From the Journal of Problem Solving. (Volume 1, no. 1 Fall 2006)
Considering the classic Travelling Salesman Problem, as the number of nodes or stops is increased, the number of possible solutions increases factorially: (n - 1)!/2
That means for Orion, a 5 point array or 5 stop route has 12 possible solutions.
A 10 stop route has 181,440 solutions, and a 15 stop route has (4 x 10)10 possible solutions.
Despite the apparent intractability of TSP,research into human performance with visually presented TSP problems show that participants are capable of solving the arrays to near optimal accuracy with a minimum of cognitive effort.
Also consider the work of Dr. Sanjeer Arora, Theoretical Computer Scientist with Princeton, MIT and UC Berkley. He found that regardless of the algorithm's elegance and complexity or the computer used for calculations, any solution reached will be no better than one arrived at by the human brain.
In fact, a computer's solution would be no better than a 89% optimization of what a person could do.
And it takes the computer a lot longer to reach its solution.
See:
MIC 99 - 111 Metaheuristics International Conference
(Analyzing the Run-Time Behavior of Iterated
Local Search for the TSP)
Bottom line: Orion is useful. But if UPS is interested in mileage and time savings, nothing beats the human brain.