Davies & Robson has helped specialist chemicals manufacturer, Scott Bader with a comprehensive review of its UK and European transport operations.
Scott Bader is an international business which manufactures a range of specialist chemicals including resins, adhesives, polymers and gel coats for use in a wide variety of industries including marine, textiles, floor coverings, paint, roofing, automotive and pharmaceuticals. In addition to chemicals, the company distributes a range of ancillary products including fibre glass matting, brushes and rollers.
Within the UK, the main operation is concentrated upon the Wollaston campus in Northamptonshire, which consists of the Head Office, laboratories, manufacturing plant and warehousing and storage facilities.
At the site, raw materials are received in bulk and then converted into finished product for deliveries within the UK and export. The total number of SKUs across raw materials and finished product is 9,000.
Transport requires the use of both tankers and pallet and parcel carriers and numerous loads are subject to rules surrounding the carriage of dangerous goods.
Following its own analysis, Scott Bader had identified a number of potential efficiency improvements in the purchasing and organisation of transport to and from the Wollaston site. Davies & Robson was brought in to validate these improvements and to review the company's outsourced transport contracts.
Following a thorough analysis, including a value stream mapping exercise to identify non-value added activities, Davies & Robson concluded that Scott Bader's proposal to centralise responsibility for inbound transport and vehicle scheduling and increase the proportion of transport activity covered by contract would deliver significant savings.
For example, by eliminating administrative waste, it is anticipated that processing time should be reduced by around 3%, whilst centralising responsibility for the sourcing of transport costs is expected to deliver a saving of 15 minutes per sales order.
Davies & Robson also recommended the re-tendering of the transport contracts in order to achieve further cost savings in the region of 5%, along with changes to the contracts themselves in order to improve reporting, promote continuous improvement and provide a fair balance of risk between the company and its transport providers.
Scott Bader's Logistics Manager, Solly Wilson said: "Whilst we were in no doubt that there were synergies to be had, having these corroborated by Davies & Robson's industry experts gave us the evidence and confidence we needed to start making changes.
"This was a genuinely consultative exercise in which Davies & Robson listened carefully to our ideas and offered honest feedback and their own suggestions in order to arrive at a clear and achievable solution.
"Working alongside their consultants has also been a useful learning process for us, enhancing our in-house expertise for the future."
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