Information gathering
WINTER
DECEMBER 2020
InSite
The sales team will be working with customers to understand what they are likely to be ordering in the months and years ahead. The marketing and executive teams will be studying economic forecasts, regulation changes and market trends to get a picture of the likely impact of the wider business climate on our operation. Purchasing teams will have information on any changes happening in the supply of raw materials and just as importantly, our production teams will be looking to plan essential maintenance work and improvements or upgrades that will affect production volumes in any way.
Growing market leadership We know that all our customers have a choice. Our task is to make sure that working with H+H is a choice they want to make.
Introducing SIOP All of that information needs to be collected, organised and interpreted. We call this process SIOP – short for Sales, Inventory and Operational Planning. An effective SIOP process allows the company to make the best strategic and operational decisions, based on a well-informed view of both the company and the wider market. At H+H we have been working with VA consulting and developing our own SIOP process over the last 18 months and we now welcome Tom Reeves into H+H in the new role of Data Analyst. It will be Tom who collects the information and turns it into the information needed to manage and plan our operation.
Our promise, therefore, is to be more than a product supplier. We promise to be a trusted partner.
Maintaining our lead We are the market leader. To maintain our position we have to continually improve, introducing innovations that make a real difference to our customers – this is the promise we make when we describe ourselves as Partners in Wall building. Service is number one. Our competitive advantage has to be based around the best possible customer service and I hope this issue of InSite reflects our effort and investment in continually growing that advantage.
H+H UK Ltd Celcon House Ightham Sevenoaks Kent, TN15 9HZ hhcelcon.co.uk +44 (0) 1732 886444
Delivering that promise requires a determined focus not only on our customer-facing service functions but also on the smooth operation of our entire business. In the last issue of Insite we outlined the changes being made within the sales, marketing and technical team to anticipate and meet the needs of a developing market. In this issue we look at the restructuring of the commercial and logistics teams together with the investment being made in new management systems to support our customer service promise.
We are very fortunate in H+H to have individuals with the experience, knowledge and skills to help us drive the business forward. To make the most of those skills we need people to be in the right structure with the right technology to help them do their job to maximum effect. Our market is changing fast and as market leader we have no-one to follow. Instead we are doing what market leaders do: forging our own path, innovating to stay ahead and, crucially, designing our business not for what customers want today but for what they will want tomorrow. This issue of Insite looks at one more aspect of our journey towards 2022 and beyond. Calum Forsyth, Managing Director
The right people with the right support
Changes at the helm
We all know what great customer service feels like because we are all customers.
No-one could know the H+H organisation better than Allan Clark and he is now taking responsibility for the customer service and logistics teams. These two teams effectively work in partnership, receiving orders and scheduling the dispatch of goods to customers, so it makes sense to have them together in a single group.
The things we want to buy must be available when we need them. It should be easy to order things and when we do, the order should arrive in the right place at the right time. If there is any problem, or if we change our minds, we want to be able to get in touch and resolve any issues quickly. For H+H to supply this level of service, the whole business needs to be organised with this single aim in mind and we are instituting a number of changes to help do just that.
Russell Austwick joined H+H in 2019 and has had responsibility for the operation of the yards since then. He was instrumental in working with Keedwells to introduce a new safety regime for loading and transport and now adds the management of this important distribution partner to his role.
Kelly Hunter, Commercial Director
The right support
The people on the front line are our customer service and logistics teams. These are the people who talk to customers, process orders, organise deliveries and sort out any problems in the ordering or delivery process.
The majority of people in the customer service team have worked at H+H for some time and all have contributed to the excellent reputation that we have for our service.
Warehouse & Distribution Manager Russell Austwick
External Logistics
Commercial Manager Allan Clark
Logistics Another
Commercial Assistant Kerry Baker
Commercial Officer Rosemary Roskilly
SIOPS Data Analyst Tom Reeves
Customer Service Another
Yard Manager Borough Green Mark Woodward
Logistics Katie Dolley
Customer Service Lynn Cleary
Yard Manager Pollington Craig Carter
Logistics Leah Deadman
Customer Service Lorraine Peterson
Logistics Jane Halil
Customer Service Bella Lake
Working with them are the warehouse and distribution team who liaise with our haulier partner (Keedwells) to make sure the lorry collections and deliveries are scheduled and managed. Prompt and safe dispatch can only happen in well-ordered yards and the Yard Managers oversee the safe storage and movement of product, manage traffic flow and oversee the loading of the lorries.
Excellent people deserve to be supported by the best systems to manage the ordering and invoicing processes flawlessly. We have been investing in the most up to date software systems and moving towards the introduction of a whole new management system. 2020 saw the first stage of this process with a transitional solution put in place to solve immediate issues. Moving on from here, we are investing in Business Central, a Microsoft system which means that it will integrate with many of the programmes used throughout the company every day.
One huge advantage of using a system we can integrate is that it is much easier to access. Everyone who needs order management information can quickly find out what is happening with an individual order.
It is this type of innovation, bringing in the most up to date technical solutions, that will ensure we maintain our marketleading position and continue to provide our customers with continuous improvement, without waiting to be asked.
Anyone on the customer service team will be able to answer queries immediately so customers can get a resolution with a single phone call and a single point of contact.
Business Central will be introduced in 2021 and will improve our order management and invoicing systems enormously.
In time the system will also include a customer portal, allowing our customers to log on and get a real-time update on how their order is progressing.
The frontline customer service is just that: front line. Behind that team there needs to be a firstclass manufacturing operation making sure that the right product is available at the time that the customer is going to want it. Achieving that involves planning our production using the best information available. A successful and profitable business is able to anticipate demand in advance in order to plan. We need to be able to predict what products our customers are going to want and when they are going to want them. We need to know about the availability of raw materials, delivery vehicles and other essential supplies to make sure we are ready to meet that demand. With the best information to hand, we can organise shift patterns and maintenance shutdowns, understand how much of which products we need and phase the purchase of our raw materials to get good prices and make sure we never run short. Getting hold of this information takes time and effort, involving everyone in the management team.
The best structure
Commercial Director Kelly Hunter
Information is king
With the right team structure and first-class system support, our reputation for excellent customer service is in safe hands.