Excellence in the 3PL industry will once again be rewarded at the forthcoming UKWA Awards for Warehousing Ceremony. Details of the finalists for each of the Awards categories in this event which has to be regarded as one of the most enjoyable events in the logistics and materials handling industry’s calendar, are reproduced here. A profile of the winners of each category will appear in a future issue of Warehouse & Logistics News.
The United Kingdom Warehousing Association’s (UKWA’s) Annual Awards for Warehousing Ceremony is rightly regarded as one of the most enjoyable events in the third party logistics industry’s calendar.
Now in its 10th year, the UKWA Annual Awards for Warehousing Ceremony 2009 will take place at the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London on Tuesday 30th June and Warehouse & Logistics News is proud to be the event’s official media partner.
The UKWA Awards for Warehousing reward excellence in the third party logistics sector and attract entries from some of the most influential companies in the logistics and materials handling industry.
UKWA received a record number of entries for this year’s Awards for Warehousing. Each nomination has been considered by the UKWA Awards Committee – which comprises past chairman of UKWA, Mel Grainger, Phil Culling, MD of Redirack Ltd and the chief executive officer of UKWA, Roger Williams – and three finalists for each category have been selected. There are six categories of Awards open to UKWA members and suppliers to the 3PL sector and the overall winner of each one will be announced at The Dorchester. In addition, two further awards will be presented – the Journalist of the Year and the Chairman’s Award.
As a special occasion featuring a celebrity speaker, the UKWA Awards for Warehousing enjoys a high profile within the logistics industry. Last year 400 UKWA members, associate members and their guests, who all seized the chance to relax with colleagues or catch up with industry contacts, and this year’s event promises to be even better.
Roger Williams, UKWA’s chief executive officer, comments: “The Awards Luncheon represents an excellent opportunity to network with some of the most influential figures in the logistics and materials handling industry.
Networking is one of the most important business tools available and, in the current recession, being pro-active in networking your business has become more vital than ever. A network of personal and professional contacts is imperative and there are few better places for those in the third party logistics services industry or suppliers to the sector to network than at UKWA’s Awards for Warehousing event.”
Tickets for the UKWA Annual Luncheon and Awards for Warehousing Ceremony 2009 are priced £95 inclusive of VAT each or a table of 10 can be reserved for the total amount of £900 inclusive of VAT. Details of how to reserve a full table or individual places at the Dorchester are available from Jacquie Kirk at UKWA on (tel) 0207 836 5522.
The UKWA Awards for Warehousing 2009 are sponsored by Jungheinrich UK Ltd. Individual Awards are sponsored by: Redirack Ltd; Linde Materials Handling UK Ltd; Translift Bendi Ltd; Bibby Distribution Ltd; Skills for Logistics; Lutterworth Electrical Ltd; Warehouse Technology Group and Somar International Ltd
Guest Speaker
This year’s guest speaker and co-host of the Awards for Warehousing is the political journalist, broadcaster and, latterly, distinguished ballroom dancer, John Sergeant..
The son of a vicar, John progressed via newspaper, radio and television journalism, to became the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent from 1992 until 2000. In 2000, he joined ITN as Political Editor where he stayed until his retirement in 2002.
Sergeant made the headlines himself last Autumn when his appearances on Strictly Come Dancing endeared him to the nation.
“John is a very entertaining speaker and his presence is an added attraction at what is already a very popular event,” said Roger Williams, UKWA’s CEO.
BEST NEW UKWA WAREHOUSE MEMBER
Sponsored by Lutterworth Electrical
This is a corporate award given to the company showing the highest professional standards of warehousing on joining the UKWA. The judges considered the initial inspection reports of members recommended by the UKWA inspectors.
MDA Limited
Since joining UKWA in August 2008, MDA has gone from strength to strength.
Already recognized as one of the UK’s leading providers of warehousing and logistics services in the marketing services sector, MDA capped what had been an excellent year by securing major 3PL outsourced contracts with Bacardi-Martini, Coral, Volkswagen, Miller Brands and Budweiser.
