20 November 2015

BDA scoops major supply chain award with Suzuki

An innovative time critical logistics partnership between Suzuki plc and pan-European logistics specialist BDA (now part of the Carousel group of companies) has earned a top prize at the recent European Supply Chain Excellence Awards.

The two businesses, which recently worked together on urgent on demand flight solutions in order for Suzuki to continue to make their customer’s spare part deliveries in good time during the Channel Tunnel closure, have been announced as the winners of the Automotive, Aerospace and Industrial award. The accolade recognises outstanding achievement in supply chain management across Europe and is renowned as a trustworthy measure of the most outstanding examples of supply chain best in class practice.

It was the synergy between the two businesses and the innovative approach that BDA is bringing to Suzuki’s supply chain that the judges recognised. Since working together, BDA has brought together multiple delivery service options combining road and air-connections in this case to make consolidated Through-The-Night pre-08:00 deliveries to enable Suzuki to deliver parts quickly to, and engage with, its UK dealership network. BDA manages both sides of the Suzuki supply chain – coordinating goods inbound from its sister warehouse in Germany and outbound from its UK site to its 450-strong network of dealers. The dealer delivery service is Through-The-Night pre-08:00 to 160 automotive dealers and during the day, pre-17:00 for bike, ATV and marine dealers.

BDA’s strong relationship with Suzuki has enabled the automotive manufacturer to make considerable time and cost savings throughout its supply chain, with consolidated delivery options, a waste reducing Return and Recycling packaging solution, and consistent delivery performance in the high 99s percentile. Most recently, BDA worked closely with Suzuki to deploy innovative rapid on demand air freight services to enable the automotive manufacturer to successfully move goods in and out of Europe, during a time when cross channel services were being heavily disrupted.

Wayne Dye, General Manager of the Suzuki GB Parts and Accessories Division, commented: “BDA has been a key supply chain partner in helping us deliver excellent customer service. They understand our supply chain challenges and from the start have wasted no time in putting together innovative delivery solutions to help us overcome any challenge. An example of this could be seen just recently, when we were able to rely on them to switch on their air bridge solution to help us overcome travel chaos caused by channel tunnel closures.

“We have come to rely on BDA and benefit from an enterprise level service as well as the friendly and personal service that BDA provides, which can be a difficult combination to find in a logistics provider. This award is well deserved and we are confident that as we continue to grow and our supply chain continues to mature, BDA will grow with us.”

The winners of the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards were revealed on November 16th at a glittering ceremony in London. Now in its 19th year, the awards are held annually, and recognise outstanding logistics achievements and supply chain innovation.

**This article originally appeared on www.bdaviation.com**

As you can imagine, we are delighted to have won this award and to have had our work with Suzuki recognised. Suzuki’s own approach to supply chain management and its commitment to its dealers has contributed as much to this award as our own innovative solutions. At BDA we work hard to understand the supply chain issues that our clients in the automotive industry and many other sectors face, and come up with innovative, new ways to overcome them. This award is proof that we are doing a very good job of achieving this.
Kevin Turner, Group Managing Director