Articles
EAN advice saves Automotive Aftermarket member heartache (March 2005)
A Brisbane seminar on supply chain management may just have been the catalyst for massive change for Lunds Four Wheel Drive.
Lunds General Manager, Col Craig, had long been considering how his business could benefit from sophisticated warehouse technologies when he attended a seminar presented by the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA), EAN Australia and Telstra.
"Lunds is a 30-year-old business and while we are very efficient, some of our practices have not changed in all that time, so I wondered how the more automated systems might help us," Col explained.
"Plus, while most of our 400 resellers around Australia are very simple businesses, we also sell to some national retailers who I know will one day ask us to supply barcoded products."
At the seminar, Col met EAN Australia's Tania Snioch and later Marcel Sieira, who outlined the path to EAN•UCC adoption.
"At first, I thought it was as simple as buying some scanning equipment," Col said, "but after talking to Tania and Marcel, I realised that it was much more complex than that."
"I decided very quickly that while I could work it out myself, I might end up spending a lot of time and money and still get it completely wrong."
Col's answer was to invite EAN Professional Services' Thomas Howard to conduct an EAN Professional Services Supply Chain Review. Col was surprised to find that the review centred not on technology, but Lunds' own business processes.
"Most of the three days Thomas spent with us on site here in Cairns was about seeing what we do, how we do it and why we do it," Col said. "By the end, he had a very good grasp of our business."
Those insights were reflected in Thomas' review, which arrived two weeks later.
"I was very impressed with the report," Col said. "It was an honest assessment and included a comprehensive list of recommendations."
"Apart from addressing the big-ticket items, like our software system, the review showed there were lots of very simple things we could do to lift our productivity."
"Thomas noticed we weren't using picking trolleys and suggested a new way of sorting stock in the warehouse, so we are already making gains."
"It's amazing how, although we have always been both profitable and efficient, someone from outside with specialist skills and experience across a lot of organisations can discover lots more potential improvements."
"But perhaps the biggest benefit of all is that we've thought more about our distribution operations in the last few months than in the previous four years and the EAN Supply Chain Review has given us a very clear direction for optimising what we do."
