Operation J-Pack or How Memgraph Organised 2020 Xmas Celebration
TL;DR: After achieving a critical milestone a few weeks ago (stay tuned for details!), it was only appropriate to celebrate with your team! Coronavirus is all around us and we needed to figure out how to do that exactly. So, by putting algorithms to work and doing what we do best, we hacked it. LRP algorithm helped us deliver J-Pack to everyone in the company!
What are we doing?
Figuring in-person activities during corona-time, and especially during cold December, is tricky. To be fair, we are all tired of Zoom calls by now as well. However, as a critical milestone was hit, we knew we needed to celebrate and wanted to do something special for everyone in the company. This was our thought process.
We asked ourselves what were the things Croatians like the most and what would bring most joy? What is the thing that barely anyone can get their hands on at the moment? As restaurants are closed and delivery only works, good food was a clear choice. What type of good food? Homemade is preferred, tasty (of course!) and meat (obviously!).
Got it - Janjetina it is then.
As social distancing rules were still in place, we needed to figure out how to get the J-Pack [Janjetina-Pack] to each person before it gets cold. Delivery followed. Memgraph has 14 employees in Zagreb and they are scattered across the city in a structure that resembles a graph. People are nodes and routes are edges. We were on the verge of something here!
Completely coincidentally, optimisation is something we are good at too. Optimisation problems are our specialty where millions of nodes and edges are crammed into Memgraph with the result coming out almost instantly through the power of the graph.
With the help of our Solutions team, a new, custom made algorithm was created for this specific delivery problem. We are calling it - the LRP algorithm [Lamb-Routing-Problem]. The algorithm creates a route for our delivery drivers and ensures that the sweet, sweet J-Pack gets delivered without getting cold.
What happened next?
Janjetina was prepared and baked in the morning. After reaching its optimal state, J-Packs were prepared and the delivery process kicked off. LRP calculated the route which was visualised through Memgraph Lab - each of the 3 drivers had their delivery locations and everyone was able to follow where their J-Pack is.
Delivery commenced and eventually, everyone received their long-awaited J-Packs with the contents intact and still warm!
Deliveries made with the J-Packs intact and warm!
Saying that it was tasty would be an understatement - it was fantastic! We will be publishing and sharing the tech details in the following blog posts as well as some other exciting news. For now, have a great Holiday season and stay safe!
