SupplyChain Magazine January 2018 | Page 147

SUPPLY CHAIN
“ Through the use of these tools , we are tracking every day just how well we are performing and how well we could perform ,” he says . “ They help us achieve what we want to achieve , cost savings , signing of contracts , but also we know if we don ’ t sign a contract exactly how much its going to cost us . They are really powerful tools .”
All of this granular data has enabled a level of understanding of the true cost of operations that only a short period ago was hidden . This has led to another of the major successes Loveday has overseen at Thames Water , the creation of the Logistics Management Centre , ( LMC ). The LMC now manages the majority of the supply chain operations for Thames Water and a number of its partners . With five warehouses , eight forward stock locations , stock is dynamically managed and distributed . Where is it beneficial to do so Thames Water buy , maintain and distribute their own plant . The function provides a 24 / 7 response to emergency bursts and floods across the patch . By cleverly utilising specialist vehicle assets to their full potential the LMC have delivered significant savings to the business ( circa 15-30 % across all activities ).
“ the true cost of logistics was hidden with separate contracts , what we have discovered is that we can plan better , react quicker and run logistics vastly more efficiently by
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