A pan-European group with turnover in excess of £130m employing over 1300 people was failing to hit its customer service promise of 99% next day delivery by a large margin and the actual achievement figure was below 45%! The company was seeking ways to achieve its customer service promise of 99% next day delivery without increasing costs or stock.
Explic8 consultants conducted a Lean Assessment, and introduced lean manufacturing concepts and disciplines to reduce lead time and achieve productivity improvements. We then utilised the following toolkit – Cycle time reduction, Supply Chain Management, Vendor Managed Inventory, Visual Factory Management, TPM, SMED and 5S.
Our consultants trained the company’s employees in the implementation and utilisation of these techniques to build a 6 stage supply chain model comprising:
Paper Mill > Substrate Supplier > Printer > Retailer’s Supplier > Retailer > End Customer
Within six months we had achieved the desired target of 99% next day delivery together with a reduction in manufacturing leadtime from in excess of one month to 8 days AND a counter intuitive stock reduction.
