DHL is first to receive quality award from Jaguar Land Rover

DHL Exel Supply Chain has become the first company to receive Jaguar Land Rover’s new Quality Award for Best Business Process Quality Improvement Project.

 

The Quality Awards have been established to recognise teams working in partnership with the JLR business that have made exceptional contribution to quality during 2008.

 

The award was given to DHL’s UK automotive team for its Inbound Logistics Transition 2008-9 Project, which the company says is “the biggest change management project of its kind in the European automotive industry”.

 

DHL already managed material handling and in-plant logistics at JLR's Castle Bromwich sites and added Solihull in late 2008 and Halewood in January 2009. It meant a complete overhaul the UK transport operation,  simplifying and centering activity at Solihull and moving the carmaker’s off-site cross dock facility at Birmingham airport there. This was carried out during the summer shutdown last year when a vehicle operation centre for the logistics operation was also set up there along with a trailer park and empty pallet storage facility.

 

DHL also works as a lead logistics provider for transport from JLR’s European supplier base.

 

Paul Dyer, Managing Director of DHL's UK Automotive business said: "While we began this project well before the impact of the global recession really began to bite, our work has helped to reduce supply chain costs and improve efficiencies at JLR's key plants. We continue to work closely with the team at JLR to drive out waste and ensure the logistics element of the manufacturing process is world leading."

 

Dyer presented details of the larger outsourcing of logistics to DHL alongside JLR’s Director for Material Planning and Logistics, Kevin Wall, at the Automotive Logistics Europe Conference two weeks ago. At the conference, Wall described the transition, which occurred during the carmaker being purchased by Tata Motors from Ford, as “gusty”.

 

“[The outsourcing] was a massive undertaking, and we were aggressive with quality and planning,” Wall said. He claimed that the outsourcing had enabled JLR to significantly improve logistics cost, as well as to gain further visibility about its carbon footprint.