The combined income from these additional contracts will ensure that, despite the difficult times the industry is facing, MDA’s year on year revenues will increase by over 20 per cent during 2009. Their performance is an excellent example of how third party logistics service providers can prosper during challenging times.
To ensure that the company continues to operate from facilities of the highest standard, MDA invested significantly in upgrading its Cardwell Mill site in the fourth quarter of 2008. £4 million had been invested in Cardwell Mill over the previous four years and the 100,000 sq ft site already featured 16,000 pallet locations. However, to create additional capacity, a two-tier 11,000 sq ft mezzanine floor with 14,500 storage and pick bin locations was added in December 2008. The mezzanine provides an additional 22,000 sq ft of space, which has enabled MDA to not only attract new clients but also provide improved space utilization and operations for existing users of its services.
Fesa UK Limited
Fesa UK Ltd moved from leased premises to its own site at the end of July 2008, a move which, with the extra capacity it has provided, has enabled the company to continue to develop and diversify its business.
Fesa’s primary business is the import of fruit and other fresh produce, and one of the primary drivers of the company’s decision to undertake the move to a new site was to enable Fesa to develop the third party warehousing side of its business. In fact, the move into the 3PL sector, prompted Fesa to join UKWA and the company feels that the experienced help and guidance offered by the Association has been fundamental in its successful move into warehousing.
Fesa states that much of its success is down to the dedication of its staff. “Maintaining a happy workforce is fundamental to the success of any business,” says Christine Sargeant. “Our staff are important to us – we operate an open door policy throughout the business and our longest serving colleague is a warehouseman.”
P&O Ferries Holdings Ltd
The P&O Ferries brand is synonymous with the very highest levels of quality and customer service. Delivering such exacting standards to 10 million passengers a year demands a very professional warehouse operation. Supplying to ferries presents the warehouse with a unique set of challenges, with limited storage space onboard, time critical deliveries and a highly seasonal marketplace.
P&O Offshore Logistics provides a purpose-built 75,000 sq ft NDC supplying 19 ships in Dover, Hull, Portsmouth, Larne and Liverpool with food, beverages, retail items and essential non-productive supplies. Given the diversity in product range from perfume to wine to frozen foods, the facility offers 5,000 pallet spaces in high bay racking, two temperature controlled chambers and a further 3500 shelves on a 4 high Mezzanine floor. In 2008, the company picked 3.7 million units from 7000 SKUs and made 2800 deliveries to ships.
In 2008 P&O generated over £10,000 from supplier backhaul revenue. Furthermore, the warehouse is now established as a recycling centre that processes over 70 per cent of all the waste materials generated by the fleet that it serves.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION AWARD
Sponsored by Redirack Ltd
In drawing up their shortlist, the judges looked for evidence of bold and innovative responses to the changing marketplace such as the introduction of new technology, products, processes or procedures. The judges also sought products and systems that would have a net effect on warehousing operations.
Jungheinrich UK Ltd
Product: Automated pallet scanning and ID solution
Early in 2009 Jungheinrich launched a new automated pallet scanning and identification solution that is an integral part of the forklift truck and brings considerable time and efficiency advantages to the supply chain.
Until now, the most common method for identifying a single pallet has involved scanning the pallet’s barcode using a hand-held scanner operated by the warehouse worker or forklift operator. Now Jungheinrich has devised a system that enables the scanning device to be fitted at the back of the lift truck’s fork assembly. In operation, the driver simply enters the truck’s fork into the target pallet as normal and the scanner automatically records the ID barcode located on the pallet load. Once the barcode has been successfully scanned, the scanner automatically switches off for safety reasons. The information on the barcode is relayed to the warehouse management system and a pallet location is allocated within the racking. The truck operator then delivers the load to the specified destination and puts the pallet away before scanning the pallet location ID to confirm that the pallet is in the proper place. Once the WMS has confirmed that the pallet is where it should be, the forklift operator receives his next set of instructions via his on-board terminal.
