Whitbread Food Logistics on the move

When Whitbread Food Logistics found its manual delivery tracking systems were impacting the company's bottom line & customer service, it turned to Blackbay for a mobile solution...

Whitbread PLC is the UK’s leading hospitality company. Its brands incorporate Costa, TGI Friday, Beefeater, David Lloyd Leisure and Premier Travel Inn. Whitbread’s Food Logistics team is responsible for providing each of the company’s 1,400 brand sites with their essential food stock.

Misorders, late arrivals and even transporting food at the wrong temperature can leave sites short of the stock they need to provide customers with the best possible experience. Monitoring the status of orders from arrival to successful delivery is crucial to maintaining correct stock levels and ensuring any discrepancies are corrected as soon as possible.

Whilst Whitbread Food Logistics had been running a very successful warehouse management system from Chess Logistics for a number of years, it lacked any real visibility of orders leaving the warehouse through to their ultimate delivery on site.

“We had no real–time measurement of delivery performance,” says Jonathan Abbott, systems analyst and project manager at Whitbread. “Delivery times, claims and driver feedback all used to be captured manually by the drivers and then entered into Chess’ system by a clerk at the depot on the drivers’ return – this had a lead time of up to 36 hours.”

In addition, the administrative overheads were considerable and errors in data capture were not uncommon due to clerks having to transcribe the handwritten notes from drivers. Whitbread Food Logistics decided to investigate a mobile solution to improve visibility in the supply chain.

A solution on the move
Following consultation with warehouse management supplier, Chess Logistics, Whitbread Food Logistics engaged with mobile software specialist Blackbay to develop a solution that could address its real–time reporting and measurement needs.

Blackbay worked closely with Chess and Whitbread Food Logistics to understand the business processes already in place and develop a mobile solution matched to these priorities.

The mobile solution, built on Blackbay’s Delivery Connect software, allows drivers to input all delivery information directly into handheld devices. This information is then transferred electronically from the driver’s handheld device to the Chess system - without the need for further data entry at the depot.

“The intelligence and simplicity of the Delivery Connect design was a key contributor to the success of the project,” says Abbott. “The simple design really appeals to the drivers, meaning they got to grips with it quickly and want to make the project work.”

Timely results
The immediate benefit for Whitbread Food Logistics is that the delivery process is now transparent from depot to delivery. Delivery times, claims and other feedback from drivers is now recorded in real-time rather than with an up to 36 hour time lag.

The administrative overhead from the manual entry of driver experience has been eliminated, leading to both accuracy improvements and time savings. Paperwork has been reduced by three to five pages on over 6,000 deliveries every week.

With the drivers saving approximately 30 minutes per day and reductions in administration headcount within the back office environment, Delivery Connect is saving over 515 man hours per week - a statistic Abbott says will lead to a full return on the investment by month 20 of the project.

“The Delivery Connect system has been a real hit with the drivers,” he says. “They certainly wouldn’t want to go back to the old system. They’re excited by the new handhelds we’re trialling and are keen to maximise our investment by adding more functionality - in fact, most of the new developments are generated by suggestions from end users.”

An unexpected benefit for Whitbread Food Logistics is that customer service has also improved; the early visibility of like claims has allowed Whitbread Food Logistics to address potential stock issues much earlier than previously possible. Looking to the future Whitbread Food Logistics is looking at incorporating Sat Nav into the solution and plans to make use of the rich data generated by the Delivery Connect system.

For more information
Blackbay Australia Ltd
Email: kate.kinraid@blackbay.com.au
Mobile: + 61 400 18 19 50
Website: www.blackbay.com

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