Monkfield Nutrition has been a market leader in the breeding of live reptile food for over 25 years. During this time, they have set up an extensive reptile captive breeding programme, the largest European rodent farm and introduced a full range of reptile equipment, including innovative own brand products.
Monkfield supplies single site independent and multi-site national retailers throughout the UK, through a mix of their own vehicle fleet and selected outsourced contractors.
Against a background of increasing customer service demands, a challenging product to deliver, limited third party support options, a countrywide distribution area, stretched resources and rapid growth, Monkfield Nutrition approached Gideon Hillman Consulting for assistance in the development of their distribution strategy.
The specialists at Gideon Hillman Consulting carried out the project through simulation using Distribution Planning System (DiPS); which was used to evaluate all potential options or scenarios against the current distribution operation, by carrying out detailed routing to enable the accurate calculation of resource requirement for each option against which costs could be attached for each scenario.
The simulation involved virtual routing for each scenario, all the orders delivered in the chosen time period drop by drop, vehicle by vehicle, within the restrictions set (delivery days, delivery windows or booked times, product mix and volume, unloading times, driving restrictions, etc..) on a digitised road map with realistic average speeds per road type.
The output for each scenario included the vehicle fleet size and profile; aggregate mileage driven by each vehicle; drivers’ hours and other expenses such as overnight stays; additional carrier and courier costs for what could not be delivered on Monkfield’s own vehicle fleet.
All of the elements listed above for each scenario were fully costed and benchmarked against each other in terms of cost and service KPIs. This provided Monkfield with real and accurate information upon which to base their future strategy for their distribution network.
“The comprehensive study was carried out with exceptional attention to detail, by the experts from Gideon Hillman Consulting who worked closely with our team and remained flexible in their approach throughout the whole process” said Jo Wise, Managing Director, “We are now in the process of implementing the recommended strategy as we are in a position to make informed decisions on our own vehicle procurement plans, as well as route allocation between our own fleet and our sub-contractors to ensure we can continue to provide the best service levels possible”.
Gideon Hillman Consulting Ltd
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