When one of our IT team at UTL looked at how one of our distribution hubs programmed its sorting equipment to adapt to changing client requirements; he knew he could save time and money with just a little creativity and a lot of know how.
Our client needs to be agile and respond quickly to a dynamic retail environment; making changes to the automated sorting equipment, using a third party supplier, was taking over 2 weeks and costing £1,500 each time. Our award winner thought he might be able to develop a way of doing it better…
Phil highlighted to the business the possibility of creating a dummy sorter map so that we would no longer require the third party to be involved in any future changes. He got in contact with the third party to see if it was possible and to check that there were no underlying restrictions to his potential improvement.
Once he was satisfied that it was possible, Phil then spent a number of weeks putting together a dummy file that would allow the client to have complete flexibility with minimal cost. He then tested this through the sites testing system which proved successful.
Whilst achieving this, Phil was also working on a client request to reduce the number of chutes by 50%; this was one of the largest sorter map changes that the site has ever had and as a consequence increased Phil’s workload significantly due to the amount of programming and testing that he had to do to make sure it was working smoothly.
Phil demonstrated an ability to think outside the box, he used his initiative to talk to our third party supplier and used his deep understanding of our client’s needs to deliver a fantastic solution that will sustainably save money to the client! With up to 10 changes each year – the business and client realised a saving of up to £15,000 and 20 weeks of waiting time. A true example of outstanding personal customer service for our client, with genuine long term cost savings that delivers greater flexibility for the future.