Billington's Food Group...sweetening the supply chain
Billingtons is a well established household name in sugar and part of the Silverspoon family of companies; importing unrefined cane sugar from around the world and packaging for the consumer at its Ipswich operation. With an increasingly competitive market and facing the challenges of our current economic climate, Billingtons was faced with ever increasing costs associated with managing its logistics. However, through the eyes of MAS, the company saw some significant opportunities to improve.
Key Achievements
- Finished goods inventory reduced by 50% Signifiacnt Resource Efficiency savings through reduced road haulage and external warehousing Improved changeovers by up to 80%
" We have been delighted with the work at Billingtons. It has gone very well, with good support from MAS, and the team has learnt a great deal. It has certainly been a very cost effective piece of work."
Peter Trundley
" You will notice that the process is much reduced taking the change over from 9 mins to 5 mins and now 1 min."
Martin Mellelieu
In order for the business to clearly see its opportunities, a Value Stream Mapping activity was undertaken, looking in detail at the company’s flow of materials and information. Through this approach it was clear to see that there were realistic opportunities to manage inventory levels more appropriately whilst still providing exceptional levels of customer service.
Alongside this activity, the MAS East Manufacturing Specialists identified a need to help improve the manufacturing operations flexibility without impacting its levels of productivity and thus helped the business to reduce its changes over times.
Billingtons has seen noticeable changes in a relatively short period of time. Through the planned initiatives, it has been able to reduce its finished goods inventory by 50% whilst still maintaining its desired customer service levels. This resulted in ongoing savings in external storage and logistics costs thus helping to improve its resource efficiency. The Ipswich operation now holds more of its own bulk raw materials and, with the aid of some set up reductions, it is operating a more flexible operation which is closer to the pull of its customer whilst still providing exceptional levels of service.
