en.Wedoany.com Reported - US food supply chain service provider Honor Foods has reduced route planning time for over 100 daily orders by 20% by deploying Trimble's Appian Daily Planner route optimization system, while cutting empty miles and unnecessary costs. During a pilot in Philadelphia, the company replaced its previous manual process—which relied on Google Maps, sticky notes, and institutional knowledge—with this dynamic data-driven system, achieving real-time visibility into scheduling, warehousing, and distribution operations.

Honor Foods, a Burris Logistics company founded in 1949, operates sub-brands including R.W. Zant and Sunning Morning Foods, and partners with over 800 suppliers of fresh, frozen, dry goods, and dairy products, stocking more than 7,000 items. The company runs facilities in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania, with its own fleet handling transportation between producers and food service distributors. As business expanded and orders surged, traditional planning methods could no longer meet demand. In the Philadelphia pilot, approximately 50 trucks operated on busy corridors between New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. The system set up dedicated menus based on different vehicle types and regions, helping dispatchers manage nationwide routes. Steven Torres, Senior Transportation Manager at Honor Foods, stated that the system reduced office manpower and wasted driver time, significantly cutting the time dispatchers spent on route planning. Mark Williams, IT Support Analyst at the company, noted that Appian's route flexibility enables planners to continuously respond to last-minute orders and unexpected changes. Eric Reitmeier, Regional Sales Manager at Trimble, said that food service fleets using Appian can save up to 75% of time and reduce required assets by up to 25%. The system also enforces customer time windows as hard-coded rules, ensuring generated routes do not violate these windows, thereby improving service level agreement (SLA) completion rates.

Reitmeier revealed that Trimble began collaborating with Honor Foods in 2023, guiding the company through a six-phase transition from manual processes, including initial discovery, operational detail deep dives, configuration, customization, and user training. The company also offers multiple options for integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP), transportation management systems (TMS), and warehouse management systems (WMS), including API-based web services or automated file imports. Honor Foods has now expanded the system from the Philadelphia pilot market to Florida and plans to deploy it in California. Trimble stated that Appian will evolve alongside the company's continued growth.

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