Proof of the Nestlé pudding is in the Delivery!

Nestlé Group Distribution is responsible for delivering Nestlé food products such as chilled foods, coffee, confectionery and mineral water from its UK factories and distribution centres to customers’ own distribution centres around the UK. In the process 300,000 proofs of delivery (PODs) are generated every year.

A POD can be several pages long and records the name and signature of the person accepting the delivery along with a note of any damage or shortfall, if applicable. In the event of a query on an invoice, Nestlé's Group Commercial Administration in Croydon head office must be able to view the relevant POD and any attached notes, so that queries and can be resolved quickly.

Paul Haslam, Continuous Improvements & Quality Manager for Nestlé Group Distribution, was tasked with reviewing the system for handling Proofs of Delivery when it became apparent that the existing system needed upgrading due to the age of the hardware in use. It was also an operation that was not seen as core to the business and as such it was not given the correct emphasis within the operations.

At the time of Paul’s review, Nestle was maintaining a number of in-house scanning units located in Nestlé distribution centres across the UK. Scanned images of the PODs were uploaded in SAP from where users could access them.

Paul noted, "Quite apart from the cost of staffing and maintaining the scanning units, we were failing to make the PODs available to customer services staff within acceptable timescales."

ADEC Preview Services was called in to advise. "We selected ADEC Preview Services initially because of the instant response to what was a relatively vague query. It soon became apparent that ADEC Preview were able to demonstrate that an outsourced solution could offer superior service levels and significant cost savings," said Paul.

Proofs of Delivery are now sent directly from the distribution centres to ADEC Preview Services where they are prepared, scanned and uploaded to ADEC Preview’s browser-based eView+ web repository within 36 hours of the delivery - In the majority of cases this is less than half the time it took previously. Retrieving an image for viewing on-screen now takes seconds as opposed to 3 minutes on the old system - a huge benefit in terms of usability.

"Although I saw the main benefit to be a vastly improved service to my main 'customer', namely Group Commercial Admin it is also important to note that the ADEC Preview system was able to deliver real cost savings. We are now looking at other opportunities within the Nestle arena."

Paul concluded, "We have rarely experienced such good service from a supplier. Right from the first phone call, through to implementation the ADEC Preview team have been superb!"

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