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Route master

29th July 2010, Page 44
29th July 2010
Page 44
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

It's the biggest name in routeing and scheduling, but is it really that good? We take a took at Paragon.

Words: Lthy Ctark

Paragon started up 30 years ago, as an offshoot of technical consultancy firm PA Consulting. Now independent, it is the largest player in the UK routeing and scheduling market it uses the phrase "transport optimisation and execution" and estimates its market share to be 60%.

While Paragon is best known for its use by large, high-profile operators it counts the big four supermarkets as clients the. firm's MD William Salter characterises the product as "a very flexible solution, [which works] over a wide range of industries and different sizes of organisations".

The product is used by some small operators, including a nursery and a garden shed supplier, with fewer than 10 vehicles. "We retain 95% of our customers year-on-year.says Salter, who adds that Paragon shouldn't be seen as simply a default choice. "We have to work at giving really good reasons why clients should pick us.

"One of our reasons for existing is to take more trucks off the road," he says, pointing to a raft of case studies with impressive statistics: Sainsbury's, says Paragon, has reduced empty running by 12%, for example. while Tesco has saved 150.000 miles

a week. At the other end of the retail sector. Harrods has A Paragon Fleet cut its transport costs by 15%. Other sectors have also Controller; The central quoted significant savings: Paragon says office supplies firm interface with Paragon is ACCO UK has saved 5.6% in warehouse costs,Tracker known as Workbench

Network has cut fuel costs by 22% and bicycle-maker Raleigh has halved planning time.

Support director Phil Ingham says: "A huge differentia

tor for us is our development team and our support team they now look after more than 400 customers.Paragon has 53 staff most of them based at its offices in Dorking. There are 16 support staff. 15 developers and impressively, 11 of those have been with the firm for more than 10 years.

At its core, Paragon is a route planning and optimisation tool, based on the firm's own algorithms, developed in-house. it is Windows-based, and does not require any specialist hardware.

The Paragon system is primarily intended for operational planning, but is also widely used for strategic planning. -The data that's used operationally can be lifted easily into another copy of Paragon for strategic use." says Phil Ingham. It can also he used for tactical planning. for example to plan for the Christmas rush or amend a fixed route. "Most people will think that Paragon is a piece of software that runs on a PC in a depot to produce routes for

tomorrow." says Ingham. B ut, he points out, many users run the system from a central server. sometimes catering for operations in several countries.

He stresses that Paragon is a modular product (see Add-ons' box), which can deal with singleor multi-depot operations, or integrated fleets where a single vehicle might be based at more than one depot: "It's a way to move planning from a regional task to a national one and to centralise excellence in planning."

Possibly the most fully realised application is ITS (Total Transport System), which combines the Paragon modules with telematics and fleet management systems fmm Isotrak. Sainsbury's uses this to "re-spin" and reschedule operations throughout each shift.

Hands-on

Whatever the system is used for, whether as an operational tool or in strategic planning, the user interface is known as Paragon Workbench. When you open a new document (or 'schedule', in Paragon's terms) you can see that this is not just a Windows-based product it complies with Microsoft's own interface standards, so its menus will be familiar to any user of Microsoft Office.

"It's a very complex problem we're trying to solve." says Ingham, "so let's make it as easy to use as possible." Paragon includes comprehensive help screens, clearly written and laid out in a familiar style the firm has a full-time technical author on the staff.

Unusually. Paragon also supports multiple languages, and can even operate in several languages at once: one customer has a server in Germany providing scheduling services for a number of fleets around the world.

Like other routeing and scheduling systems, Paragon Workbench includes map and table views, but it also offers chart views, For example. a route can be shown on a map, either as the "real" route or a schematic with straight lines between stops; as a tabular summary listing places. times and other information: or as a GAN1]' chart the typical chart used in project management that shows the schedule in the form of proportionately-sized bars for each activity.

In table view, you can drag and drop stops to move them around, just as you would in a spreadsheet application like Excel, and you can show the data in order by any column. Editing static information such as opening times or contact details for depots, or the type and size of vehicles, is also straightforward.

