Gideon Hillman Consulting is one of the leading Logistics and Supply Chain consultancies in the UK operating throughout Europe. It is an ISO 9001:2008 accredited company for the supply of Specialist Supply Chain and Logistics Consulting and a corporate member of UKWA (United Kingdom Warehousing Association) as well as being a recognised member practice of the Institute of Consulting.
“2013 has been another great year for us with continued growth in both the private and public sectors” says Managing Director and Chairman Gideon Hillman FCILT FCMI. “The first quarter started well with numerous new enquiries from businesses across the UK and Europe. I attribute our continuing growth and success to a number of key factors which are testament to the significant expertise and capabilities of our Directors and consultant team, repeat business and referrals from our existing clients, increasing brand awareness and our ever growing reputation in the market. Our exposure to a wider market was helped by the so called ‘Horse Meat’ media hysteria in February which for us included my interview on Sky News which was subsequently widely publicised. The second quarter of 2013 was the best quarter the business has had since it started in 2004 and was also when we hit the €1BN value of outsourced logistics contracts that we had tendered”
“I also believe our continued growth in 2013 is also an element of timing in so far as so much attention by companies has been focused on taking cost out of all aspects of the supply chain as well as reducing the effects on the environment, whilst of course achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction – a tall order for any business especially during recession. The economic downturn forced a number of businesses to reduce or integrate resource and infrastructure in some areas to such an extent that they are now finding they are unable to operate to maximum efficiency and potential as some business pick up momentum. This, in most cases, has provided a short term cost saving solution, but unfortunately has a medium to long term adverse effect on the business as the supply chain optimisation and the key business objectives are diluted; reducing their effectiveness and worth, preventing the business from achieving a fully optimised supply chain.”
Clients during the year have included Acushnet Europe Limited; ADP Architects; Caparo Wire; Churches Fire Security; City Sprint; Clarke and Clarke; Farmfoods; FoundOcean; Gloucestershire County Council; Global Winery; Hepsiburada; Monkfield Nutrition Ltd; News International; PaperlinX Europe; Price and Buckland Ltd; Renthal Ltd; Seko Synergy Retail Support; Scott Bader Company Ltd ; Bloomberg LLP; Gate Group; Kent County Council; Marlow Foods; Ronseal and Suffolk Constabulary.
The types of projects have ranged from complete Logistics Network design and implementation, Transport network modelling and optimisation using DiPs, Warehouse Management Process and Design (supported by the company’s in-house CAD facilities), Development of Asset management and tracking systems specific to clients specific global requirements, Inventory optimisation, Transport and Warehouse Outsourcing tenders and S&OP (sales and operations planning).
Some of examples of the projects are as follows:
GIDEON HILLMAN IS HELPING THE POLICE WITH THEIR ENQUIRIES…
Suffolk Constabulary issued a tender for consultancy support to provide a business case for a collaborative archive of Police information to service six county Police Forces and Suffolk County Council. Through the tender selection Suffolk Constabulary awarded the contract to Gideon Hillman Consulting Ltd (GH) which provided the best proposal in terms of the approach to the project whilst demonstrating a high level expertise and proven capability.
The proposed facility under review had to be able to provide storage and management of many types of archive materials such as paper records, magnetic audio tapes, CDs, DVDs, Frozen items / exhibits, vehicles seized and found property and drugs.
The starting point for the consultant warehouse team at GH was to group all the archive types by the type of storage required and then to establish the space requirements from each Police Force and the County Council for each archive group.
‘The range of materials and the different storage conditions required such as standard racking, high density mobile archive shelving, freezers, ventilated drug stores and other secure evidence storage made this a very interesting project to be involved in’ commented Managing Director Gideon Hillman
In addition to the storage areas the permanently manned facility was to include offices and staff facilities and work areas for paper record disposal and segregation areas for evidence disposal. Due to the nature of the facility an advanced zoned security system with multiple cameras covering the whole building both internally and externally, and a secure perimeter fence at least 10 meters distance from the building itself, was required.
Once the facility designs had been drafted and then completed after a series of reviews with the Suffolk Constabulary project team, comprising of police and civilian senior personnel, the consultants were tasked with providing costed solutions for a number of options.
These options were to include the costs for a new build facility fully fitted out to meet the requirements and specifications agreed and identifying potential locations. In addition consideration was also given to the service levels provided by the facility in terms of document and evidence retrieval varying from 1 hour to 5 days depending on the service level required.
