Nottingham based bicycle company, Raleigh, is enjoying the benefits of having implemented Paragon’s Multi Depot routing and scheduling solution for the company’s distribution operations.
Raleigh reports that the Paragon solution has helped the company to improve the efficiency of its transport operations, reduce lead times and improve customer service.
Raleigh imports most of its products from the Far East, and distributes around half a million consignments of bicycles, parts and accessories every year to retail outlets throughout the UK, via its main depot in Nottingham and its satellite depot in London.
“We’ve been using Paragon’s routing and scheduling solution for about fifteen years, now, and the resulting reduction in our lead times has enabled us to hold less stock and invoice earlier – which has a direct positive impact on our cash flow,” says Steve Wigley, Distribution Manager for Raleigh. “We originally opted for the Paragon solution because we needed to install a routing system that would help us to optimise our vehicle utilisation and improve the efficiency of our delivery operation. Things have changed over the years; as the market has become more oriented towards the adult leisure sector, our business is not quite as seasonal as it used to be. We still have a small peak at Christmas, mainly for children’s bikes, but our bigger peak is now spring and summer.”
Paragon Multi Depot enables users to plan routes and schedules for multiple depots as a single planning task, and facilitates the switch to central planning with the ability to share results with and incorporate changes from other sites across a company’s operation. Routing in this way has been proven to cut planning time, improve visibility of the transport plan, give planning teams added flexibility and enhance the overall efficiency of the vehicle fleet.
Taking just two minutes to process the information, the Paragon software calculates a delivery schedule that takes into account order quantities, delivery addresses, vehicle capacities, promised delivery time windows, driver time constraints and driver work standards. The resulting routes are then passed to the planning team for a final check before being automatically uploaded to the Warehouse Management system to drive the picking and loading processes. The dramatic reduction in planning time has knocked a full day off delivery times.
“Most of our processes are built around the Paragon solution, and we couldn’t operate without it,” concludes Wigley.
