01732 759725
SUPPLY CHAIN
32
I can’t recall
more than a
handful of
errors in the
last ten to
fifteen years
...continued.
Howe said. “Order confirmation and billing
comes from Manchester and we allocate
the mode of transportation for every order
before we send them to DHL, whether it’s
by courier, haulier, trailer, or even first or
second class post,” he added.
Howe recently switched carriers,
appointing DPD as it sends text messages
to advise customers of a one-hour delivery
window. “That’s an extra value-add service
that our customers can enjoy,” he said.
Some customers have their own
warehousing and have specific logistics
requirements that Brother needs to meet.
“We can send out ten to twelve trailers a
week to some distributors, each of these
will hold products with different labels
and will be packed in pallets that meet
individual customers’ specifications in
terms of height, size and volume. And the
requirements can vary enormously, some
customers with multiple locations have
different requests depending on which
site the order is to be delivered to. We’re
responsible for all of that detail,” he
added.
According to Howe the logistics
operation has to constantly flex and
change. “Customers can transact with us
any way they wish, from email or via file
transfer. We’ve built lots of flexible systems
and we are continuously reshaping how
we work,” he said, citing MPS as one
example. “The market is moving and MPS
deployments becoming more mainstream,
Brother’s MPS model is scalable from a
basic offer to a more sophisticated solution
and we’re rolling it out through the
channel.
“There are any number of challenges
that come with that. Once a dealer has
set-up an MPS contract we manage the
supplies replenishment on their behalf
and ship the consumables to wherever an
individual device is located,” he added.
He continued: “Each customer has
different requirements and we have to
ensure that we’re set-up to meet all of
their needs. Whether that’s to deploy
a trailer to fulfil an order placed by a
distributor, ship a delivery to a large retailer
who needs a bespoke service, despatch
one device to a reseller, or send a set of
consumables to a dealer’s MPS contract
customer.”
Customer service
The operation is slick. “A trailer could be
carrying 150 SKUs but if a query is logged
we can tell the customer which box an
individual item is packed in. That’s how
we add value to our customers. There’s no
product crossover, no shortages and I can’t
recall more than a handful of errors in the
last ten to fifteen years,” he said. “There
might be the odd tape or cartridge that’s
damaged or gets lost, but that’s about it.”
He continued: “That’s the high level
of service we offer. Our customers don’t
have to worry about whether or not their
goods will arrive on time, or if there will be
products missing or damaged. We do extra
things that mean they don’t have to quality
check onsite. They know it’s right and that
reassurance can take cost and waste out of
their operations.”
All returns are received in Manchester
which houses a workshop staffed by eight
highly skilled engineers. “Customer repairs
are done onsite, we pull all spare parts
from Germany and wherever possible
we aim to offer customers a 48-hour
turnaround,” Howe said.
Brother employs a further four field-
based service engineers who in addition to
repairing devices at customers’ own sites,
also train dealers and other third-party
service providers to maintain and repair
Brother printers.
The company has a first level customer
contact centre in Kingston upon Thames as
well as a second level call centre at head
office. “We’re constantly training our first
level operators which reduces the volume
of calls that get escalated, in turn this
helps us continue to improve and evolve
our second level support teams,” Howe
said.
Running a tight ship
Inventory control is a smooth operation
at Brother and Howe runs a tight ship.
“In association with Deloitte we do
an inventory count twice a year,” he
explained.
The last inventory took place in October
last year. Howe confirmed that there
was no loss on units but there was one
difference in value. “We had a crossover
on one product which resulted in the small
valuation charge,” he explained. “Our
variance on loss was just £500 for the year
and that’s on a stock holding worth £140
million. That’s something we’re incredibly
proud of,” he added.
Recording such a small loss is no mean
feat when you consider that during this
financial year, Brother delivered 4.3 million
items and the total number of claims
agreed was just six.