In map view you can click on stops to select them or draw a box around them you can even draw an irregular shape around a series of stops to select them. Any of the information on the screen can be printed, and if you get something wrong. there is a regular "undo" feature.

Mapping data can come from a number of sources, but for the UK it is usually supplied by Navteq. with road speed data from ITIS. Users can edit maps to exclude certain roads, if there is a local prohibition, for instance.

"Paragon isn't just a vehicle routeing system were actually scheduling all resource types at the same time," says Phil Ingham. and it is possible to show the use of resources in a number of

11,1 ,1•11, different types of charts. You A can plot the usage of a fleet of tractors (or their drivers) throughout the course of a day, or show how the activity at a depot varies throughout a shift.

Users can customise the graphical output of the program to show drops as dots sized according to their value, for instance and can define a preferred workspace, perhaps to simplify the view for a particular user.

Users themselves can be defined by their roles for example, a traffic office administrator might he able to create new schedules and modify every criterion in the model, whereas a driver might be able to see (but not alter) their list of drops for the day.

Resources are defined within a module known as Paragon Resource Manager: in this case, resources do not just include trucks and trailers, but also drivers. A driver's shift pattern can be defined, along with duty constraints (whether they need to attend a debriefing session at the end of each shift, for instance) and Drivers' Hours and Road Transport Directive rules. Every resource has a cost, which can for instance include the cost of an overnight stop for a driver.

Resource Manager can also deal with compartments within vehicles: you can define the precise layout within a trailer, and specify properties such as the loading rate or flow rate of hulk materials. It is also possible to program in exclusions to prevent petrol from being loaded onto a gas-oil trailer, for example_ However. one feature the Resource Manager does not have (yet) is a lookup table to check the rates of thirdparty hauliers or pallet networks, to see if this is a more cost-effective option for outlying drops.Th is was a feature of the Optrak system CM looked at recently (CM 6 May 2010).

The Resource Manager can show data in a calendar view. to see easily when drivers are on holiday or vehicles are off the road for servicing. The Paragon system can also interface with Tachomaster's drivers' hours monitoring service.

The workflow

Like its competitors, Paragon takes data from order systems, warehouse management systems

and ERP systems either directly or via spreadsheets or A William Salter, MD databases.This done, the user selects the relevant depot or of Paragon Software depots. The system then displays only the relevant orders Systems

for those depots, and makes a first attempt to optimise the schedule.

The user can add orders to a route, but might get a 'Route Feasibility Messages' window if this will cause problems. Once these are resolved, the schedule can be 'published: making it available to other users in the organisation -drivers, warehouse managers and other traffic offices, for instance.

Paragon's links with tracking systems and telematics can make it easy later (if the system is configured appropriately) to compare the plan with the actual execution: "That's the key, realty," says Salter, "feeding it all back". The system can generate different types of reports, such as a profile of planned versus actual joun times across the day. A tabular report, showing the variance between planned and actual times, can be sot by any column.

Live progress data is available as an add-on, in the foi of a feed of arrival times for a particular depot. If the system includes Fleet Controller, a Navman Wireless se in the cab can allow the driver to see live routeing detai

The bottom line

The sales model Paragon uses is like much other softwa customers make a one-off purchase of a perpetual licen for a given number of users to use the system. then pay annual fee for maintenance and support.

William Salter reckons full systems are available Iron around £20,000 to .1:1 m or more: "If you're looking at a 20-vehicle operation fully implemented, you could be looking at £25,000 for the initial licence], plus around 1 a year for maintenance." For a 50to 100-vehicle fleet, system including Fleet Controller and the appropriate training could cost £60,000470,000.

-People are a bit more aware of the cost of failure n says Salter." People have tried a number of systems, at don't just make a decision on pricing any more."

Conclusions

Probably the best-known name in routeing and schedi ing. Paragon certainly seems to have all the bases cove The interface is sensible about as simple as it could t considering the number of features and the look ant feel can be configured to suit different users.

The system can be scaled to accommodate more us+ or extra fleets, and operators can add features. It is de: that this can be used effectively in everyday operation for strategic planning. We also have to conclude that it performs well and support is good, given the impressb list of testimonials Paragon's customers have provided They certainly suggest that the system could pay for it in pretty short order. •

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