Matrix Insights

Parker Merchanting Business Transformation Case Study

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 17:16:16 GMT

Parker Merchanting Case Study

Parker Merchanting is part of the Rexel group who are wholesale distributor of electrical consumable products to the construction and industrial sectors. Headquarters in Paris and publicly owned with gross revenue of 13.3 billion Euros with a workforce of 27,000 employees operating in 26 countries. Parker Merchanting is the UKs safety and site supplies consumable division to the construction sector, operating from 20 branches with it UK head office in Leeds including a national call centre.

Sales Revenue for UK division had declined by 41% from 2008 to 2012, which adversely affected the safety division net profit contribution to Rexel Group.
In 2013 a third of the divisions turnover was due to be out of contract including the largest account.
UK division multi sale channel offer was not effective in term of trade counter and E commerce.
Customer complaints were at an all time high in terms of lack of product availability, inconsistent next day delivery performance and poor customer service experience in terms of day to day interaction with call centre.
Margin performance had eroded due inconsistent pricing strategy.
Product range was uncontrolled resulting in too many suppliers and too many SKU's
Inventory stock control was not sufficiently robust resulting in stock availably of core product being at 85% levels, which led to increased back orders, and excessive costs being in-cured through use of third party carriers.
Service performance from centralised DC was at best inconsistent which adversely affected the divisions ability to provide next day delivery service.
Employee engagements levels were at all time low as recorded in Rexel 2012 employee survey.
Rexel Group IT strategy required Infor ERP system, to be upgraded to M3, without creating an undue risk to the safety divisions performance. The UK divisions had a track record of not embracing transformational change projects effectively and subsequent business performance had been adversely affected.

Developed transformational strategy for Parker Merchanting to reverse sales and profit decline by focusing on 4 key pillars of Sales Growth, Margin Growth, Service / Operational Excellence and Employee Engagement.

Employee Engagement

Completed 9 block review to ensure that business had the right people and teams in place, which resulted in a restructure of the senior leadership team and external sales team.
Engaged with all stakeholders so they brought into the strategy and understood their roles in its successful execution.
Introduced engagement strategy which included formal reward and recognition schemes which included national sales awards, launched success factors appraisal system, rolled out product and system training plan for all employees, launched monthly teams brief and newsletters to improve communication.

Sales Growth

Restructured new business tender team and personally mentored them in development of e-auction strategy.
Up skilled external National and Regional sales team from traditional farmers into hunters.
Launched New Markets Sales Strategy for Rail, FM and Industrial sectors.
Launched New Product Strategy for Face Fit Testing and New Own Brand "Graft Gear".
Developed and launched E-Commerce sales Channel.
Implemented Trade Counter Channel refurbishment and relaunch Strategy.
Launched OMINI channel monthly added value sales promotions for trade counter, call centre and e-commerce.

Margin Growth

Implemented category management and supplier tiered rebate structure
Developed and implemented Pricing strategy which re categorised low volume contract prices to off contract trade price sales.
Retrained Call centre, trade counters and regional sale teams to adopt the concept of trade price minus discount when they processed off contract sales enquires and orders.
Implemented robust process for the management of annual supplier increases and reviewing products classified as contract priced products.

Service / Operational Excellance

Engaged with Supply Chain Director who oversaw the Centralised DC and developed a Service Level Agreement which addressed histroic service issues.
Developed and implemented S&OP inventory demand planning strategy to manage SKU's number and improve overall product availability utilising ABC principle.
Designed and implemented a Service excellence strategy utilising "Fish Principles" and a "Customer Charter" which was launched and trained into all members of the branch, trade counter and call centre teams.
Developed transformation strategy for adoption of E-commerce and M3 ERP implementation
Developed Operational Excellence strategy utilising Lean principles which addressed historic service issues of back orders, inconsistent On time Delivery performance, stock outs and miss picks.

