Transforming parts logistics in agriculture
Objective and brief
We were appointed initially to help improve its deliveries to regional extremities, including Scotland, offshore islands and Ireland. Our main objective was to guarantee its out of hours deliveries to dealers and keep them in control at all times.
Deliveries needed to be made to customers virtually by dawn everyday, on time, and without fail.
Our approach
We worked with the client and its dealers to first establish when and how they wanted deliveries to arrive. Our approach was to overhaul the existing supply chain to ensure that irrespective of size or weight, deliveries got there on time. This involved collecting from Southern Germany at 8pm and delivering by 8am the next morning.
Our innovative solution included:
- Set up a specialist network of van, trucks and planes that deliver overnight to all locations
- Created a tech-enabled system using our enhanced 4C technology to give more visibility to dealers and farmers
- Combined all parts from its German and UK locations into one delivery
- Supported the solution with an automatic labelling and tracking service
- Extended operating hours to seven days a week during harvest.
Piloted in just seven weeks, in time for the May harvest, we quickly implemented and provided later collection times and extended dealer-to-dealer delivery of any part – irrespective of size – to anywhere in Europe.
We’ve since renewed our parts contract in a three year deal and invested in a new air line-haul from Germany to our hub in the UK adding further capability, later collection times, plus more control and visibility over the supply chain.
The result
We personalised our client’s customer invoice allowing it to automate checks saving the client valuable time and money. But, in short, we improved their service and the brand reputation that comes with it. The client was so pleased, we were even recognised for achieving excellence with a global award.
Key achievements include:
- Sharing information in a format that improved their internal processes, and reduced management time
- 99.6% on time delivery rate
- Simplified deliveries and saved unnecessary costs
- Improved customer satisfaction.
Read more about the agricultural logistics work we do for our clients.