COST TO SERVE

We caught up with Dave Cartledge, GSC Network Strategy Lead, who gave us an insight into the ‘Cost to Serve’ project which we know is a huge focus for the team this year…

Dave, can you tell us what the Cost to Serve project is?

Through various acquisitions and network changes, the delivery profile has become unbalanced which in turn creates unnecessary road miles. By reviewing our customer delivery days using the DIPs planning tool, the project enables the team to optimise delivery days into a smoother day profile. Working with the different trade channels they have created a customer engagement plan for customer delivery day changes.

At what stage is the project currently at?

Phase one was focused on Tilbury depot and has been a great success thanks to the knowledge of the depot teams and the close relationships our Sales Development and Business Development Managers have with our customers. A total of 800 customers were in scope and of these 70% required change. Through strong project governance 91% accepted the change with the remainder able to find an agreeable compromise so we are really pleased with the outcome and lot’s of learnings for us to take forward.

What’s next for the project?

Following the success of phase one, the team are now underway with phase two for St Edmunds, Eastwood, Middleton and Spennymoor Depots where we know we have 2365 customers in scope.