As Divisional Managing Director, led a transformational business turnaround and restructured the business model with the objective of reversing declining sales which had fallen by 41% during the “credit crunch”. Reducing OPEX by £500K, increased gross margins by £1.5M and generating £2.8M free cash flow benefits were achieved by optimising working capital. Following the restructure, the business kicked on to achieve 20% top line growth and returned to profitability.
Successfully project managed Parkers migration onto Rexel new ERP (manufacturing) system, M3, which was viewed as the most successful IT transition of any Rexel Business
Developed new product offer by launching new Training and Consultancy service in 2013, which resulted in Parker Merchanting winning the BSIF Service excellence award in 2015
Successfully implemented S&OP system which resulted in availability of core line being improved to 99%, whilst overall stock holding was reduced by 20%.
Successfully improved On time Delivery Performance to 98%
Customer service levels improved to 81% overall satisfaction which was measured by research survey conducted by TLF
Developed and launched category management strategy with preferred suppliers which resulted in the margin performance being improved by 500bps
Devised new “own label” strategy including sourcing Supply Chain partners in the Far East to supply a new ‘own label’ safety consumable range; which increased profit margins to 80%+
Personally retained one of the largest clients for another three-year contract (£12M net to the business)
Successfully launched e- commerce channel and increased sales volumes to 20% viva the digital route.
Refurbished and relaunched trade counter channel and increased sales volumes to 12% viva this channel
Successfully mentored tenders team and sales team in adoption of solution selling principles which generated £20M of new business in construction, rail, industrial and FM sectors

Why do so many businesses fail to realise the benefits of ERP transformational projects?

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 15:02:10 GMT

Why do so many businesses fail to realise the benefits of ERP transformational projects?

Having operated in business for over 30 years I have seen first-hand the impact from many ERP transformational projects and whilst there were some successes stories the vast majority were not. Indeed, a recent research article identified that over 70% of transformational projects failed to achieve their business objectives (Mckinsey 2019)

So why do so many transformational change projects fail and what lesson can be learned? From my experience there are five key areas which are the fundamental lessons learned from poorly executed ERP projects.

1. Don’t focus on Technical, focus instead on the Business.

The common feature which successful adopters of ERP transformation have demonstrated is that they viewed their ERP implementation as a business transformation project and not as a technology project. The executive leadership team understood that a new ERP system will have more impact on the businesses than merely an IT upgrade. They get that it will have a significant impact on employees, business processes and the organisation's overall strategy.

I would argue that too many organisations use ERP consultants who are more focused on technology and software functionality rather than people and processes. An alternative approach for organisations is to engage with change and transformational experts. These seasoned professionals are adept at engaging with people, securing their buy in and acceptance to design new robust business process supported by the new technology. Such an approach will ensure that business ERP transformational change projects land in the category of success and not failure.

2. Lack of Executive Buy-in

The executive team will have approved the project budget, but they will need to form an executive steering committee to provide project governance and direction. The involvement of the Executive team ensures that the ERP implementation doesn’t become a technology project, but that it fits into the organisation's overall transformational strategy. This enables them to realise the subsequent benefits of improved customer service and sustained competitive advantage which are all associated with successful transformational projects.

An experienced change expert is ideally placed to support the executive team as more often than not they have operated at executive level enabling them with the required gravitas and experience to support the senior leadership team.

3. Insufficient Business Process and Project Management

When I work with clients, I help them to define and map out their current state utilising Lean Methodology Process mapping tools such as 'value stream mapping.' This brings much needed clarity which helps organisation's to define their ERP and digital transformational system requirements, whilst also revealing opportunities for improvement which will address legacy issues.

The application of robust project methodology techniques is the key to ensuring success. Over the last 30 years I have observed and participated in numerous transformational projects, which has resulted in the development of a transformational change project model. The model outlines a number of key workstreams which should be given due consideration and tailored for every system implementation.

