The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Technical decision · 2017-2023
Meituan matched 60M food orders a day with a minutes-level dispatch engine.
Meituan assigns millions of riders to millions of live orders in seconds, building the world's largest minute-level delivery network.
Meituan
the move
Meituan's takeout platform handles more than 60 million on-demand orders a day. Unlike a planned warehouse, restaurants, riders and customers appear in real time, so the routing decision has to be made in seconds and then redone as new orders land.
The company's intelligent decision platform turns this into a giant real-time assignment optimization. It builds a digital delivery network and matches order to rider at the scale of millions of riders and orders, while accounting for rider safety, route feasibility and the experience of customers and restaurants.
The system makes order-rider assignments in seconds and re-solves continuously, which is what makes minute-level delivery possible at a national measure. It now covers delivery across about 3,000 counties and districts across China.
why it works
- On-demand demand is unpredictable and arrives at minute scale
- A global assignment finds better matches than each store's own dispatch
- Re-solving continuously keeps the network efficient as new orders arrive
- Rider safety and experience were modeled in, not bolted on
what transfers
For a service decided at the moment of demand, real-time global optimization beats local rules; the platform becomes the deliverable.
what came after
Meituan was named a 2023 Franz Edelman Award finalist for building what INFORMS called the world's largest minute-level delivery network. It supported contactless delivery and 'last-100-meter' navigation during pandemic lockdowns, and helped small merchants digitize.
references
- Global OR top prize Franz Edelman 2023 finalists announced; Meituan's Intelligent Decision Platform shortlisted
- Meituan's Intelligent Decision Platform
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