The new fork-based scanning process not only results in significant time savings compared with manual scanning, but reduces the forklift driver’s workload and ensures low picking error rates.
Hubtex
Product:
The Hubtex Laminate Picking Platform
Hubtex were asked by an existing customer – International Decorative Surfaces (IDS) – to solve a problem of picking large sheets of material. They offered a suitable piece of equipment in the form of a unique detachable picking platform.
The Hubtex truck has been introduced to further improve all aspects of the laminate picking operation at IDS.
Furthermore, after the platform has been used for laminate picking purposes it can be removed and the truck can be utilised for the bulk handling of other materials within IDS’s warehouse.
The truck designed and built by Hubtex is unique. During the picking operation it can only be driven from the platform and, as such, the operator has full control of the vehicle while at the pick face. The introduction of the truck has resulted in a significant improvement in safe working practices at the client’s site.
The truck is wire guided – a system that allows very high levels of picking in very narrow aisles and ensures that the distance between the picker and the pick face is always maintained at a constant. Being close to the pick face allows high levels of picking accuracy and stock control is much easier to manage, as are stock taking duties.
In summary, thanks to Hubtex, IDS’s safety, efficiency, picking accuracy and product care levels have all been improved dramatically.
Jungheinrich UK Ltd
Product: EKS 210 and EKS 312 vertical order pickers
In January 2009 forklift truck manufacturer Jungheinrich launched two new order pickers. The trucks are equipped with state-of-the-art RFID technology that enables a warehouse management system to automatically guide the forklift to the right location in the right aisle at all times. Tests have shown that this feature can potentially boost productivity within the warehouse by some 25 per cent.
The Series 2 and 3 – the EKS 210 and EKS 312 – vertical order pickers, were developed to meet the growing demand for flexibility and high picking performance over long shifts.
The trucks’ in-built RFID warehouse navigation unit enables the operator to receive picking instructions from the warehouse management system. The truck travels via the shortest route and at the optimal speed to ensure that energy consumption is minimised.
The operator needs only to engage the safety controls on the truck and can then relax while the truck is directed to the right spot within the aisle. The truck commences its semi-automatic approach to the storage location and as soon as the correct location has been reached, a light on the side of the truck signals to the driver whether he has to pick the order from the left or right. The result is a considerable improvement in picking accuracy as the operator cannot go to the wrong location and picking mistakes are, therefore significantly reduced.
TEAM OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Translift Bendi Ltd
The award will be won by a company or depot that is able to demonstrate an outstanding team effort during the past year in their warehousing operations that has resulted, or will result, in greater productivity and/or increased profit.
The judges were looking for evidence of:
• Bold and inspired leadership
• Positive engagement by team members
• Application of Best Practice principles
• Results
The Restaurant and Merchandise Fulfillment team
SIMARCO INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
Simarco’s Restaurant and Merchandise Fulfillment team has provided a first class service to a key group of customers for more than eight years. The volume of business generated by this part of Simarco’s operation has doubled during this period.
In 2008 Simarco began Phase two of a planned move to a new facility in Witham, Essex. This involved the transfer of more than 2400 pallets and some 6,500 SKUs of racked fulfillment stock into new high bay, narrow aisle racking.
However, a delay in completing the construction work at the store put extra time pressure on the Simarco team and, as a result, when building was finally finished, goods had to be relocated on a bay-by-bay basis as the racking went up.
The transfer coincided with one of the busiest periods in the restaurant and merchandise calendar which meant that Simarco’s team had to put in a lot of extra hours – including working at weekends – to ensure smooth and undisrupted order fulfillment. Despite the upheaval and difficult working conditions orders were fulfilled with 100 per cent accuracy.