4 . Lack of Change and Transformational Expertise

The acceptance by executive leadership that organisational change management will be required in the adoption of ERP technology programmes will certainty enable success. Organisations which simply view change management as an end user training exercise will experience substantial change resistance and significant periodsof disruption in their day to day operations.

However, those organisations who engage transformational change experts with the required skill set to complete organisational assessments, engage with employees using two-way communication techniques and developed customised training programmes will experience a limited period of operational disruption. Such experts who are empathic leaders are able to engage with employees resulting in them buying into the transformational programme. Such an approach will lead to the successful adoption of the ERP technology and the avoidance of deep-rooted resistance to change by the organisation’s employees and stakeholders which is demonstrated by the J Curve (see below). These forward-thinking organisations will see the performance benefits and enhanced productivity associated with successful adoption of transformational change programmes.

5. Hiring Inexperienced Resources

We already identified that inexperienced change programme leaders will simply heighten the risk of unsuccessful adoption. Interim professional change transformational experts are ideally placed to support organisation's to adopt and implement new ERP technology. Such leaders thrive on the change agenda and they are able to engage with the organisations employees as they have the experience, gravitas and emphatic leadership skills to guide the organisation through the process. The advantage of utilising interim talent is that an organisation can secure such expertise without increasing their fixed overheads.

Benefits & Conclusion

So, now that you engaged with an interim change expert to support you on your transformational journey you can expect the see a number of commercial benefits including;

A upturn in service levels as availability of core product and on time in full delivery performance is increased
Reduced stock holdings
Lead times shortened
Net positive cash flow is experienced due to a reduction in overall inventory.
An upturn in customer service levels enables competitive advantage to be achieved, resulting in subsequent top line growth being achieved.

Whilst the majority of ERP transformational change projects fail to meet the business objectives, this can be mitigated through the engagement of interim professionals who are experts in leading transformational change projects utilising robust project management methodology. If the organisations leadership understand that the project is more than simply a technology upgrade, then they can have the reassurance of being able to realise the associated benefits of successful ERP transformation within their own businesses.

Bio

Dominic Proctor is the Managing Director of Matrix which provide Interim Management or Consultancy project support for Industrial Manufacturing, Logistics and FM organisations looking to achieve breakthrough growth for their businesses through the development of Operational Excellence model which delivers transformational change. Dominic has 30 years of supply chain and operational leadership experience in Industrial Manufacturing (Berendsen & Johnson Service Group), Logistics Distribution (Bunzl, Rexel and Big Home Shop) and Facilities Management (G4S and OCS). He is passionate about supporting organisations to achieve Supply Chain Excellence and transformational change which is achieved through a collaborative leadership style and a continual pursuit to achieve excellence. An extensive library of transformational change case studies are available to view at www.matrix.org.uk/blog

If you like to discuss a potential Transformational Change project or Operational Efficiency Improvement project, then you can contact Dominic for an informal discussion at dominic.proctor@matrix.org.uk

Beyond COVID 19 – Looking to the future and planning ahead for the new normal

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 09:10:41 GMT

How resilient and agile are businesses at dealing with the changing landscape?

Pandemics have been on most corporate risk registers since SARS in 2003, reinforced after the Ebola outbreak in 2015. Developments in Infectious disease research enabled the recent SARS and Ebola outbreaks to be contained and by doing so perhaps provided a false sense of security that the risk of future outbreaks would be mitigated. Subsequently did businesses fully consider how their supply chains and routes to market could affect cash and ultimately the resilience of their organisation in the event of a major global Pandemic? In the coming months we will find out just how resilient and agile businesses are at dealing with the changing landscape.

We tend to react, dealing with the immediate here and now. The impact of COVID-19 and the government's policy response has caused businesses to focus on the immediate problems in the box marked 'must deal with now' Current business talk is about survival in terms of how to conserve cash, mothball operations, furlough employees and keep revenue flowing until business 'returns to normal'. But what if the status-quo no longer exists and the 'new normal' is totally different?

