Right time. Right place.

Perfect Flow is a revolutionary new logistics consultancy created by Ian Gilson and Neil Alexander. Ian and Neil introduced the world’s first rapid response, parts delivery service to the responsive repairs market in 2009.

What Deming did for manufacturing, and what Seddon is doing for the service industry, is now happening in logistics.

You would think that delivering goods at the specific time that is most convenient for your customer would be more expensive for a logistics organisation, when compared to providing the same old “we’ll be there any time between 8am to 6pm window”?

Right? Wrong! Absolutely, completely, utterly wrong.

So if it’s that easy, why don’t organisations, such as repair companies, utility companies & mail delivery companies turn up when its most convenient to their customer?

Did we say easy? Well it is if you change the way they think, but for many organisations that’s a bridge too far. When organisations do things a certain way for a long period of time, even contemplating that there could be another way can be difficult. The good news is that we can show you how & help you achieve profound, counterintuitive outcomes that will give your organisation the most amazing competitive edge.

Some call it Lean, the Japanese refer to it as 改善 (Kaizen) which means “improvement”, or “change for the better”. This refers to the philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, game development, and business management.

However, changing processes without changing your thinking will eventually lead you back to square one. Vanguard Method of systems thinking addresses the flow of the work (for us specifically logistics), but will also help your own team to understand your own business better and enter a continuous improvement cycle.

Whatever your organisation, if you need to ensure items turn up at the right place and the right time EVERY TIME and want to provide a service to your customers that blows them away, then read on!

At a glance…

Most Logistics systems are not designed to ask the right questions, let alone provide the right answers

What do we do?

• Every repairs service that we have seen includes huge amounts of waste
• We help organisations redesign their service to remove the waste
• Specialise in logistics
• Use ‘systems thinking’ techniques
• Saves money, increases efficiency and improves the customer experience

What a typical repairs system looks like:

Look at all those ‘backflows’. The system includes;

Value demand = the demand we want, what we are here for
Failure Demand = demand caused by a failure to do something or do something right for the customer

From the customer’s perspective, the only steps that add value to their repair are;

What if you could turn off all of those wasteful steps and create Perfect Flow?

There are several steps to enable successful change in a business and continuous improvement is built around the cycle of ‘check, redesign and roll-in’.

Change must be based on knowledge

Our approach uses the Vanguard Method of systems thinking to teach your own staff how to identify problems and eliminate waste from your service. The emphasis is very much on increasing the capabilities of your organization, without any lingering dependency on us.

Before we can pinpoint exactly how we can help you, we need to gain a better understanding of your business. To achieve this, we carry out a short scoping exercise;

1. Scoping Exercise

2. Check

3. Redesign & Roll-in

Why is Logistics so important in creating the Perfect Flow?

Most repairs need parts and materials.

But how often does the tradesperson have the right parts on their van and how often do they have the time to fit them?

What we see:

In up to 80% of repairs, the skilled tradesperson has to leave site to collect/order parts. On average, this practice wastes 1.8 hours per day for each and every one of them.

What is the cost of this wasteful practice?

For every 10 tradespeople you have, the annual cost is £100,000, straight off your bottom line

We help organisations regain that lost profit, by providing a better, more efficient service for the customer. Win-Win.

What do we do that is different to all others?

What one customer found;

Most stock ends up on a van or in a store “just in case”. At Perfect Flow, we have a better approach;

• Van stocks based on individuals daily usage
• Using statistical process control to accurately decide what parts have earned a place in your stock
• Stock replenished daily, direct to your vans on site

But you can’t carry everything on a van, right?

No you can’t, but why make your skilled tradespeople go shopping, when parts can be brought to them while they keep working?

Responsive deliveries to operatives directly to the door, within minutes and at the exact time they want them

• Not within 24 hours
• Not between 8 & 6
• Not AM or PM
• Not a two hour time window
• The exact minute the materials are required

Is this even possible? Yes it is and we can show you how…

Case study

By stocking more of the lines that matter and removing the ‘just in case’ lines, the results are counter-intuitive;

Stock reduced from £2,400 per van to £600.

The amount of repairs completed from van stock increased from 45% to 92%.

Where before each operative was wasting 1.8 hours per day shopping for parts, they now spend an average 8 minutes per day waiting for our deliveries.

How many more jobs could your operatives complete per day?

How much cashflow would you unlock from your stores?

What would your company do in this situation? – How would you bridge the gap?

If this is a measure of phone calls to a call centre, it often leads to outsourcing and a move abroard. If this is a measure of work for a repairs contractor, it leads to sub-contracting, or employing more operatives.

What if we told you that a sizeable amount of that demand was caused by you failing to do the job right in the first place?

If this is a measure of phone calls to a call centre, how many are ‘chase’ calls or complaints? If this is a measure of work for a repairs contractor, how many are repeat visits for recalls, reworks, missing parts or problems with access?

We specialise in identifying the failure (waste) and turning it off. Now you have free capacity to expand.

If this is a measure of phone calls to a call centre, how many more customers can your existing staff service? If this is a measure of work for a repairs contractor, how many new contracts can you take on with your existing overhead?