DHL Supply Chain
DHL
In 2008, continuing business growth led Brother UK, the leading electronics manufacturer, to outsource its warehouse operations. In looking to identify productivity and cost improvements, the company chose warehousing expert DHL Supply Chain. In just over 12 months, a strong relationship has developed between the two companies and Brother has seen significant improvement to its warehousing efficiencies. Brother believes that the commitment, ingenuity, efficiency and added value that DHL delivers makes DHL the warehousing team of the year.
Appointed in March 2008, DHL’s first task was to deliver a seamless transfer of operations from Audenshaw to Lutterworth, this was completed on-time and within budget.
Since April 2008, DHL has delivered:
• Improved productivity, rising on average from 103.76 cases per hour to 185.36 cases
• High inventory accuracy yielding a discrepancy rate of only 0.01%
• Negotiated cheaper packaging and shrink wrap price’s, contracted a new pallet supplier saving 16% per pallet against already reduced prices.
• Agency rates re-negotiated with temporary staff, resulting in no adverse cost increases being passed on.
Team Branston
CEVA LOGISTICS
Ceva Logistics’ warehouse at Branston, Burton upon Trent is operated on behalf of B&Q. The site consists of one million square feet of warehousing and over 10,000,000 cases of home delivery kitchen and bathroom products are dispatched from the facility each year.
Because kitchens and bathrooms are what is known as ‘project buys’ any missing or damaged items within an order can delay the installation and/or completion of a kitchen or bathroom – which, in turn, leads to customer dissatisfaction and a reduction in B&Q’s profits thanks to increased after-sales deliveries.
Ceva’s Team Branston set about introducing systems that would significantly reduce the quantity and, therefore, the cost, of missing and damaged kitchen and bathroom products.
A number of new ideas and working practices were introduced – many of which centre around improved communication. Through its improved teamwork Team Branston has delivered a 64 per cent improvement on missing and damaged rates for B&Q. This increased profits by £301,940 in 2008 with a year-on-year rolling benefit also being realised.
ENVIRONMENT AWARD
Sponsored by Somar International Ltd
This Award will be presented to the company that demonstrates the most significant and successful application of ‘green’ processes, procedures or monitoring during the year. The judges sought evidence of a reduction in energy use, and a reduced carbon footprint. In the latter case, the judges considered percentage reductions, rather than actual reductions of CO2 to allow smaller companies an equal chance of winning the award.
CHAUCER FREIGHT
With an eye on environmental best practice and transport and logistics sustainability, Chaucer Freight has rolled out an initiative focused at reducing its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2020.
Chaucer hopes to achieve these aims through:
• Utilising those air, sea and road carriers who are actively working to reduce their own footprints.
• Ensuring vehicle fill rates and reduce empty running through route optimization
• Applying the three R’s, (Reduce, reuse, recycle)
• Internal and external training specific to Environmental Issues
• Continual assessment of energy costs
• Carbon offset schemes
In order to ensure that it meets these objectives, Chaucer Freight has achieved the Environmental Quality Award ISO 14001:2004. The updated 2004 standard has a greater emphasis on monitoring performance and this gives Chaucer an independent set of guidelines to follow with external audit to confirm compliance.
Chaucer has also launched a new division, ‘Chaucer Environmental Services’ which provides consulting services to customers and suppliers wishing to reduce their own carbon footprints. This service also helps them to obtain their own ISO certification and is a first for the industry.
POTTER GROUP
Muntons Malt’s Bridlington plant is one of the UK’s largest producers of distilling, brewing and food malts for both domestic and export markets. Until recently malt was carried by road the entire 500 mile round journey using an average of 13 bulk tipper road journeys each week.
Following trials that started in June 2008, malt is now carried by road from Bridlington to The Potter Group’s rail-connected Selby Distribution Centre – a round trip of 98 miles – then by rail to Glasgow’s Mossend rail terminal using DB Schenker’s rail service, with only the final 12 miles to InBev’s brewery going by road. The new route is saving 378 miles per delivery.
One of the key aspects to the service is an innovative rail container design developed by The Potter Group that replicates the design of the road containers, having the same dimensions, an identical easy sheet system to cover the container and the same rear grain discharge system. As a result, the transfer of malt from road to rail is a simple and straightforward process.