Take the hospitality and hotels sector. The majority of hotels are now closed, and will no doubt be looking to open once the current lock down is ended, many believing that an immediate upturn in occupancy levels will occur as normality is restored, but will this actually happen? Business travel may be slow to pick up to its previous volumes impacting on hotel occupancy levels as organisations have learned to adapt in the last month, learning the benefits of hosting remote team meeting through the embracement of digital technology such as Zoom. Such an impact will naturally extend beyond hotels and into its supply chain such as food wholesale and textile laundry providers.

This scenario is not unique to the hospitality and hotels sector. What if future trading conditions in your sector are no longer an extrapolation of the past? What if it is a complete dislocation, a quantum shift? What if the current crisis completely reorders the economy and marketplace as we know it? We all want and need to return to stability, but the underpinnings of future stability may now be very different.

There will be many businesses whose customers will use this enforced hiatus to assess what they buy and from whom. They will be asking which suppliers they really need, like, and want to resume trading with, and if so, on what terms? It's much easier to change supplier when you are not currently using the product or service. Action needed : Carry out a customer retention programme. Start by listening to your customers, review your entire proposition to them, keep in contact with them in the recovery period and assess your supply chain capacity.

Businesses will need to be pro-active as customer behaviour changes in a myriad of other ways. Online methods of doing business will become the preferred option for many more, even those who were previously resistant. Business with an established online presence have been able to offer their customers different options during the last month, many being able to continue to trade during the lockdown and this will result in the acceleration of B2C move away from bricks and mortar and in B2B anyone without a significant online platform will scramble to expand their existing service. This will raise questions about the size and shape of their entire organisation and supply chain. Those who are already strong in online sales will find their space a lot more crowded in a few months' time and will need to respond. Action needed: Immediate review of digital future.

Market shake-ups of this kind tend to lead to a thinning of the herd, especially in sectors that suffer from poor cash flow. As Warren Buffet said, “ only when the tide goes out do you discover who has been swimming naked”. This will create opportunities for the survivors to capture additional share, either directly or through mergers and acquisitions, leading to the well-known challenges of successfully absorbing acquired or merged businesses. Action needed : Scope opportunities to grow the top-line profitably and understand the organisational redesign changes needed to support that growth.

As the demand for executives' time and focus increases, they could look to engage with specialist support in the short term and interims are ideally placed to support this endeavour. Interims have the gravitas as they have all held senior business management positions along with being comfortable dealing with uncertainty. They are able to be parachuted into the organisation to support with the required restructuring and transformation, and once their job is completed, they can exit without being a burden to fixed costs. An interim is able to engage with stakeholders quickly, helping them to manage costs, mitigate risk and exploit opportunities. They have the expertise and insights at the right point in decision making or implementation enabling you and your organisation to shorten the recovery period and get to your 'new normal' more quickly.

Conclusion

The business landscape is without doubt changing and now is the time that organisation need to be planning for the recovery so that they are able to mitigate risks and maximise opportunities to retain and grow their market share. A changing landscape is inevitable and those businesses who are open minded and agile, will be able to get on the front foot so that they can adapt and thrive in the new “normal”

Bio

Dominic Proctor is the Managing Director of Matrix which provide Interim or Consultancy project support for Industrial Manufacturing and Logistics organisations to achieve breakthrough growth for their businesses through the development of Operational Excellence and transformation change. Dominic has 30 years of supply chain and operational leadership experience in Industrial Manufacturing (Berendsen & Johnson Service Group) and Wholesale Distribution (Bunzl & Rexel). He is passionate about supporting organisations to achieve commercial success through his knowledge and track record of leading successful restructure programmes, launching new digital channels, designing operational efficiency, developing customer retention strategies and managing successful M&A integrations. If you like to discuss a potential Interim or consultancy assignment you can contact Dominic for an informal discussion at dominic.proctor@matrix.org.uk

Operational Excellence Lean Manufacturing System A guide for Industrial Manufacturing and Wholesale Distribution

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 16:23:57 GMT

Lean Management Systems

Welcome to my latest article regarding Lean and the role it has to play in the development of an Operational Excellence culture. This month Dominic Proctor discusses the common misconceptions in Operational Efficiency Improvement Programmes.

