Driving performance through engagement

Bernard Molloy, ‘Logistician of the Year’ and global industrial director at Unipart Logistics, outlines his belief in people, their innate desire to create value when truly motivated, and the notion of ‘performance through engagement’.

At Unipart Logistics we design, operate and optimise complex supply chains for clients across a wide range of sectors on a local and global basis, where excellent service is vital to their success. This may sound like a bold claim but what distinguishes us from other logistics providers is not just our depth of experience, it’s our passion for engaging and developing our people at all levels in our organisation. We believe people make the difference.

For our clients we deliver enhanced productivity, together with sustained innovation, through a workforce that is engaged in building the business, generating ideas and solving problems. And we call this ‘Performance through Engagement.’

Such an approach may appear obvious, but it’s not as simple to achieve as it sounds. We have spent the last 25 years developing and applying a sophisticated set of principles, processes and tools to create a ‘can do’ culture in our business that continually seeks out new solutions and strives for excellence. In fact, our skills in people management have been recognised by the achievement of ‘Champion’ status – the highest level of recognition awarded by Investors in People.

Our unique management philosophy, ‘The Unipart Way’, embraces workforce engagement, ‘lean’ principles and a structured approach to continuous improvement. It is founded on world-class ‘Best practice’ principles and is underpinned by a structured programme of colleague training and development.

So what’s involved? We take a stepped approach to training people known as the ‘Gate to Great’ journey, leading the individual through five levels of competence – see, learn, do, teach, coach. ‘Gate to Great’ is an employee development programme encouraging every Unipart Logistics employee to reach their full potential. The first steps of ‘see’ and ‘learn’ enable the individual to first experience best practice skills in the workplace and then be taught how to apply them in their own area of work. A structured programme of skills development and assessments provide a path for employees to follow, ultimately leading to a level of expertise where they can coach others.

The Unipart Way encourages colleagues to work in teams and to constantly monitor and question the efficiency of the tasks they perform. The ‘Faculty on the Floor’ is a specially equipped training room located within the operational area and set aside for this purpose. Within the Faculty, teams meet on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to review performance against key performance indicators set in accordance with customer goals.

But it is our ability to bring together intelligent supply chain design with robust processes and engaged people that has enabled Unipart Logistics to achieve such fast growth. As a leading global logistics services company we have transformed the supply chains of many of the world’s largest brands, using our well practised techniques to bring improved processes, reduced operating costs and an engaged workforce to a broad range of sectors from hi-tech, retail, and communications, to aerospace & defence, automotive and consumer goods.

Having the right supply chain design is a prerequisite to enhanced performance. Only by understanding the full strategic and operational requirements of a supply chain, and its impact on the business, can the best results be achieved. Unipart Logistics’ consultants are at the forefront of supply chain thinking. They regularly speak at conferences and lecture at universities. However, their work within Unipart Logistics keeps them grounded in practical solutions that deliver, enabling them to create holistic solutions that integrate processes, people and systems for sustainable results.

Intelligent solutions are applied by our consultants and practitioners across the full spectrum of supply chain design – from inventory modelling, supply chain re-engineering and network design, to physical operations, order management and audit & compliance. As an example, our approach to warehouse and facility design address a broad range of customer concerns, such as: optimising material and information flows, dealing with variability, identifying and removing resource bottlenecks, product profile changes, storage option selection and implementing automation – to touch on just a few areas.

Unipart Aftermarket Logistics has a long history of applying intelligent solutions and achieving exemplary results. Mobis, which supplies parts to over 360 Hyundai and Kia dealerships across the UK, has benefited from Unipart Logistics’ skills in driving performance at the company’s Tamworth distribution centre. Service levels achieved for Mobis are close to Five Sigma.

Recent contract wins in global markets include a further distribution contract with Toyota in India and a ground-breaking five year, full-spectrum aftermarket logistics contract with Qoros Automotive in China.

In fact, Unipart Logistics’ standing in the automotive sector was recognised by three major industry awards in 2013. Unipart Aftermarket Logistics took both the ‘Overall Winner’ trophy and the ‘Automotive, Aerospace and Defence Award’ at the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards, as well as the ‘Aftermarket Parts Logistics’ trophy at the Automotive Supply Chain Global Awards.

As a global logistics services company we have the facilities and technology to operate highly sophisticated, international and multi-national supply chains. But, above all else, it is the quality of Unipart Logistics’ people and their expertise in solving practical problems that counts the most.

www.unipartlogistics.com