Chilled dairy foods company, Dairy Crest, has centralised its UK-wide delivery planning with a high-tech transport optimisation solution from Paragon Software Systems.
Centralising Dairy Crest’s planning gives the company a clear view of its entire delivery operation and allows planners to model and map the most efficient routes and deliveries to service its customers.
The transport optimisation software is key to Dairy Crest’s operation and business decision making. It allows Dairy Crest to run “what if” scenarios to test and monitor distribution so that the fleet is being used efficiently to meet customers’ needs in the most cost-effective way. Dairy Crest’s refrigerated vehicle fleet comprises articulated and rigid bodied trucks used to serve major multiple retailers, supermarkets and other dairies.
“Dairy Crest is fast growing a reputation for transforming its logistics operations from a traditional method of stock-based deliveries to a web-based collaborative planning model,” reports Nick Wadey, Logistics Director, Dairy Crest. “This is enabling the company to drive value through closer relationships with customers, suppliers and third party logistics companies.”
Nick Wadey has led a progressive strategy that places Dairy Crest at the leading edge of maximising value from the demand chain, while maintaining best-in-class service and costs to its customers. This five-year plan, now in its third year, also aims to make full use of the integration potential across Dairy Crest’s unique network of dairies, factories and depots.
“Paragon has played, and continues to play, a pivotal role in the success of this strategy, particularly in the way in which the Paragon team helped to tailor the solution closely aligned with Dairy Crest from the outset,” says Nick Wadey.
Mark Hill, the company’s Central Planning Manager adds: “With Paragon’s help we have developed a tailored centralised Multi Depot software solution that enables us to work efficiently across our whole transport operation. We can use the transport optimisation software to remodel our routes and schedules to determine the best and most cost-effective way to service our customers. It is extremely flexible, allows us to readily integrate new business and is proving invaluable in helping us to provide accurate costings to our commercial department.”
Dairy Crest is the UK’s leading chilled dairy foods company. The company manufactures a range of everyday dairy brands including the award-winning Cathedral City cheddar, Clover spread, Country Life butter and FRijj, the top selling flavoured milk drink. Dairy Crest also supplies milk to retailers throughout the country, from major supermarkets to village stores, while its milkmen deliver milk – and much more – to thousands of doorsteps in England and Wales every day.