What’s Lean got to do with me?

Having worked with many companies from different industries it’s not unusual for me to be challenged by clients in the high-volume manufacturing and distribution sectors about how applicable Lean is to them. In fact, it’s a common misconception that Lean has no place in high-volume process environments such as FMCG, Textile Processing Plants and Distribution Centres as many believe that it's really only meant for automotive or aviation manufacturing.

However, the Lean principles of Define Value, Value Stream Mapping, Flow, Pull and Perfection are simply all about identifying and removing waste in all its forms such as variation reduction, removal of excessive motion and transportation. Waste can be commonly be found in all types of manufacturing, logistics, distribution and service organisations, and it is simply the biggest obstacle to releasing additional capacity and increasing productivity levels.

“Identifying waste and generating the solutions that address the causes of it, is usually the part of Lean that most people recognise, but struggle to get to grips with”

Engaging people in the process

What’s often missing in Improvement Programmes is the involvement of the people who own the process. Involving the people who are working day to day in the operation in continuous improvement activities can be done using a Lean Management System (LMS).

The Lean transformation projects that I have been involved with, always consider the ‘people in the process’ and how they are engaged, as respect for people is a fundamental pillar for the successful adoption of Lean Principles. In my experience, it’s crucial to the success of any Lean Improvement Programme or Project that before work begins, the key internal stakeholders are identified, and their involvement assured.

“This LMS is often the missing link. It tends not to be emphasised during lean implementations, even though it’s just as important as pull/push control systems, etc.”

So, what is Lean Management System (LMS) ?

LMS is a suite of daily work disciplines which, when consistently adopted, enable leaders, teams, and individuals to change their habits and build a lasting continuous improvement culture

What is it used for?

It is used for building and sustaining a Lean culture which enables waste to be removed from the process resulting in additional processing capacity being realised and productivity levels being increased.

What are the benefits?

It’s simple to understand and straightforward to apply. Its implementation is fundamental in reinforcing “how we do things around here” and sustaining Lean thinking throughout the organisation. If the concept is fully embraced by all stakeholders then it not uncommon for transformation improvement to be achieved within Industrial manufacturers such as FMCG, Textile Processors and Wholesale Distribution, which include;

Operational capacity increased by up to 50%
Productivity levels increased up to 33%
Significant Energy savings achieved
Improved customer service as lead time are reduced and Increase OTIF performance.

How does it work?

The LMS can be comprised of eight elements which underpin Operational Excellence :

1. Daily Workgroup Meeting

2. Visual Management

3. Kaizen Improvement Team Activities

4. 20 Keys to Workplace Improvement

5. Short Interval Control

6. Overall Equipment Effectiveness

7. 5S

8. Value Stream Mapping

In summary, it’s a set of mechanisms that ‘embed’ a routine of monitoring and Continuous Improvement into the team’s day-to-day life.

Ok, but what does this look like in practice?

Daily Work Group Meeting – A short, mandatory, stand up meeting to energise and focus the team on what is important confirming how they will work together to achieve their daily output targets. It builds a team ethos and provides the forum to identify improvement opportunities.

Visual Management – A means of communicating and sharing key team focused information, including KPIs, and performance improvement activities. It provides the focus for the Daily Work Group Meeting and is maintained by the team themselves, so that they fully brought into the change process.

Kaizen Improvement Team Activities – A simple format to capture improvement opportunities and ideas in words and pictures. It helps the team to decide what they can tackle themselves using the basic Lean problem-solving tools which encourages them to adopt a structured approach identifying the root cause to any process defect resulting in lasting and sustained improvement.

