Rolls-Royce has awarded KLM a three-year global contract to manage inbound and outbound International Freight Forwarding for sites in the UK, US, Germany and Canada. KLM Cargo Aerospace Logistics entered a joint bid with Kuehne + Nagel, a partnership which provided the best operational and commercial fit for Rolls-Royce’s requirements. Ian Shellard, programme manager, Global Physical Logistics for Rolls-Royce, says: “As our business becomes more global, both in terms of the supply base and the customers we support, we need international supply chains that are dependable, repeatable, cost-effective and that give us clear visibility of where the goods are at any point in time.”
Supermarket chain Asda is taking delivery of nearly 200 Scania R-Series trucks for its UK distribution fleet in a major order scheduled to be fulfilled during November 2004. Fifty of the 196 vehicles, all R 420 LA4x2MNA tractor units, will feature Scania’s newly-revised and upgraded Opticruise gear-selection system. The tractor units are being supplied on 50-month contracts, which include all repair and maintenance. With an expected 140,000 miles a year, the vehicles will be based at nine of Asda’s operating centres nationwide, and serve its 280 stores.
Coors Brewers, which supplies and services equipment in more than 45,000 licensed premises, has renewed its contract with Transcomm because of the quality of wireless data communication and inherent cost savings. Over the course of the contract, which has run for five years, Coors Brewers has benefited from a substantial Return-on-Investment (ROI). Coors Brewers receives 250,000 service calls per year in the UK, which are transmitted via the Transcomm Network to 200-plus field-based technical representatives.
A training company in Nottingham has launched the city’s first training centre dedicated to fork lift truck driving. ASA Training has opened the specialist training facility in Attenborough due to the huge demand from people to learn how to drive forklift trucks. Now ASA Training has launched a brand new centre – Fork Lift United Kingdom (FLUK). Suzanne Wells, business development manager for ASA Training, says: “Following the huge success of the training we decided to open a purpose-built training facility to cope with the increasing numbers.”
Skills for Logistics, the Sector Skills Council for the freight logistics sector, now has close links with the largest delivery force in the country, following the appointment of Royal Mail’s Ken Mabbett to its board. Mabbett, Royal Mail Logistics’ distribution director, has specific responsibility for the distribution, through the Network, of the 82 million items posted every day.
Supply Chain Planning, one of the UK’s first independent specialist logistics consultancy practices founded in Cranfield over 30 years ago as NMHC, now has a new management team headed by Dr. David Lascelles an experienced management consultant. The company will continue to be based on the Cranfield University campus. The new company, re-branded as SCP UK, will continue to specialise in warehousing design and layout, distribution network optimisation and assisting clients through the outsourcing decision process.
Agility Systems’ new iLink solution is set to help the food and drinks industry to comply with a new EU directive and improve its supply chain systems at the same time. The directive, which is being introduced from January 2005, states that all food and feed operators (including primary producers) must be able to trace and follow a food, feed or food-producing animal substance through all stages of production, processing and distribution. Agility, which launched its new iLink version 3.7 earlier this year, has solutions that use existing ERP systems to make it easy for the food and drinks industry to trace a product’s movement through production and the supply chain.
EPCglobal, the worldwide not-for-profit supply chain standards body, has elected a new president to take the organisation forward. Briton Chris Adcock, who has held several senior positions at Gillette, will lead the global, multi-industry adoption of the EPCglobal Network, which uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and a network system to capture information and enable real-time identification and sharing of information throughout the global supply chain.
