Lubricating moving parts
April 1st 2009 In the second of our reader interviews, Peter Timbrell, Logistics Director at ERIKS
Industrial Distribution, gives HSS the lowdown on parts distribution, technology, and how
to maintain 99.83 per cent dispatch accuracy. Brendan Coyne reports
Peter Timbrell's involvement with
what is now ERIKS stretches back to
1998: He was recruited originally by
Fenner Power Transmissions, in Blackburn,
to oversee its "fairly sophisticated"
warehouse.
"FPT had a number of automated
systems that, bluntly, it didn't really know
how to use," says Timbrell. "My first task
was to sort it out." In 2002, FPT was
acquired by WYKO, and Timbrell was asked
to manage its Halesowen warehouse, which
he does today under the employ of ERIKS,
which acquired WYKO in 2006. He also runs
ERIKS new seals warehouse in Dudley.
For Timbrell, the key challenge is
ensuring that deliveries arrive on time. In a
typical day, the Halesowen warehouse
sends out 2,400 to 2,600 pick lines for
delivery to branches or customers by 9am
the next day. The cut off point for orders is
5pm, and this dictates the pace. "The
majority of our orders hit us late in the day,
from 2.30 onwards," says Timbrell. "From
then, it's a race to ensure all goods are
despatched for delivery the following day."
When operators are rushing, the potential
for mistakes increases. According to
Timbrell, that's where technology comes in.
"Over the last three years we've
introduced a fairly sophisticated warehouse
system called Emperica, using barcodes
from goods in to dispatch, to validate we've
received the right item, put it in the correct
location, that we're picking from the right
place and sending to the right branch," says
Timbrell. "Before Emperica it was easy to
make mistakes during the evening spike:
Getting it to the customer is one thing, but
if it's wrong, it is useless."
And costly too: "Most of our business is
maintenance and repair, so if the delivery
isn't right, we would, at our own cost, send
it out on a same-day vehicle", says Timbrell.
"That can be quite expensive, not to
mention the long term effect on customer
confidence. And at the moment, everybody
is fighting for a slice of a diminishing pie."
Supplied and integrated by CHESS the
system also automatically schedules orders,
checking and prioritizing them on arrival,
making the rush period as structured as
possible. The result is a 75 per cent
reduction in error.
"It's improved enormously," says Timbrell.
"Although there wasn't a major problem
previously, when you're dealing with small
numbers you can see massive percentile
improvements. Current accuracy of
dispatch is at 99.83 per cent, and it's now
accepted that if people place an order at
4.55pm, it will arrive at 9am the next day –
and be correct."
Timbrell says ERIKS is currently
introducing a sortation system – enabling
the central warehouse to pre-sort individual
orders – that is also realising efficiencies.
"Historically branches would sort and pack
their own orders, but that's double
handling, and we are using technology to
remove that."
Technology: worth it?
With current dispatch accuracy high, and
on-time delivery services developed in
partnership with CityLink, Timbrell says
justifying further technology spend is hard,
given ERIKS' current low error rate using
barcode systems.
"Cost is the main driver. Even though
we're a relatively large company, some of
the systems out there – RFID for example –
are expensive. We've also looked at other
technologies, such as voice, but decided it
wasn't right for our business. That's not to
say it won't be in the future and the same
goes for RFID. For now, when we're already
at a high level of accuracy, it gets harder
and harder to justify wringing out the last
drops."
MHE reliability
In terms of materials handling equipment,
Timbrell says ERIKS' requirements are "not
particularly exotic": A number of standard
counterbalance trucks; a few reach trucks,
operating in a mixture of narrow aisle and
pallet racking; and some pedestrian trucks.
He says with a relatively small fleet, reliability
is key, as downtime to just one truck reduces
capacity significantly. He says singlesupplier,
BT Rolatruc, delivers on that front.
Responding to change
With recession hitting most economic
sectors, Timbrell says flexibility is
paramount – for ERIKS and industry in
general. And one of the key challenges is
to manage people while maintaining
responsiveness.
"In terms of staff we operate with a
small number of temps to take up peaks.
When the work dries up you have to reduce
the number of temps, meaning the
remaining staff must be more flexible and
perform the original range of tasks. You
can't just make redundancies because
people still expect their parts. When peak
demands come, you need to respond -
otherwise it becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Customers in the UK, in my
opinion, are far more demanding than
customers on the continent. And in the
current climate, they have a lot of clout." More articles from ERIKS UK: |