As well as helping to counter increasing road congestion, the change from road to rail brings significant environmental benefits, helping to greatly reduce Muntons Malt’s carbon footprint.
MAXIM LOGISTICS
As a leading warehouse operator Maxim Logistics was already reviewing energy consumption at its Corby sites when a renewed electricity contract doubled the unit cost of electricity.
A monitoring regime established, unsurprisingly, that the greatest energy consumption was for lighting in the warehouse. As there is no natural light source in the building the lights were on for 24 hours during the week and for 12 hours at the weekend, while an analysis of aisle activity established the average daily activity per aisle was 1 hour 40 minutes, resulting in 22 hours and 20 minutes of wasted illumination.
Motion sensors were fitted to ensure that the lights would only be active when trucks were in the aisles and a dimmable system was incorpprated into the 31 aisles so a minimal level of lighting was on during periods of inactivity for safety reasons.
The most energy efficient luminaires, tubes and control systems were specified and with fitting the cost approached £58,000 – although the expenditure also qualified for a Carbon Trust Loan and an Enhanced Capital Allowance. The payback period is expected to be approximately 30 months.
The project was installed in October 2008 and the results of the changeover were dramatic. After five months average daily electricity consumption reduced from 1,395 KWh to 878 KWh, saving almost 40%. The annual energy saving is 188,705 KWh. This equates to an annual cost saving of approximately £24,000 while the annualised carbon footprint saving equates to 101.34 tonnes of CO2.
TRAINING AWARD
Sponsored by Skills for Logistics
This award is given for training achievement. It can be awarded to an individual, organisation or jointly to both but the winner will have shown significant personal and/or team achievement at any level of individual or team development.
PD LOGISTICS
PD Logistics made health and safety a priority in 2008 and this commitment to improve has been communicated to all employees and subcontractors throughout the business. As a result, the number of accidents and reportable injuries within the business has dropped.
For example, within PD Logistics there has been a 20 per cent decrease in RIDDOR reportable accidents and an 11 per cent decrease in all accidents during 2008, this follows on from a 66 per cent decrease in RIDDOR reportable accidents and a 38 per cent decrease in all accidents in 2007.
An initial extensive program of education and training at all levels of the business was completed throughout 2008 with the introduction of work-based NVQ Level 2 qualifications. The company saw the NVQ program as a good way of ensuring that information learnt in the classroom was actually being transferred into the workplace.
By the end of 2008, 84 of PD Logistics’ employees had successfully completed an NVQ and a further 50 are waiting for external verification. Another 40 members of staff are due to take part in the scheme during 2009.
iFORCE
For nine months of the year e-fulfilment and returns processing specialist iForce operates with a core team of some 150 agency colleagues across its business.
However, during peak periods the number of agency staff rises dramatically. For example, during peak for 2008 (0ctober to December) the number of agency staff went up to around 1200. For the same period this year, the figure is forecast to be around 1600
iForce’s Training Academy takes peak staff through iForce procedures during an intensive day’s training & assessment.
First, there is an overview of the company, including its current performance, objectives and demands – both corporately and at a site level.
A company specialist covers Health and Safety in considerable detail and everyone receives Manual Handling training by a qualified practitioner.
Site security is also covered in great detail as is iForce’s zero-tolerance of theft – the company emphasises that stock held at its sites is the property of its clients.
After the training has been conducted, recruits are comprehensively tested to ensure they have understood and remembered what they have been shown and at the end of the day a senior member of the management team will welcome the successful candidates and close the academy.
IFS GROUP
While it’s operation satisfied all legal obligations and other aspects of the Health and Safety at Work Act, IFS Global Logistics Ltd took the decision to overhaul company culture to make the business more H&S orientated and dynamic and to establish best practice routines across all operations and departments.
IFS came up with the concept of the IFS Safety Wheel. The Safety Wheel outlines a number of key objectives and actions to improve health and safety across the company.
