Gideon Hillman Consulting is one of the leading Logistics and Supply Chain consultancies in the UK operating throughout Europe. They are 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.
“2011 has been an exciting year for us with unprecedented growth in both the private and public sectors,” says Managing Director and Chairman Gideon Hillman FCILT. “January started well with receiving a certificate of High Commendation at an industry awards ceremony for our work and expertise in Logistics Network Design and Outsourcing Tender Management and we were one of the four finalists nominated for the Customer Satisfaction Award.”
“This achievement was followed closely by a complete re-branding in March with the new logo and website, our second successful year at the Multimodal Logistics event at the NEC in April and the move to our new offices in June to accommodate the additional administration staff and support functions for the consultant team,” adds Gideon Hillman in summarising the key milestones of 2011.
In addition the company has supported two major charities during the year. In May the specialist warehouse design team were engaged by the Royal British Legion to ensure that The Poppy Shop (the online shop for The Royal British Legion which celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2011) could meet the significant increase in product range and demand once they had decided to dramatically expand the range of products available on-line. The outsourced e-fulfilment solution implemented by Gideon Hillman Consulting with the Royal British Legion provided the infrastructure to support a record fundraising year for the Poppy Shop.
In September a four man team, led by Project Director Paul Trudgian MILT (pictured below), took part in the START Banger Rally from St Austell to Monte Carlo, via Northern France, Switzerland and Italy, over a three day period. The team were raising money for ShelterBox, an international disaster relief charity that specialises in emergency shelter and the car was provided by Gideon Hillman Consulting, a keen supporter of the Shelterbox charity.
Clients during the year have included ABB; Magna Automotive; McDonald’s Europe; Ikea; Quorn; Fenner Drives; Enveco; Biogen (UK); Bibby Distribution; Computers Unlimited; Premier Foods; Cameron Process Engineering; The Royal British Legion; Technology Supplies; ShelterBox; Wincanton Logistics; Richard Burbidge; Britvic Soft Drinks and Hertfordshire County Council.
The types of projects have ranged from complete Logistics Network design and implementation, Warehouse Optimisation (supported by the company’s in-house CAD facilities), Transport and Warehouse Outsourcing tenders and S&OP (sales and operations planning).
Some of examples of the projects are as follows:
OUR CONSULTANTS GET INTO LINGERIE!
Eveden Group, leaders in the intimate apparel market, engaged Gideon Hillman Consulting to map and review their existing Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) processes.
Eveden Group are leaders in the D+ intimate apparel market, offering a whole family of brands, including Goddess, Elomi, Huit, Fantasie, Freya and Fauve. They design and manufacture high quality, fashion conscious lingerie for more than 5,000 retailers, including national and independent stores as well as online in more than 30 countries.
The Eveden Group are moving towards a global S&OP platform, linking all of their sales territories and production facilities, but to avoid duplication of effort they firstly required a detailed audit of their existing processes. “I knew that, as a business, we already had many of the appropriate processes required for a global S&OP platform,” stated Derek Laing, Supply Chain Director for the Eveden Group, adding, “I wanted to ensure that those processes were retained, but just improved and integrated where they had become disconnected”.
The Gideon Hillman Consulting team worked on-site with the key stakeholders of S&OP and produced detailed process maps and RACI matrices for all the existing forecasting and planning processes, before undertaking a full gap analysis. The gap analysis identified 8 key issues from which the consulting team developed solutions focussing on process accountability, development of standard forecast models and improved inventory targets.
Derek Laing added “The process maps that the consulting team produced were exactly what we were looking for – simple, clear and comprehensive, and the gap analysis provided us with an excellent road map of how those processes should be developed. We are now continuing to work with Gideon Hillman Consulting to devise the best course of action to implement those initiatives and start realising the full benefits”.
WAREHOUSE EXPERTS INCREASE CAPACITY & REDUCE COSTS
Computers Unlimited is Europe’s leading distributor of Apple accessories and represents more than 100 vendors with 3,000 resellers throughout Europe.
The UK warehouse facility in Radlett, Herts was opened in 2006 to service the needs of the UK market which at the time was predominantly pallet and bulk movements. However, since the facility was opened Computers Unlimited has seen significant sales growth, and an increasing change in their order profiles from B2B professional products to mixed orders of more consumer focused products.
