There’s a lot of hidden cost in supply chains. Some of the cost is necessary and actively contributes towards the successful delivery of maintenance or minor works, but often there is non-value added activity that ‘feels’ necessary but isn’t.

This could include:

Searching for a new supplier’s details, and trying to find the right person to make contact
Setting up new commercial terms with multiple suppliers
Dealing with lots of GRNs and invoices
Investigating materials missing from a consignment
Emergency ordering forgotten items
Transactional costs right across the purchasing processes
Dealing with multiple deliveries to your site
Having to maintain stock ‘just in case’
And all this is also impacted by design change, which we all know can make 11th-hour changes to materials requirements, leading to delays and cancellations.

It’s low-level interventions like these that can lead to massive over-runs, continued TSRs, delayed and cancelled works – especially when you find that an important component turns out to have a long lead time. It’s at times like these that many of our customers have turned to us for help so that they can do what they do – better.

Many of our solutions work by extending the planning horizon, and bringing to bear our long and extensive experience of railway supply chains. Having both the Supply Chain AND Technical knowledge has made the difference between success and failure for our customers over the years – delivering assurance that the Supply Chain CAN work smoothly, and de-risk projects.

For each of the eight common issues above, our approach has the solution and as the Regions and Routes embark upon the new national structure, we are there to provide not just the materials – but also the know-how to put passengers first.

Want to learn more about our service to the Routes and Regions? Visit this page of our website or sign up to our mailing list here.