Industry:
Food and Drink Retail , Distribution/3PL
Categories:
Operational routing and scheduling , Benefits reported , Large operation
When Summit Logistics, a division of Tibbett & Britten Group North America, providers of dedicated logistics services for Safeway in Canada, was looking for a computerized vehicle routing and scheduling system to achieve a significant improvement in service and efficiency for the Vancouver distribution operation, it selected Paragon over other North American systems.
Summit was embarking on an overhaul of its operation and the system supporting this change had to provide strong capabilities on a number of levels. Not only was the distribution operation moving from manual planning to same day scheduling and delivery, Summit also intended to introduce a radically improved service so that any store could order any product ranges on any day. The search was on for a system that could provide operational resource and scheduling solutions, and also develop strategic plans for Summit and Safeway throughout the region.
The Vancouver operation, employing approximately 400 warehouse and 100 transportation staff, delivers to 80 urban, island and rural stores some up to 1,000 mountainous miles away. Adding to the demands of this configuration was the need to include the separate frozen, chilled and ambient warehouses in the information loop to achieve the new service standards and secure overtime reductions in a heavily structured labor environment.
Summit's Planning and Development Director Tony Houghton knew of Paragon's software and support and was confident the system was right for the region and the sector. Even so, Paragon was assessed against local systems before a decision was made. Paragon came out clear winner, able to accommodate regional road networks with accurate modeling of road speeds and driving patterns and a multi-trip capability which could drive Summit's bid for improved service and cost reduction. Summit also clearly viewed Paragon's strong customer support as a key requirement in their decision making process.
Implementation took just six weeks for the urban schedule including the creation of an interface with Summit's multi-trailer management system to facilitate efficient loading by the three warehouses. Implementation was also sped up by Paragon's easy use of data from the existing in-cab system to calibrate the system's parameters. Implementation of the rural and island services followed immediately.
Operational planning time was immediately reduced to less than two hours per day for the entire operation and many stores started receiving their orders just six hours after placing them. "Paragon isn't just proving to be the backbone of daily operations," concluded Tony Houghton, "it has also helped instill operation-wide discipline, with output dictating order assembly and loading sequences as well as providing a timetable for all our activities and deliveries."
"Paragon’s track record showed that the Paragon system was the right tool for the job, that the implementation would be smooth and short and that our business would see real financial and service benefits very quickly. Their support has been excellent."
Tony Houghton, Director Planning & Development, Summit Logistics
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Categories
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