The project was completed within a few weeks and the results presented to the Suffolk Constabulary senior project team for further review as part of the business justification process.
‘We are very pleased with the pragmatic and logical approach adopted by the consultants at Gideon Hillman Consulting and would not hesitate to use their services in the future’ said Phillip Clayton, Assistant Chief Officer – Suffolk Constabulary.
GIDEON HILLMAN HAS A PERFECT ROUND WITH ACUSHNET…
Acushnet is the leading manufacturer and marketer of golf equipment and accessories including their leading product brands; Titleist, Pinnacle and FootJoy. The products are sold to on-course golf pro shops and selected golf specialty and sporting goods retailers worldwide.
Acushnet have two European warehouse and distribution centres based in St Ives in the UK and Helmond in The Netherlands. The Acushnet operations and warehouse management team recognised the need for a fully functioning WMS system with full barcode reading capabilities, to improve the speed and efficiency of goods receipt, put-away, replenishment and picking procedures.
Acushnet chose to work with Gideon Hillman Consulting (GH) to develop the WMS Operational Requirement Specification (prior to approaching any specific WMS software suppliers) to ensure that they identified a suitable WMS system, that meets the needs of both the European warehouse operations for at least the three year planning horizon, to reflect planned changes in procedures and volume throughputs.
The scope of the project for the consultants at GH included a review of all current and proposed processes from goods receipt and put-away, through finishing/processing, to order despatch; service and delivery commitments against stock profiles; Materials Handling Equipment requirements and warehouse layouts for picking, packing and despatch operations.
“We were very impressed with the expertise of the consultant from Gideon Hillman Consulting. He performed a thorough and detailed study at both distribution centres and worked well with all members of our warehouse teams”, said Steve Amps, Senior Manager Operations and Distribution, Acushnet Europe.
WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT FROM YOUR WAREHOUSE CONSULTANT…
There has been a noticeable increase in warehouse and picking facilities within the internet retailer and e-fulfilment sector as well as a number of business mergers and acquisitions now seeking to benefit from warehouse consolidation and economies of scale.
Planning how to react to economic recovery and capitalise on every opportunity as and when it arises is crucial. Where measures have been taken to rationalise and contract to combat recession, businesses need to be sure that they can react to the inevitable recovery and upturn in trade as and when needed and not be found wanting or lacking in resource and strategy when the time comes.
Long term security will be highly dependent on a robust and sustainable Logistics and Warehouse strategy within your business and within that of your customers and suppliers throughout the supply chain. In order to survive, companies must endeavour to undertake the widest review possible to ensure that all elements of their warehouse processes, systems and facilities are not ‘sub-optimised’ and that inventory levels are minimised yet remain effective.
The need for a consultant with operational and practical management experience is essential and a good logistics consultant should be highly expert in Logistics Network design and reviewing current warehouse process and operations. They should be able to successfully develop and implement solutions for all areas of Materials Handling, Procurement, Stores and Inventory Management including Regional, National and Global Distribution Strategy Development and implementation, Tactical Stock locations, Handling and Picking processes, Demand Forecasting, Integrated Inventory Control, Vendor Management, Vendor Support Operations, inbound and outbound Logistics Management and Performance and Cost Measurement.
All of the analysis and solutions specific to the client requirements must be presented with clear and concise rationale, having been costed and tested. Most importantly the costs of current warehouse and inventory operations (per item or unit load despatched), must be clearly identified and the on-going cost reduction strategy must define requirements for flexibility in the business over the next 3 to 5 years planning horizon.
The strategy must be tested to ensure Interface / interaction between Warehousing and despatch and other operations / departments within the business as well as integration with existing ERP / MRP systems and WMS modules.
“What businesses don’t need is a lengthy and unnecessarily costly outsourced consultancy project which delivers little or no practical benefit with no consultant / client interaction”, says Paul Trudgian CMILT, Project Director for Gideon Hillman Consulting. “What companies rightly demand and subsequently should receive are implementable solutions specific to their requirements, costed, tested and presented with clear and concise rationale, including a detailed implementation path. This can be achieved through a fixed cost and logical approach which is effective and adds value to a client’s businesses with no additional or variable costs over and above those agreed for the scope of the work.”
Gideon Hillman Consulting Ltd
Tel: 01926 430 883
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