Case Studies

ON THE HOUR, EVERY HOUR FOR REXAM

At the beginning of 2008, one of the world’s leading consumer packaging groups, Rexam, went live with two just-in-time delivery operations for its UK beverage can business.

The system will enable Rexam’s brewing and soft drinks customers to accept shipments of empty cans hourly through the day and night, seven days a week.

TM Logistics is providing the upgraded service from its 130,000 sq ft warehouse in Milton Keynes. As part of the just-in-time operation, the company has also leased a new warehouse in Featherstone, Yorkshire, specifically for Rexam. This location is close to both Rexam’s beverage can plant at Wakefield and the Leeds brewery of Carlsberg. The Milton Keynes warehouse meanwhile, supplies Carlsberg’s Northampton brewery. 

In effect, TML’s improved service provides a buffer that enables Rexam to run its canmaking plants at high utilisation rates throughout the year while its customers, such as Carlsberg, are able to order pallets of cans from the warehouse as they need them, a requirement that fluctuates from month to month and from label to label.

Orders from the customer can be made in the morning for hour-by-hour delivery on the same day, and using a fleet of specially adapted trucks patrolling the same routes.

For around three years until March 2006, TML managed a similar just-in-time operation for Rexam between a warehouse just outside Northampton and the Carlsberg brewery. This time around, however, the set-up has changed. The Northampton brewery will continue to be supplied by the Milton Keynes warehouse, but following Carlsberg’s decision to use its National Distribution Centre for purposes other than storing empty cans, TML has introduced its system to the Leeds plant for the first time.

This is one of a number of changes made during the relationship between the two companies which spans five decades.
A turning point came in 2000, when Rexam contracted TML as its sole logistics partner for its UK beverage can business. Since then, customer service has improved dramatically, as Hugh Gallacher, European logistics director at Rexam Beverage Can Europe, explains.

“As well as the dedicated drawbars, TML also uses a consistent team of drivers,” says Mr Gallacher. “As a result, the drivers know how to load and unload the cans properly, without causing any damage. They develop a relationship with our customers and, as each driver generally uses the same lorry, they tend to keep the lorries cleaner.

“Our customers have reported that they are now much happier with our service than six or seven years ago. When you have customers that buy half a billion cans a year, customer service is key.”

Efficiency has also improved, says Gallacher. “We previously used six different hauliers, which meant there was no consistency. Dealing with one company makes things much simpler.”

TML’s operation uses a fleet of 11 higher-capacity drawbar trucks dedicated specifically to Rexam’s beverage can business. Around 24,000 trips are made every year for the canmaker, which equates to TML loading and unloading around four billion cans every year.

Case study reproduced in part from an article written by Daniel Searle, editorial assistant at The Canmaker, which appeared in the January 2008 edition of the magazine (www.canmaker.com).