[asset_ref id=”454″]Customer Service & Support is a central element of supply chain excellence and the judges are always particularly keen to see high scores in this category. This year they were certainly not disappointed.
However, the front runners were Jaguar Land Rover in partnership with DHL Supply Chain and British Gas – both of which were very high scoring entries, which made the judges’ task all the more challenging. Moving from a modest relationship between Jaguar Land Rover and DHL Supply Chain involving one of the automotive manufacturer’s plants, to collaboration across three plants to standardise processes, has proved highly successful for both parties with very significant benefits, amounting to tens of millions of pounds in savings.
(From left: Dan King, publisher, Logistics Manager and Supply Chain Standard; Glyn Williams, head of operations, British Gas; Rufus Hound)
The metrics were all clearly visible and the judges were highly impressed by the close strategic partnership between the two organisations and the continuous improvements that have benefited both parties. This was a painfully close decision.
British Gas scored equally highly. Over an 18 month period the company has transformed its supply chain completely, aligning procurement, distribution and engineering functions to customer needs. The judges were impressed by the scale of the challenge facing British Gas, performing 38,000 visits to customers per day, and the company’s ability to route engineers dynamically. With 99.6 per cent next-day delivery, British Gas is now predicting engineers’ in-field requirements, allowing the company to fulfil same-day delivery and so is directly improving the quality of service.
The judges were swayed by the way British Gas had realigned its customer services to “achieve superb performance in a challenging environment – responding to variability at many levels, from the weather driving customer behaviour to the sheer variety and volume of parts the company must optimise”. The decision made was that British Gas
deserved the trophy.
Winner
British Gas
Shortlisted
Jaguar Land Rover in
partnership with DHL
Supply Chain
British Gas
Cadbury
