Supply Chain Company focus
ByBox’ 365-day-a-year service ready for any challenge
I
magine it is your busiest trading day of the year, the computer system has just crashed, an engineer has quickly turned up to fix it, but he doesn’t have the right part and it will take hours for that to arrive. Frustrating? Infuriating? Enough for you to switch service suppliers? In today’s busy 24/7 society no-one can afford to lose a competitive edge because they are waiting for a vital spare part to arrive. Delays and disruptions to business not only cost money, they inconvenience customers and can damage a company’s reputation.
Whether it is a simple problem such as a vending machine jamming up, or a more complex challenge such as a computer system crashing, companies nowadays expect a solution as quickly as possibly – normally within hours – seven days a week. Getting parts to field service engineers efficiently and effectively 365 days a year is a challenge that ByBox, the UK field service solutions provider, has risen to with proven success. Now operating seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, even on Bank Holidays, ByBox delivers in-night, pre-8 am to its network of more than 18,000 drop boxes at 1400 locations in the UK.
Parts are ready for an engineer to collect before the start of a day’s work and the system can be easily used in reverse to route unwanted or faulty parts back to stock, to a repair shop or direct to the manufacturer for compensation under warranty. Moreover, for engineers who require parts urgently out of office hours, ByBox operates a network of over 30 Forward Stock Locations which are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The reliability and robustness of ByBox’ network has won it a host of blue-chip clients; including Coca-Cola, Konica Minolta, Siemens and Computacenter, as well as a string of awards. Last year it achieved a 99.77 per cent delivery rate despite the appalling winter weather that reduced many carriers’ networks to chaos.
Peace of mind Chris Meltham, service delivery manager of 52
MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT December 2011
The reliability and robustness of ByBox’ network has won it a host of blue-chip clients; including Coca-Cola, Konica Minolta, Siemens and Computacenter.
Sunwin, which carries out services for the Co- operative Group, said: “We look after a store estate of over 3600 food and pharmacy sites, as well as another 1300 sites for travel and funerals, and needed a robust method of shipping replacement parts quickly to our team of 50 mobile engineers. The ByBox 7-day service is working exceptionally well, and gives both our customers and engineer’s complete peace of mind that we can deliver a high quality service to the Co-operative Group, the UK’s biggest retailer in terms of the number of sites. It has stores in every postcode area of the country.”
Mark Garritt, managing director of ByBox, said: “ByBox customers know their engineers will always start the day with the right equipment for the jobs ahead – no matter how difficult the conditions. In the past we have coped with the Royal wedding, high profile sporting events and exceptional weather from floods to the ‘big freeze’ and we have robust contingency plans for dealing with the road closures around the Olympics.”
Disruptions around the Olympics will start in May 2012 when the Olympic torch arrives in the UK and will continue through four days of celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June, the Olympic Games in July and August then the Paralympic Games in August
and September.
ByBox reports that it is ideally placed to rise to challenges because it never loses sight of customers’ consignments, due to its unique software platform Thinventory, which in 2011 scooped the Best Use of Technology at the prestigious Motor Transport Awards. With the ability to pinpoint the exact whereabouts of customers’ stock, even when it is in engineers’ vans, Thinventory enables customers to reduce their stockholding, freeing up valuable working capital for other parts of their business. Parts can be easily diverted to the nearest drop box for a particular engineer.
Founded in 2000, ByBox has grown to become a £44 million company, which last year was listed in the Sunday Times International Track 100 following the rapid expansion of its network in the Republic of Ireland, France and the Benelux countries. ByBox is now extending its offering to consumers with the launch of myByBox, which is aimed at online shoppers who hate waiting in for parcels. The company is investing £2 million to establish banks of myByBox locker boxes at convenient locations in the M25 London area and has recently signed a deal with Network Rail to install them in selected railway stations in London and around the rest of the UK.
www.logisticsit.com
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