20 Keys to Workplace Improvement– A simple tool which defines “what good looks like” and provides a road map by firstly establishing extent to which the manufacturing and distribution centre are operating on a Lean basis. It enables them to set their long-term targets and progressively adopt daily changes that sustain continuous performance improvement whilst engaging with all members of the team.

Short Interval Control – Regular, frequent contact between team members and their leader to focus on achievements and overcoming obstacles. It reinforces the leader’s role in engaging people in continuous improvement, whilst also promoting a state of Phycological Meaningfulness, Safety and Availability in the workplace, which are the keys to promoting employee engagement.

OEE – This is simply the best metric for identifying losses, benchmarking productivity and improving the productivity of the manufacturing equipment through the elimination of waste. Shift leaders record the key metrics of their shift, with key trends being identified, which enables steps to be taken to remove the waste from the process so that the productivity output increases.

5S – A tool which allows the workspace to be organised foe efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, sustaining the new order, so that everything is in tis correct place.

VSM – A visual tool which displays all the critical steps and flow of materials in a specific process in its current state which helps teams to identify opportunities to remove waste and improve the process. Teams can then produce a future state VSM outlining the new streamlined process which confirms the opportunity to increase capacity and output volumes, effectively being a vison for the future operating model and a catalyst to embrace change.

“Understanding why targets have been missed matters. This is a key aspect of the LMS which can help provide the momentum needed for the teams to keep improving so that they are able to exceed their output targets and keep on improving.”

Conclusion

Lean manufacturing is a people process, not a tick box exercise. It is a journey, not an event. It’s an intensive and proactive effort that requires planning, resources and day-to-day management attention and coaching. It is not easy or painless and must be approached with the understanding that it will take time to change and even longer to create a new Lean culture. Those leaders who endeavour to pursue it holistically will reap the significant performance gains that will allow them to win in increasingly competitive markets, provide significant shareholder value and enabling their organisation to be engaged and empowered problem-solvers.

Bio

Dominic Procto r is the Managing Director of Matrix which provide Interim Management or Consultancy project support for Industrial Manufacturing and Logistics organisations looking to achieve breakthrough growth for their businesses through the development of Operational Excellence model which delivers transformational change. Dominic has 30 years of supply chain and operational leadership experience in Industrial Manufacturing (Berendsen & Johnson Service Group) and Wholesale Distribution (Bunzl & Rexel), he is passionate about supporting organisations to achieve Supply Chain Excellence which is achieved through a collaborative leadership style and a continual pursuit to achieve excellence. If you like to discuss a potential Supply Chain or Operational Efficiency Improvement project then you can contact Dominic for an informal discussion at dominic.proctor@matrix.org.uk

G4S Interim Leadership Case Study

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:11:43 GMT

G4S Interim Leadership Case Study

THE CLIENT

G4S is one of the worlds largest outsourcing companies. Headquarters in the UK and publicly owned, with gross revenue of £7.3 billion and a workforce of 570,000 people worldwide. G4S FM division supplies the public sector and Government department with Total Facilitates Contracts which include a mixture of hard and soft services including the management of third party building maintenance contractors.

Provide operational excellence leadership for a major contract through a period of significant change and uncertainty.
Review all internal operational processes and develop best practice so that base service levels were readdressed.
The regional leadership team was not delivering consistent results across the contract.
Javelin IT system implementation for security shift structure was not delivering against original expectations and the project plan needed to be overhauled.
Safety First Culture needed to be established in the contract.
Operational Team of 1400 were disengaged and demotivated.

Established a positive relationship with all key internal and external stakeholders.
A strategic operational excellence roadmap was developed encompassing lean techniques, mobile technology and adoption of best practice consistency across all regions.
Coached team in Operational and Customer excellence.
Devised and Implemented Operational Balance Scorecard KPIs.
Completed talent review utilising 9 block and implemented revised regional structure.
Developed IT Project Strategy and new leadership team appointed which addressed actual Javelin versus expected performance.
2019 Safety improvement plan implemented.
Supported development of G4S FM Way values which were adopted into contract.
Developed engagement strategy and coached leadership team to be more emphatic in their day to day interaction with operational teams.