As part of the Safety Wheel campaign, an IFS Safety Wheel Handbook was written and professionally published. Each member of staff – from the chairman down – has been issued with a personal copy of the Handbook. Every new starter is issued with a copy of the booklet at their formal induction training session.
IFS’s staff have been very willing to embrace the changes that the Safety Wheel has brought to the business and the change in culture that the company was looking for from the outset has, management believes, been achieved.
THE WAREHOUSE PERSON OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Linde Materials Handling UK Ltd
An individual who, in the opinion of the judges, has demonstrated significantly improved levels of performance during the year will win the Warehouse Person of the Year Award. In particular, the judges looked for consistent commitment and drive and a contribution to the development of corporate strategy.
Sabrina Jones, Despatch Team Leader
Wincanton DSE
Having joined Wincanton at 18, Sabrina Jones became a team leader at the age of 21. Although probably the company’s youngest team leader, she has also become one of its most respected. “Popular and trustworthy, she routinely mentors newer team leaders,” says Wincanton’s Paul Lloyd, who nominated Sabrina.
Sabrina was recently awarded her Six Sigma yellow belt for a project that delivered significant benefit to her company.
She demonstrated that standard A4 paper (£10 a box) could be used instead of triple-ply pre-printed dispatch notes costing £53 a box. She then contacted every recipient of these notes to discover that the majority of them did not want the desptach notes. The process was amended accordingly and it is estimated that around £5,000 has been saved in the last nine months.
“Sabrina Jones is a young person with an extraordinary sense of responsibility and duty who sets both herself and others very high standards and consistently over achieves them, always with a cheerful and enthusiastic demeanor that encourages others to perform to the best of their ability,” sums up Paul Lloyd.
Darius Januskevicius, Evening Shift Team Supervisor
Century Logistics
Darius Januskevicius is the evening shift team supervisor at Century Logistics site in Thetford. He has played a crucial part in developing his team within the company’s core contract with Dorel – the world’s largest supplier of nursery goods.
Darius joined Century as a warehouseman in 2005, shortly after he had moved to England from Lithuania. His commitment to continuous self-improvement is reflected by the fact that he continued to study for his degree whilst working for Century – using all of his holiday entitlement to return to Lithuania to sit his final exams, which he passed with honours.
“Darius’s commitment and quiet determination have ensured his rapid progression from warehouseman to team leader and on to supervisor of the night shift,” says Dave Riches, Century’s warehouse manager. Dave, who nominated Darius for this award, continues: “Darius’s team is responsible for the picking, packing and collation of over 16,000 pallets per year to over 600 independent nursery stores throughout the UK and Ireland. Quite simply, the operation would not be the success it is today without the influence of Darius.”
Paul Sheehan, Restaurant & Merchandise Fulfilment Manager
Simarco International Limited
Paul has had a challenging year. It started with moving Simarco’s entire restaurant and fulfillment stock to a new Simarco facility and included setting up a European warehouse.
“The challenge in front of Paul was to create within our new warehouse a system of racking and put-away that would enhance our current business operation and improve its efficiency and speed,” explains Barry Spencer, Simarco’s director of warehousing & distribution.
Barry continues: “Paul had to do a considerable amount of research within a short time frame to ensure that he chose the correct system. With construction delays that pushed our phase two moving date further back, Paul had to be on top of his game. Once the building was complete and the racking construction underway, Paul had to oversee the move of each location and each SKU ensuring that fulfillment of all orders was not disrupted. Paul’s complete flexibility and tight grip on controls and procedures ensured the total success of the move.”
In addition to the above, Paul was instrumental in setting up a new warehouse facility in Venice that Simarco opened to cope with a client’s European expansion plans. Paul traveled to Italy frequently to train staff and the Venice operation has proved a huge success due, in no small part, to Paul’s hands on approach to the needs of the facility.
united kingdom warehousing association www.ukwa.org.uk
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