 closest-facility routes per call x 2 shifts per day x 365 days
Total Number of Closest-Facility Routes	273,750 closest facility routes
Credits Used	136,875 credits

Scenario 2

A car for hire company wants to optimize the miles driven each year. The company has 10 available vehicles to service 200 requests throughout the day. Each pickup request needs to be assigned to the closest available car. The dispatcher is informed by each driver of their status and location. The dispatcher submits new pickup requests, the available cars and their locations, and the service returns the closest available car based on the lowest cost route to perform the pickup.

Number of Closest-Facility Routes	200 pickups per day x 1 closest car (facility) x 365 days per year
Total Number of Closest Facility Routes	73,000 closest facility routes
Credits Used	36,500 credits

Multi-Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) Service

The multi-vehicle routing problem (VRP) service is a fleet optimization service that can be used to assign a large number of deliveries or service visits (stops) across a fleet of vehicles.  The service allocates the stops efficiently to reduce overall fleet operation costs while adhering to critical business rules such as maximum work hours, miles driven and it also supports assigning stops based on vehicle and driver skills (specialties) required to complete a visit.

How Many Service Credits Does VRP Use?

This table shows six typical levels of VRP use.

Number of Optimized Routes	Credits Used
1,000	2,000
2,500	5,000
10,000	20,000
25,000	50,000
100,000	200,000
1,000,000	2,000,000

Below are some additional examples that illustrate the estimated number of service credits it would take to complete a project.

Scenario 1

A medical supplies company delivers oxygen to 252 residential customers per day. Each customer has a required time window and each visit takes approximately 15 minutes. The supply company has 20 available vehicles to perform the deliveries. The problem is passed to the VRP service which responds with 17 VRP routes. (Note: after optimization not all vehicles were required to perform the day’s work). The organization makes additional edits to the routes throughout the day. Three of the routes need to be re-factored based on new high priority orders and also a few cancellations. The planning exercise is run daily with an average use of 20 VRP Routes performed per day, 240 days per year.

Number of VRP Routes	20 VRP routes x 240 days
Total Number of VRP Routes	4,800 VRP routes
Credits Used	9,600 credits