Awards recognise Imperial Logistics’ achievements in driving clients’ competitiveness
Imperial Logistics won three prestigious awards at last night’s 28th annual Logistics Achiever Awards, which honour companies for excellence in logistics and supply chain management. The group’s achievements and innovation in driving the competiveness of its clients were recognised with two Logistics Achiever Awards, and Imperial also netted an Enviro Award for its contribution to “greening” African supply chains.
Imperial Health Sciences took home a Silver Award for a “three-in-one” project that is delivering multiple benefits for the company and its clients. “Running three different businesses under one roof, with one operations team and a single set of standard operating procedures that caters for the varied requirements of each company, was the challenge facing Imperial when we decided to integrate our pharmaceutical wholesaling business Pharmed, as well as some services offered by Imperial Retail Logistics, into the Imperial Health Sciences’ operation in Cape Town,” reveals Imperial Logistics chief business development and strategy officer Cobus Rossouw. Imperial’s innovative and effective approach to this project is yielding significant benefits, including improved service levels. “An impressive 98.28% total service level conformance was achieved within the first year of the project going live, an overall decrease in operational expenditure was realised and clients’ sales were maximised,” Rossouw expands. In addition, the project delivered environmental benefits, since the consolidation of various operations and deliveries is resulting in lower electricity usage and fuel consumption.
Imperial Logistics group company Resolve won a Silver Logistics Achiever Award in recognition of a unique alliance formed with client PFG Building Glass (PFG) and transporter Imperial Dedicated Contracts. “Our three year contract to set up and operate PFG’s logistics command centre at its Springs plant is based on a gain share principle where profit is only earned through transport savings achieved,” Rossouw explains. “It is a ground breaking contract because the transporter is included in the gain share earnings, and this three-party alliance is completely focused on efficiency and cost savings,” he adds. This new logistics command centre has to date improved fleet efficiency and turnaround times, boosted customer service and delivered significant cost savings for client PFG.
An energy monitoring initiative that forms part of Imperial’s drive for greener, more sustainable supply chains was also recognised with an Enviro Award at this year’s Logistics Achiever Awards. This undertaking has yielded insights that are enabling the group to reduce its energy consumption and cut costs, through small, simple changes to management procedures and employee behaviours. Rossouw explains the initiative: “With the rising cost of electricity production and delivery, managing electricity consumption must be a key focus area for any company striving for more sustainable – and cost efficient – business practices. Imperial Logistics recognised that one of the ways to manage its electricity consumption and have hands-on control over its energy usage patterns was to install in house monitoring equipment. Our goal was to identify energy usage patterns in different operational areas, identify areas with higher than expected energy consumption patterns, verify the correctness of municipal bills, set site specific energy usage targets and implement the energy saving measures.
“The success of this project reflects the big sustainability and cost saving benefits that can be achieved through a relatively simple and inexpensive intervention,” he stresses.
The 2016 Logistics Achiever Awards were presented at a gala event at Montecasino, in Fourways, Johannesburg.
It was the culmination of a stringent judging process during which nominees went through numerous rounds of submissions and site visits, as well as presentations to the judging panel that comprises representatives of the various professional institutes, vocational societies and trade or industry associations involved in logistics and supply chain management in Southern Africa.