Javelin Scheduling system fully implemented resulting in a 53% reduction in drop shifts and a 74% reduction in payroll adjustments.
Mobile tablet Mobiess solution adopted resulting in enhanced KPI reporting and completion of monthly safety audits.
Balanced scorecard designed and implemented which delivered streamlined reporting and ensured management team were fully focused on key operational inputs which resulted in;
KPI compliance achieved across all key contractual metrics.
Vacancy gap reduced by 49% resulting in significant reduction in OPEX being achieved through reduced reliance on agency staff.
Customer Complaints reduced by 30% as a result of the introduction of 5 Whys analysis which identified the complaint root cause.
90% improvement in Quality Compliance Process.
Safety First culture adopted in all regions resulting in a 58% increase in reported safety hazards.
Employee engagement levels increased as a result of listening workshops and overhaul of the Annual Leave approval process mitigating the need for any holidays to be carried forward into 2020.

Bio

Dominic Proctor is the Managing Director of Matrix which provide Interim Management or Consultancy project support for Industrial Manufacturing, Logistics and FM organisations looking to achieve breakthrough growth for their businesses through the development of Operational Excellence model which delivers transformational change. Dominic has 30 years of supply chain and operational leadership experience in Industrial Manufacturing (Berendsen & Johnson Service Group) and Wholesale Distribution (Bunzl & Rexel), he is passionate about supporting organisations to achieve Supply Chain Excellence which is achieved through a collaborative leadership style and a continual pursuit to achieve excellence. If you like to discuss a potential Supply Chain or Operational Efficiency Improvement project then you can contact Dominic for an informal discussion at dominic.proctor@matrix.org.uk.

OCS Interim Leadership Case Study

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 18:01:30 GMT

OCS Interim Leadership Case Study

THE CLIENT

OCS is one of the world’s foremost support services and FM companies. Headquarters in the UK and privately owned, with gross revenue of £1.0 billion and a workforce of 89,000 people worldwide. OCS Aviation division supplied Soft FM, laundry and product refurbishment services to major airlines operators from hub locations on Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester .

Provide project management excellence through a period of significant capex upgrade whilst the Aviation Laundry division provided continuity of service to all customers.
Review Process Manufacturing operation and identify opportunities to improve efficiency by implementing Operational Excellence concept.
A Major customer had raised formal improvement notice which presented a real risk of 25% of divisions revenue being lost.
Coach leadership team and ascertain suitability for succession planning

Established a positive relationship with all key internal and external stakeholders.
Developed Project Strategy which addressed matters such as risk mitigation, key milestones and scope creep.
A strategic operational excellence roadmap was developed encompassing lean techniques such as Value Stream Mapping, Seven Wastes, Short Interval Control and 5S utilising “Pull” principle.
Coached team in Operational and Customer excellence.
Devised and Implemented Operational Balance Scorecard KPIs.
Developed succession planning and operational structure for Laundry Aviation Division.

£2M Major Capex project delivered on time without causing any disruption to service levels.
Operational Excellence strategy successfully implemented resulting in processing capacity being increased by 58%
Improved production demand forecasting, output performance and productivity levels.
Dramatically restructured operation from three shifts to two with a 30% reduction in operational headcount being achieved.
Total clarity for the operational team on their personal objectives.
Improved service delivery against measured SLA’s and KPI’s resulting in major customers renewing their contracts.
Personal development for the operational management team, resulting in an internal candidate being appointed into the Operational Director role.

Bio

Berendsen Interim Leadership Case Study

Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:20:34 GMT

Berendsen Interim Leadership Case Study

THE CLIENT

Berendsen is part of Elis who are Europe's and Latin America’s largest textile, hygiene and facilities services partner. Headquarters in Paris and publicly owned, with gross revenue of 3.0 billion Euros and a workforce of 19,000. Berendsen Healthcare division supplied Hospital laundry linen and mop cleaning services to NHS and Private Healthcare hospitals in England and Wales. They are the largest provider of healthcare laundry services in the UK.

