The Co-operative Food is cutting delivery miles and carbon emissions as a result of introducing Paragon’s dynamic transportation planning solution to its Logistics Service operation.
The Co-operative service nearly 4,000 stores in all corners of the UK, making about 34,000 deliveries, on 9,500 routes using 1,300 trucks, every week. As the business increased the number of stores and opened up new, larger DCs, it became clear that they needed a sophisticated software tool to maximise the opportunities for efficiency gains. Their fixed routes generally provide efficient schedules, but volume fluctuations make it a challenge to meet expected delivery times while maximizing efficiency. Using Paragon dynamic route planning software with resource management functionality enables the team to meet the challenge.
Every night, the planners update driver availability using the route management functionality available with Paragon Route Execution. This provides the planning software with all available drivers, their start times, the trucks they can drive and their maximum shift length. Then they enter the actual store order volumes and apply the store delivery windows to each order. The system then creates the most efficient delivery schedule that meets the needs of the stores, while ensuring the driver and fleet resources are available to deliver the plan. The order information also updates the warehouse management system to enable the warehouses to pick the orders for the new schedule.
The switch to a dynamic resource managed planning approach has already delivered a 5% cut in delivery miles at a pilot DC and they are expecting a CO2 saving of 5,000 tonnes a year across their entire distribution network comprising over 1,300 trucks and 4,000 nationwide stores.
“Using Paragon routing and scheduling software with resource management functionality for dynamic planning gives our depot planners a great tool to produce efficient, compliant, delivery schedules that help us provide a better service for our stores. The pilot at our West Thurrock distribution centre resulted in a 5 per cent mileage saving. We expect to save 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per year along with significant cost savings when we roll out dynamic planning across the network.” Graham Leggett, Senior Transport Planner, Food Operations – Logistics Service, The Co-Operative
