100,000 PODs Processed Per Week With On-Line Access For Customers For NFT Distribution.
Founded over 30 years ago NFT is the UK’s leading provider of chilled, time-critical food and drink logistics solutions. It provides primary and secondary logistics to simplify the chilled food and drink supply chains for a wide range of customers including major European brand and private label manufacturers and importers, regional food and drink manufacturers and leading UK and European grocery multiple retailers.
The Challenge
NFT has a strategy to deliver continual improvement in order to enhance customer supply chains and continue to increase its share of the total UK grocery logistics market. To this end, the organisation has invested in a world class infrastructure and the most advanced systems to capture and deliver best performance, outstanding value and an exceptional customer experience. As part of this strategy, NFT wanted to improve the processes used to handle and manage proof of delivery (POD) notes and speed up the identification and resolution of discrepancies.
The Solution
After conducting an extensive review of the market, NFT asked e-docs UK to design and develop a cost effective solution that would streamline the handling of more than 100,00 PODs every week. As one of the UK’s leading independent providers of business optimisation solutions, e-docs UK recommended an integrated system that would not only efficiently handle this volume of PODs but also incorporated a web-based, query management system that would enable customers to rapidly identify and resolve any delivery discrepancies on a timely basis.
According to Andrew De’Vere, NFT’s Director of Warehouse Operations with responsibility for Customer Services: “We are committed to developing our infrastructure to increase operational efficiency and achieve optimum customer satisfaction levels. This new technology solution has enabled our customer services team to be more productive, spending more time building relationships with clients and handling any issues that occur along the supply chain.”
e-docs UK worked closely in partnership with NFT’s customer services and IT teams throughout the deployment process to clean up existing data and streamline processes in readiness for the new system. NFT’s head of IT, Stephen Szikora, stated: “Implementing this system with e-docs UK highlighted a number of areas in our business where improvements could be made. It has helped us to us get a grip on our data and systems and the integration with both the Sainsbury and Tesco electronic GRN systems has been a real bonus.”
All supplier PODs and retailer goods receipt notes are now scanned and uploaded to the e-docs UK OneView servers where they can be viewed by the next day. Every document is indexed using multiple criteria including supplier name, PO number, delivery date and delivery point, which speeds up the search and retrieval process.
The web-based, query management system enables customers to have direct access to all delivery documentation and log and monitor discrepancies and related responses. Every request is automatically allocated to an advisor for action and a powerful reporting capability allows NFT to effectively measure and manage the performance of the customer services team to ensure that targets for improving service levels and customer satisfaction are met.
“The e-docs UK system meets the needs of food and drink manufacturers for rapid and timely access to delivery documents and feedback from our customers proves the system is a complete success,” continued Andrew De’Vere. “Over the last three years we have invested over £20m in technology and infrastructure solutions, and this new system is helping to consolidate our position at the forefront of chilled, time-critical logistics.”
The system has subsequently been enhanced to provide more reporting and traceability. Additional search filters now provide third party logistics suppliers, working on behalf of NFT, with the same level of access to all their delivery documentation.
About e-docs UK:
Established in 1988, e-docs UK is a leading independent provider of Business Process Optimisation services that give customers greater control over documents and processes along with major improvements in productivity and efficiency. e-docs UK works with some of the world’s largest companies through to smaller and medium sized enterprises in a wide range of market sectors including logistics, finance, manufacturing and healthcare.
