In December 2017 despite the record number of shipments to consumers in the history of the Group of Companies, one of the key indicators of logistics (Just in Time) reached the same record level for production sites – 90%. Director of Logistics of Unitile Yuri Igumov told what contributed to this as well as about prospects for the current year.
"It's a truism to say that time is money, but it's true. And any departure from the planned deadlines, perhaps not always, but most often involve financial losses – direct or from short-received benefits. And since one of the main principles of our policy is maximum customer orientation, we try to do everything possible to ensure that cooperation with us is as comfortable and profitable as possible. And Just in Time is not the only one, but very important part of our work."
According to Yuriy Igumov, the development of technology "just in time" has become one of the priority areas since August of last year. "This is due to the fact that recently there have been noticeable changes and improvements in our client policy, some, according to the clients themselves, were even profound. So, we had to solve many tasks, introduce new processes and internal systemic changes.
If we talk about the Just in Time staring point, in August 2017 this figure for production sites made up about 60%. Of course, such an indicator did not suit us very much," Yuriy Igumov continues, "and the first thing we did was the introduction of new standards for shipment of products. If we are speaking about motor transport, till August they were produced within 72 hours after processing the order by the client service department. Today we have reduced the time exactly twofold – up to 36 hours. It is important to take into account that it's not just about the procedures for processing and transferring an order between services within the company, but about centralized deliveries, when we deliver the order to the client on our own and at our own expense. We had to virtually reestablish and reintroduce the requirements for the portfolio of service providers, determine the selection criteria for transport companies, clearly state the requirements according to which products shall be supplied, the conditions they had to meet. We know the existing standards, according to which the transportation is carried out, so we control the shipment in such a way that the partner receives the order at exact time appointed by him," Yuri Igumov said.
"Similar changes have also affected rail transportation – their period has been reduced from seven to three days. However, the situation here is somewhat more complicated:
We are entering a period of intensified railway transportation and the inevitable shortage of rolling stock. Even now the demand for freight cars starts to exceed the existing supply," the logistics director admits, "however, this fact should not affect our indicators. We have almost completed the tendering procedure for rail and road transport, we are completing the formation of a portfolio of suppliers whose reliability we are sure of.
And although the work for the introduction of Just in Time continues, the results already achieved deserve to be noted:
Apart from December indicators which are really unprecedented, generally, for the second half of the year, we have reached the "just-in-time" indicator at 86% for production sites. The goal of 2018 is 95%. I hope we will achieve it. And if to say without false modesty, we, I'm talking about all Unitile units, really have something to be proud of. After all, we are talking about the synchronization of dozens of processes in all divisions – from procurement and production to marketing. But, most importantly, it is the atmosphere of trust that is built between us, our suppliers and our partners. And long-term cooperation, since the system works only if all of its links are closely interrelated."