Paragon Software Systems Addresses Unique Transportation Needs of the Animal Feed Industry

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Jul 29, 2014) - Paragon Software Systems, Inc., a leader in vehicle routing and scheduling optimization solutions, announces a unique transportation solution to target the specific needs of the animal feed industry. When shipping animal feed from feed mills, it is important not to mix the ingredients of final products to avoid contamination. It takes special equipment, techniques, and software to accomplish this requirement. Paragon's Integrated Fleets solution helps transportation managers realize these goals and best meet customer delivery service levels.

"Typical vehicles used in the delivery of animal feed consist of compartments because cross contamination must be avoided, and other constraints adhered to, in order to ensure a safe animal feed shipment," said William Salter, President and CEO, Paragon Software Systems. "In general the use of compartmented vehicles considerably complicates the vehicle-scheduling task when planning and optimizing delivery routes. Paragon's Integrated Fleets is one of the most advanced route optimization systems available on the market today and supports the greatest flexibility in transportation operations."

Compartmentalized vehicles travel to multiple sites to pick up different products, which are loaded into the separate compartments. Centralized daily planning of these complex operations can include those involving warehouses or production sites with different products serving the same customer base, or combined primary and secondary distribution operations. Paragon Integrated Fleets enables vehicles at multiple sites to be treated as a single integrated transportation resource so that movements to and from different depots (DCs, Warehouses, Processing Facilities) can be combined into efficient routes that reduce overall mileage and eliminate empty trucks running back and forth between delivery locations.

Where an operation has product-type specific depots, Paragon Integrated Fleets can enable the planning team to produce one complex plan automatically. The result is a network of routes that take deliveries and collections into consideration, and enables vehicles to inter-work between depot locations, making the most of available driving time and road miles. For many animal feed producers the benefit of routing both chilled and ambient deliveries, for example, using the same fleet can deliver significant savings in terms of transport integration between sites, especially when some depots and warehouses are located relatively close to one another. This inter-working of multiple fleets generates route plans with efficient backloads, which increases asset utilization, improves productivity, and reduces empty mileage.

"Paragon Integrated Fleets builds efficient transportation schedules that can reduce transportation costs by up to 20 percent," said William Salter. "Using this software to produce the transportation plan, companies can be confident that deliveries will meet promised time windows."

About Paragon Software Systems:

Paragon Software Systems, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is a leading provider of truck routing and scheduling software solutions. Paragon's advanced planning systems have been proven to cut transportation costs and improve efficiency across a wide range of distribution operation types and industry sectors. Paragon's North American truck routing software clients include George's Inc., AgReliant Genetics, Linde, McLane, National Food Corporation, and many others. The software is used for the daily route optimization of transportation schedules; rationalizing fixed routes; managing transportation resources; strategic logistics planning; and managing home delivery orders with dynamic routing. Paragon Software Systems, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Paragon Software Systems plc, the UK's number one provider of transportation routing and scheduling software. Paragon has over 3,300 systems installed at more than 1,000 client sites in 50 countries worldwide. For more information visit www.paragonrouting.com/us.