Case Study for the Delivery of Mrs Mac’s Pies
Background
Mrs Mac’s has been baking fine pies and savoury pastry products in its Morley facility in Perth since 1954. It has built a reputation for top quality and service as well as innovation. The business has invested heavily in an extensive program of process and plant improvement to ensure it remains competitive in today’s dynamic markets. Its products are sold all around Australia and New Zealand and even in S.E. Asia.
All areas of Mrs Mac’s business were analysed with a view to maximising efficiency and lowering costs. A fleet of vehicles deliver fresh product daily to 600 customers in the Perth area, and it was identified that the daily delivery process was cumbersome in terms of the large amount of paperwork generated at numerous points throughout the process and a degree of inefficiency with order fluctuations.
Managing the Delivery Function
Mrs Mac’s delivery system was identified as an area for improvement, and a project was commissioned aimed at achieving a number of outcomes. A range of options were considered, with the business choosing SmartTrans e-Solution as the most suitable application. Careful planning has meant that positive results have been achieved immediately with a minimum of disruption. “SmartTrans and it’s product performed excellently” according to Iain Macgregor, Managing Director.
Through a careful business process review, several areas in the delivery function were identified as needing improvements; however a high level of customer service needed to be maintained, but at a sustainable cost.
The SmartTrans e-Solution System
After a detailed evaluation, the Mrs Mac’s Project Manager (also the IT Manager) decided to implement the SmartTrans e-Solution® system. This imports the orders for delivery from the ERP system, takes all the constraints into account (shift length, kms to be travelled, journey times, customer time windows for deliveries, etc.) and provides an optimal plan, allocating jobs to vehicles/drivers according to rules set by Mrs Mac’s.
The jobs are then downloaded to handheld smartphones together with optimal routes planned for each vehicle/driver to achieve the best result for the fleet of vehicles. As the deliveries are made, the handhelds track the positions and times of deliveries and allow management to later view results of plan versus delivery in a variety of reports.
The customer service department can also view progress as it happens. If a customer delivery is late for any reason, the customer can be updated with an estimated time. The “paperwork” is provided electronically in real time, so invoices are immediate and can show Proof-of-Delivery with a position on a map and a time stamp from the satellite!
“The initial objective of us partnering with SmartTrans was to move to an electronic invoicing system with payment-collection on the road, where there were business process improvements to be made, but once we started to interrogate the business processes we quickly found that the real benefit was in the superior routing function of e-Solution” said Micheal Nolton, IT Manager. “We could deliver the same amount of orders, while meeting our customers’ requirements – just with many fewer trucks.”
Mrs Mac’s previously had static routes with customers visited by the same driver every day, now e-Solution dynamically creates the route according to the daily orders, creating a drop sequence that is optimised to get to the greatest number of customers in the least time.
Detailed Planning
Prior to implementing SmartTrans e-Solution, Mrs Mac’s spent considerable time defining the project parameters and planning to ensure a streamlined implementation. SmartTrans were able to assist with this, providing valuable input due to their experience with similar implementations in the past.
Training of Mrs Mac’s staff was critical, with change management a challenge to many who had been operating with the same systems for decades. “When introducing the new system some staff were sceptical about the benefits” said Mr. Murray Beros, General Manager. A lot of effort was directed at staff training and ensuring that all their concerns were addressed throughout the process. A mentoring program was effective, with trained staff giving support to delivery drivers who were struggling with the new technology in the initial stages.
Mrs Mac’s also worked closely with their customers, agreeing on windows for delivery that would ensure service levels and sales were maintained. According to Bob Millington, WA Sales Manager “While a number of customers were concerned that they wouldn’t receive their products on time, any minor teething issues were quickly dealt with and the response from the market has been very positive.”
“Communication is the key – both internally and externally on such a large project” said Nolton “there’s a lot of change in a project like this.”
Outcomes
“After implementing the new system Mrs. Mac’s has realized a dramatic improvement over a number of key areas” said Mr Beros. “The benefits are tangible and transparent, with fewer trucks on the road and real time visibility of performance. Costs have been lowered along with carbon emissions, allowing for better forward planning and detailed performance analysis.”
Handheld Motorola MC75 devices with 3G data connection allow for accurate data input from the field in real-time, providing clear, up-to-the-moment location of drivers and status of orders, with any issues able to be addressed immediately. Run sheets are provided electronically, with immediate proof-of-delivery data available to both the Sales and Accounts teams.
The Next Phase
Mrs Mac’s adopted a staged approached with the implementation to help all areas affected by the change to be able to adapt at each stage of the project. Now that the ‘dynamic’ routing phase is complete, Mrs Mac’s is moving forward to further leverage the SmartTrans technology. The next phase of the project will involve returning to the original goal of printing invoices, doing credit and stock adjustments and managing payments – all on the road!
“Even with all the careful and thought-out planning, it is seldom that an IT Project delivers ROI so quickly. Like all projects, there are challenges and sometimes bumps in the road. SmartTrans provided an excellent sounding board and assisted us all the way in this project. With clear objectives at the start of the project, we’ve certainly met our goals and in some cases exceeded them and now we are moving quickly onto the next phases.’ said Micheal Nolton.