Construction Materials Supplier

The client, a major international manufacturer and supplier of construction materials and products engaged Go Supply Chain Consulting to support them on a major logistics strategy project for their UK based the client business. The client is a business specialising in the production and distribution of plaster bag and wallboard products for the construction sector. The scale of the UK operation is substantial with 5 large production facilities located in England that also operate as distribution centres. Go Supply Chain Consulting put forward an experienced team of consultants and analysts to support the client on their complexed logistics strategy requirement.

The project brief was to develop a range of logistics network strategy options that would allow the client to improve delivery service to their customers while optimising production capacity and internal distribution flows.

To kick off the project our consultants hosted stakeholder sessions along with data workshops and site visits to gain a clear understanding of the existing operations and key project requirements. Following the initial sessions our team worked alongside the customer to develop a base case model to accurately reflect the flows, resources and costs of the existing operation. This base case information was presented in an interim project review meeting with key customer stakeholders for agreement ahead of developing new scenario options.

We approached this project using a range of tools to develop the strategic modelling options:

• Our in-house centre of gravity modelling tool was used to determine the optimal locations of new distribution centres
• We used the PTV route optimisation software to model vehicle/driver resources by routing inbound, outbound and inter-depot transfers for each scenario
• We carried out an inventory modelling exercise to calculate the required inventory levels of each SKU at each site to support the sizing of each distribution centre. We used CAD software to create site layouts based on this inventory modelling
• We used customised optimisation algorithms to develop network modelling scenarios that maximised overall factory production outputs and minimised factory to depot mileages. This modelling considered production line speeds that varied depending on raw material inputs and different options around production crew sizes

Once different scenarios had been modelled using our range of tools, we compiled the results and presented them back to the customer in an options appraisal format. We explained the trade-offs between scenarios considering a range of criteria such as:

• Customer service benefits
• Operational costs
• Capital costs
• Production capacity benefits
• Ease of solution implementation

Following the identification of a preferred scenario we undertook more detailed analysis of the proposed to stress to test the robustness of the proposed solution option. An example of this further analysis was a review of the loading times at factories and how this impacted on site movements at factory/depot locations.

Go Supply Chain Consulting provided a thorough review of logistics strategy options to the client. The client could understand the pros and cons of each solution option and ultimately decide on how they wanted to proceed with their logistics strategy based on quantified outputs and comparisons.