Red Ball Oxygen Co., an industrial and specialty gas company, has adopted a fully-integrated logistics software system from Paragon Software Systems Inc., proving its commitment to improving efficiencies and enhancing customer service. Reportedly, the comprehensive routing and scheduling optimization solution also reduces its distribution costs by 15 percent.

Paragon’s routing, scheduling and transportation optimization solutions provide Red Ball Oxygen with fully computerized fleet management for strategic and tactical route and delivery planning.

Red Ball offers welding equipment and supplies, industrial gases, medical gases, and safety equipment. Now the company includes Red Ball Technical Gas Services, an ISO 17025:2005-accredited specialty gas laboratory, a modern cylinder filling operation, a full-service welding equipment service center, a palletized cylinder distribution system, and 22 customer service branches serving Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.

“We are committed to making substantial investments in new technology that will help us to better serve our customers and contain costs,” explains Red Ball Oxygen president Bob Ewing. “To achieve our aims we knew that we needed a powerful logistics software solution and Paragon was the obvious choice.”

With more than 1,500 systems installed worldwide, Paragon provides solutions for single-site operations with 10 trucks to hundreds of trucks running from several sites. It’s in use by 3PLs and private fleet operators for routing and scheduling; managing transportation resources; rationalizing fixed routes; and strategic transportation planning and modeling.

For Red Ball Oxygen DCs, the new system replaces manual planning and optimizes the assignments for trucks and drivers — which complete more than 140,000 deliveries annually — and support Red Ball Oxygen’s anticipated growth in its truck fleet.