This change in the order profiles, coupled with increases in sales, resulted in the facility becoming congested. Cubic utilisation of racking was reduced to 60%, packing stations were insufficient, and floor space was increasingly constrained for ancillary activities such as product reconfiguration.
Computers Unlimited selected Gideon Hillman Consulting to undertake a total review of their warehouse operations with the specific objective of reconfiguring the existing facility to reflect the order profiles, whilst reducing operating costs and providing capacity for growth.
“We chose the Gideon Hillman Consulting team based on their reputation and proven track record in warehouse design and optimisation” commented Mark Rennie, Operations & IT Director, “they took care to listen and understand our business needs and reconfirm those needs back to us before pitching solutions. This approach stood them apart from other consultancies we spoke with”.
The consulting team firstly established the baseline metrics of the current operation to provide a benchmark against each optimised solution to be considered. Using supporting data the team then modelled a series of potential solutions against the business profile and existing site. These solutions included wide-aisle racking with carton shelving, wide-aisle racking with vertical carousels and also wide-aisle racking with horizontal carousels. With each option the layout and location of each functional area (packing, RMA, goods-in, despatch etc) were also redesigned to ensure the work-flow was fully optimised, with inefficient movement reduced and safety maximised.
Each option was designed, with a full assessment of operating and capital costs, and compared back to the baseline metrics of the current operation. All options were then presented to the Computers Unlimited management team, with a full rationale of the logic and benefits. Once the final solution had been agreed, the Gideon Hillman Consulting team then worked to provide detailed CAD drawings, along with SOPs, WMS functionality requirements and an implementation plan.
“We were really impressed with the clarity and scope of options presented to us by the consulting team” commented Mark “we decided to utilise horizontal carousels and wide-aisle racking as this option provided a quick ROI through significantly reduced operating costs, but also increased our storage area 3-fold. The result of this meant we could easily accommodate our existing requirements, and have significant space available to accommodate our growth targets.”
GIDEON HILLMAN CONSULTING IMPLEMENT E-FULFILMENT STRATEGY
The Poppy Shop is the online shop for The Royal British Legion which is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2011. Early in the year The Royal British Legion made the decision to expand its range of products available through the Poppy Shop website to approximately 400 items which were previously not available to order on line.
The concern was that their existing warehouse and fulfilment facility in Aylesford, Kent would be unable to meet the increase in demand and throughput, especially through the high demand season from July to October. In May 2011 The Royal British Legion enlisted the help of Gideon Hillman Consulting to investigate the options and source the right solution to support this vitally important sector of their commercial operation.
“We required a high level of expertise from the consultants to enable us to quickly identify the optimal solution which could be implemented against some very demanding time schedules and the team from Gideon Hillman Consulting ticked all the boxes”, said Joseph Dublin, Head of Corporate and Trust Relations for The Royal British Legion.
The Warehouse and Logistics team at Gideon Hillman Consulting worked with the client to carry out a detailed review of the existing warehouse and distribution operations for The Poppy Shop and to identify the future requirements. The findings from this review were presented back to the project steering group with a recommended strategy to meet the expected increase in activity and throughput and which could be implemented to coincide with the launch of the new website and increased product range.
It was agreed that an outsourced partner for high season, whilst utilising the existing internal fulfilment operation for low season, was the most suitable solution which could be implemented quickly and efficiently.
The consultants developed the scope for the outsourced operation including Warehousing, Stock Management, Product Fulfilment and Logistics services. It was also an opportunity for the Poppy Shop to improve efficiency and optimise customer service levels so the potential partner was required to have the capability for full integration with the Poppy Shop’s IT operating system and EDI capability for all elements of sales order processing, customer service and stock visibility.
A number of companies were approached by Gideon Hillman Consulting who identified and recommended the most suitable fulfilment partner based upon a combination of capability, culture fit, customer service and cost.
“We are very proud to have successfully completed this project for The Royal British Legion especially in their 90th anniversary year which is so important to them and all the serving and ex-service armed forces personnel and their families that benefit from their support”, commented Gideon Hillman.
Gideon Hillman Consulting
Tel: 01926 430883
email: info@hillman-consulting.com
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