Supply chain leaders in operational excellence
Wincanton actively strives to maintain its position of logistics leadership and reputation for supply chain expertise across all services and operations. We aim to continually deliver more than our customers expect and our ability to achieve this depends on the commitment of our people to continually improve our ways of working.
Continuous improvement across the supply chain
We are committed to continually improving our processes and methods to ensure we deliver the best possible service to our customers. Our internal suite of tools creates a consistent approach across the business, from self-assessment databases and balanced scorecards, through to employee survey results and safety culture assessments, with all results immediately available in order to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
Staff ownership for improvement
Each individual employee has an important role to play in our business, from senior manager through to front-line staff. Each and every one of us has their own set of objectives and priorities which work towards achieving the corporate goal. And this also happens at a site level with the creation of site performance plans which are linked to the customer's current objectives for their supply chain.
Achieving operational excellence
Our operational excellence toolbox contains a selection of processes, procedures, techniques and best practice case studies all of which are focused on helping our teams achieve maximum value for our customers. All our improvement projects work to a simple yet effective approach:
- define the project
- measure the current situation and any problems
- analyse the causes and develop improvement ideas
- implement and review results
- control the process and ensure KPIs are in control
Typical improvement projects have demonstrated the following improvements across Wincanton:
- a 50% improvement in productivity without compromising quality
- a 20% improvement in goods inwards / despatch capacity
- a 30% reduction in footprint, whilst retaining the same throughput
- a 90% reduction in errors
Lean Six Sigma
Lean Sigma skills are developed in-house and through supported programmes. Selected sites utilise Wincanton’s in-house Lean Sigma Black Belts to achieve transformational step-change improvement over a three-month period and help our teams to identify waste and deliver cost savings. This approach is designed to speed up transition and engage both employees and customers in Wincanton’s key improvement efforts.