DE & S after the wildlife on sites and try and create an environment that is both pleasant , functional and sustainable .
“ One of the things I ' m pushing in our new build project at Longtown is that we will install solar PV on the roof . What I ' m aiming for is that we generate sufficient electricity for that building and , hopefully , for the whole site . I think that ' s an area where we should do much more across all our sites .
Looking to the future , West believes firmly in having a vision and a goal and principles that his team should deliver through the supply chain , but it has to be real . He says you have to make it practical , setting achievable clearly-defined goals along the journey .
“ One of the things I think has been my stock-in-trade throughout my career is about getting stuff done ,” says West . “ I ' m not really interested in a vision and strategy for its own sake . I ' m not very interested in lots of PowerPoint or long , written reports , or talking about things . I want to get on and do things . We do run the risk sometimes of spending too much time talking about what to do and then find the moment or opportunity has passed . I realised from my retail days that even if we do something and it turns out not to be quite right , you can always stop doing it and then do something else . Better to do that , in my book , than sit contemplating and never actually changing anything at all .
In terms of demonstrable action with real results , West says his first goal is completion of the new storage facility at Longtown . In parallel , he wants to bring Project Lifecycle Management ( PLM ) into equipment support . West says DE & S has invested in its business systems , but it ’ s the turn of through life support to get some attention that will provide foundations for many of the new things emerging such as autonomous last mile logistics , digital twins , and the role that 3D printing could play in the Defence environment .
“ We really need to be looking at how we bring PLM into play so that we ' re delivering the backbone of support systems that allows our people to be much more effective , much more controlled , and much more consistently repeatable in the way we deliver support ,” says West .
West joined DE & S on an 11-month contract in 2013 and is still there , nearly 10 years later . So , is that a sign of unfinished business , or simply relishing the challenge ?
“ This has been the best job in my career so far ,” says West . “ It has been a huge amount of fun and an opportunity to get on and do things . I found that working for NHS Supply Chain gave me a strong sense of service to the state and this role has built on that . I ’ ve also really enjoyed working with a brilliant group of people over the years and have loved to see people flourish and develop . It ’ s probably time to hand the reigns onto someone new to continue the journey , and I ’ ll be thinking about what I should be doing next .’’
“ What we ' ve done on the Defence Fulfilment Centre , what we ' re doing in Support Improvement and even our new facility at Longtown , are all part of that journey about to modernise the way defence delivers logistics and support . I ’ d like to think that we are already more advanced in terms of that logistics capability than perhaps any other country , which is a good feeling , but I ’ m realistic and know that there ’ s still much more we can do .” supplychaindigital . com 111