Building on its success in UK and European fast food chain distribution, Paragon, the routing and scheduling specialist, is now delivering benefits to the state-side home of the hamburger. The software has enabled distribution company Martin-Brower to increase delivery frequency using its existing fleet without adding significant mileage. One of its service centres eliminated 5,000 miles a week on the road with the software, substantially lowering its operational costs.
The Martin-Brower Company, L.L.C. (“Martin-Brower”) is a dedicated distributor for the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry. All 23 Martin-Brower distribution centres in North America, Canada and Puerto Rico use Paragon route planning software for the daily routing of multi-frequency deliveries to more than 6,000 customers. Martin-Brower supplies the individual restaurants with all their frozen and dry goods, packaging, cleaning products and ancillaries using its 570-strong truck fleet.
Martin-Brower selected Paragon because it offers a range of important features. According to Gans, the software includes several key features, including dispatch smoothing, allowing dispatches to be spread throughout the day utilising the warehouse workforce properly. It also enables arrival time banding, ensuring locations with multiple delivery frequencies are all delivered within a user-defined number of minutes on all delivery days. This avoids some customers receiving morning deliveries on one route, and an afternoon or evening delivery on the next.
“I have worked with many vendors in my 20-year career in food distribution and Paragon has been one of the most supportive companies I have ever worked with. The company has always been quick to understand our needs for enhancements and our requests for training and support,” according to Gans.
“When our Port Allen (Louisiana) DC changed from a two-deliveries a week schedule to a three-deliveries a week schedule, we constructed a new master schedule using the software which enabled us to increase our weekly deliveries without adding excessive mileage. We expected an increase in miles, but the Paragon software allowed us to maximise our delivery routes without investing in new tractors and trailers.
The Dickson, Tennessee DC designed a new master schedule using the Paragon software and immediately reduced its mileage by 5,000 miles a week, a 6% reduction. We believe that this would not have been possible without the aid of the Paragon software. We are proud that we have been able to reduce over 900K lbs of CO2 out of our carbon footprint by cutting our emission levels.” Chuck Gans, Director, Operations Support, Martin-Brower
