This South East port is part of one of Britain's largest port operators. In 2008 it had a turnover of circa £45m, it covered 280 acres including 100k sq m of warehouses, and employed 300 FTEs. There were three main business divisions; Fresh Produce, Forest Products, and Automotive.
Historically the Fresh Produce business unit was the largest division, but due to the gradual transition from reefer vessels to container vessels, volumes have gradually fallen since the 2003 peak.
Working with the management team, Kevin Higgs of Proffitt Consultants setup a continuous improvement programme with a target of £2.5m. The first steps were to introduce the management team to the tools and principals of continuous improvement and produce a process model of the berth operation. The output of this analysis was a saving of circa £1m per annum. This saving was a combination of operational efficiencies and reduced MHE.
In parallel the central management function was reorganised to reflect the reduced volumes and workload. This process encompassed defining a new structure, new job descriptions, interviews and appointments for the new roles. The net saving was circa £400k per annum.
The output of the continuous improvement and change programme included;
- Reorganised central structure
- Balanced berth processes
- Reduction in MHE
- Reduced spend on heat and light
- Reduced engineering costs
- Reduced security costs
- Reduction in agency spend
The overall annual savings delivered are greater than £2.5m per annum, coupled with an improved customer satisfaction.
