Group Purchasing Case Study
Mechanical Handling Equipment – Group Sites
During the last quarter of 2007 and the first of 2008 Group Purchasing undertook a collaborative tender with collaboration partners Tarkett, to select a supplier for the supply and maintenance services of Mechanical Handling Equipment (MHE) across the whole of the UK group of businesses.
The strategy was to replace a fragmented solution of utilising numerous MHE suppliers for individual sites requirements and replace them with one partner in order to reduce equipment and maintenance costs.
Seven specialist suppliers were invited to participate in the competitive tender which included a company presentation and site surveys where all seven tenderers were requested to attend.
A short list of three was selected and following a thorough tender response evaluation which included site reference visits and equipment trials Rushlift, a national MHE service provider was selected as the preferred supplier, as they offered the most complete and cost-effective service.
Following their appointment Rushlift was able to:
- Fevelop significant improvements in standardising the fleet of trucks used at each site in order to increase flexibility of their use;
- Give all businesses an obligation to continuously improve, through identifying operational areas to improve, be it through operator training, service processes or equipment usage and application;
- Greatly improve the method of service call collection by introducing an on line fleet management system to the businesses;
- Provide key account management to ensure focus on the Aliaxis businesses through service performance management, quarterly business reviews and cost control;
- Provide training for the Aliaxis sites workforce to encourage daily checks and care of the equipment in use
- Provide quarterly key performance indicators of equipment use and trends, so that the best use of the equipment was ensured at the sites at all times
- Provide quarterly key performance indicators of equipment use and trends, so that the best use of the equipment was ensured at the sites at all times