38 SCS:THE EUROPEAN SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2008 DECEMBER 2008 SUPPLY CHAIN STANDARD
www.supplychainstandard.com
Shortlisted
Belron
Coca-Cola Enterprises
Ekol Logistics
Kimberly-Clark
Vodafone
Maximiliane Glas (centre
right), head of SCM Strategy
and Chris Thompson (centre
left), head of SCM
Transformation, Vodafone,
accept the Team of the Year
Award. Presenting the trophy
is Andy Howard, director of
The Logistics Network (far
right). Jeremy Vine is also
pictured (far left).
Team of the Year Sponsored by The Logistics Network
Winner
Vodafone
The Team of the Year category is one of the most
difficult to assess. Team work can mean very different
things to different people. And of course, it would be
hard for any supply chain to develop, transform or improve
significantly in an environment where the team is not fully
motivated to the task – to a great extent good leadership is a
prerequisite to exemplary team work.
This year the judges gave serious consideration to five of
the entries as potential winners of the Team of the Year
trophy: Belron, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Ekol Logistics,
Kimberly-Clark and Vodafone. All five had demonstrated the
involvement of a focused and committed team, but only one
company could win.
Belron, the emergency windscreen service, has proved
itself as a very capable company at delivering change across
the organisation. Prior to its supply chain transformation
Belron had concerns over breakages, parts availability,
delivery and high SKUs. And as highlighted earlier with the
company’s win in the Retail & Distribution category, it set up
its own internal supply chain development team to drive
improvements in the business – the judges saw this as a real
commitment to delivering the strategy.
From the FMCG/CPG category, Coca-Cola Enterprises
impressed the judges with its massive transformational
project of moving from three separate supply chains for
Europe to just one. Many innovations undertaken at their
North London operation are now being rolled out in
Europe and the scale and scope of the human challenge
involved clearly demanded a dedicated team approach to
delivering those goals.
Ekol Logistics is an integrated logistics services company
that is undergoing rapid expansion across the retail, FMCG,
textile, health, chemical and automotive sectors in Turkey.
The company has invested significantly in technology and
automation to improve its operational capabilities and has
also made moves to improve its environmental performance
by moving more goods by rail. The assessors found strong
evidence for a well co-ordinated core team of motivated
individuals focused on driving innovation within the
company for the benefit of its customers.
A previous winner of the Team of the Year Award,
Kimberly-Clark, was again considered for the trophy this
year, having won back in 2006. A couple of years ago the
company caught the judges’ eye with its “remarkable abilities
to bring nationalities, languages and business cultures
together on a single site”. Although the judges did not see
evidence for the same level of exemplary team work this
year, it was still clear that good communications and a
passion for the task were very much present.
However, it was Vodafone that impressed the judges the
most. The company has made great strides in bringing its
environmental policy into effect in its procurement
Over the last eight months the
company has expanded its
catalogues to incorporate
environmental performance of
products and services based on the
greenhouse gas footprint reported
by the supplier using the CDP format.
operations. Over the past eight months the company has
expanded its catalogues to incorporate environmental
performance of products and services based on the
greenhouse gas footprint reported by the supplier using the
CDP format. This has helped buyers to make
environmentally sound decisions where possible. But it was
the teams’ engagement and commitment to this project that
convinced the judges that the Vodafone team deserved the
European Supply Chain Excellence Awards’ Team of the Year
trophy. “Vodafone’s people had commitment and were a
well-integrated team – there was a clear understanding
between the group of their goal and the team spirit was there
to see,” say the judges.
“It’s easy to focus people on getting direct results, like cost
reduction and lead-time reduction, but it’s a lot more difficult
to get people focused on something like CSR. That requires a
buy in from people around that really understand the DNA of
what you do. What’s important here is getting the whole
company working together on a common corporate goal.”
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