Develop Target Operating Model Utilising Lean methodology and complete “proof of concept” trial which would support design and layout for future new build and capex upgrades.
Operational productivity levels had declined in the previous 12 months which was unacceptable from the Group’s perspective.
50% of Healthcare customers’ contracts were due to renew in an 18-month period and there was a substantial retention risk due to poor service levels that turnover could be lost.
Coach leadership team and ascertain suitability for succession planning.

Established a positive relationship with all key internal and external stakeholders.
Developed Superior Operating Model strategy which addressed matters such as risk mitigation, key milestones and scope creep.
A strategic operational excellence roadmap was developed encompassing lean techniques such as Value Stream Mapping, Seven Wastes, Short Interval Control, OEE Metrics, Daily Level 1 team meetings and 5S utilising the “Pull” principle.
Coached teams in Operational and Customer excellence.
Devised Safety Strategy and coach team to adopt “Safety First” culture.
Devised and Implemented Operational Balance Scorecard KPIs.
Developed succession planning and operational structure for Healthcare Laundry Division.

Total clarity for the operational teams on their personal objectives.
£5 Million of Capex project delivered on time without causing any disruption to service levels.
World class manufacturing status achieved as OEE improved to 83%
Safety First culture adopted in all sites resulting in a 69% increase in reported safety hazards
Operational Excellence strategy successfully implemented in three plants resulting in processing capacity being increased by 29%.
Improved production demand forecasting, output performance and productivity levels which increased productivity levels by 17%.
Improved service delivery against measured SLA’s and KPI’s resulting in 100% of major customers renewing their contract which delivered 15% Year on Year revenue growth

Bio

Big Home Shop Interim Leadership Case Study

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 17:32:43 GMT

Big Home Shop Interim Leadership Case Study

THE CLIENT

Ultra Finishing Group is an independent distributor of home furnishing products with a turnover of £100M.

Big Home Shop was a newly divested PE funded e-commerce B2C retail business which required a new operational structure to be established.

Develop Target Operating Model for start up Big Home Shop Utilising Lean methodology.
Designed and commissioned a new warehouse facility which could provide next day delivery service for a start up e-commerce B2C retail business with capacity to pick and ship 2000 orders per day.
Establish short term 3PL partners who could support the distribution of goods to the end customer during the transition phase
New ERP system NetSuite required a configuration strategy so that SKU demand forecasting was utilised which would ensure that core products was always held in stock.
Due to the range of products supplied a range of third-party carriers would be required to distribute products to the customer in the UK and throughout the world.

Established a positive relationship with all key internal and external stakeholders.
Devised TOM & operational excellence strategy for procurement, warehouse and distribution operation, including reviewing all options so the lowest operating cost model could be defined.
Defined and produced new Operational Excellence procedures for all aspects of TOM including quality and compliance.
Recruited new operational team and trained them in Operational Excellence processes.
Adopted S&OP and ABC inventory principles for forecasting SKU demand and subsequent ordering of stock from UK and Far East Manufacturers.
Benchmarked the latest warehouse technology ( fast pick modular racking and handheld barcode readers) which were incorporated into go live NetSuite WMS configuration.
Benchmark and establish third party carrier agreements complete with Metapak optimisation software so that the most cost-effective carrier is selected for the despatched product.

3PL partners established for Phase 1 go live in January 2016.
The new operational team, warehouse and WMS fully established and in place for Phase 2 go live in June 2016.
99% availability of core products was achieved following successful configuration of demand planning in NetSuite ERP.
Target Operating Model in place for go live which utilised lean methodology including, daily level 1 team meetings, Short Interval control to measure performance and 5S Housekeeping standards allowing operation to pick and dispatch over 1500 orders each day.

Bio