Air Products Delivers the Difference – Strong Customer Focus Puts The Company Ahead in the Packaged Gas Supply Chain
Air Products South Africa, industry leaders in the manufacture, supply and distribution of industrial and specialty gas products, prides itself on an effective supply chain based on open channels of communication.
This is especially true of the Packaged Gas Business Unit, which operates a responsive, ‘just-in-time’ (JIT) system, according to customer demand.
Shamo Moonsamy, Customer Service Manager: Packaged Gas at Air Products describes how the company keeps its finger closely on the pulse of market demand and is in constant touch with its customers.
“A crucial part of our operations is our daily meeting where the key stakeholders – Customer Services, Production and Distribution – come together to look at the customer requirements.
After the meeting we get in touch with the customer and keep him up to date with the status of his order. This proactive feedback to customers is a key feature of how Air Products does business.”
The result of this interactive approach is a flexible, organic supply chain system, based on the principle of sound communication, and delivering on promises.
“We call this ‘service that delivers the difference’”, says Moonsamy, who emphasises the company’s commitment to a 24 hour service delivery.
“By keeping the channels of communication open, Air Products can deliver on our promise of the quickest possible turnaround,” he says.
This is one of the reasons why Air Products runs its own fleet of delivery trucks.
In addition, the company regards its fleet drivers as an important link in an effective supply chain, and as such, values its older, more experienced drivers.
“Again, it goes back to the people factor”, says Moonsamy. Our drivers are very much part of the customer service ethos – they are trusted to deal with customers: and are trained in customer relationship management and in understanding customer requirements.”
Although manual processes form the backbone of the Packaged Gas supply chain, technology also plays a key role in managing the supply chain. GPS vehicle tracking systems and recording devices on trucks monitor speed, diversion from routes, delays, as well as erratic driving behaviour. This means that Air Products can keep a close eye on what happens on the roads, and thus protect its drivers as well as its vehicles.
The company is in the process of implementing new hand held technology which should affect a smoother invoicing process. With information pre-loaded through the host system and transferred to the hand-held device, invoicing records are constantly updated and each transaction is recorded instantaneously.
The Packaged Gas business is run on a just-in-time principle and Air Products uses the Kanban system to analyse the rate of production in relation to customer demand.
“The Kanban system is based on the number of cylinders dispatched over a fixed period of time, closely monitoring stock levels and the volumes that need to be replenished in order to maintain optimum levels”, says Moonsamy.
The dynamic nature of the business means that Packaged Gas does not rely on strenuous planning. “It is a ‘today for tomorrow’ operational ethos. And because we have to be flexible and responsive to demand, we find that a largely manual system, one that is optimised to suit the customer, works most efficiently.”
Moonsamy concludes: “We run a very lean and cost-effective operation with minimal technology: we consistently outshine the industry benchmark, when we compare our running costs against the RFA (Road Freight Association) figures.
Daily communications mean we have control over our service delivery and when it comes to our 24 hour turnaround, we really do deliver the difference!”
Published on August 22, 2011 in Air Products News |