|
View from the Top - Part 2 |
Part 1
Read Part 1
|
COMPANY FILE
|
 |
|
DHL Freight & Contract Logistics
is a leading UK provider of contract logistics and network
distribution services with a turnover of £450 million
and 3,500 employees. Its core services are container
logistics, dedicated and multi-user warehousing and
transport solutions, a UK domestic pallet network and
pallet distribution to Europe.
The company operates as part of the
worldwide DHL organisation with a customer base that
includes familiar names from the retail, FMCG, industrial
and maritime sectors. In 2003/4 DHL took over and absorbed
the Securicor Omega brand, which itself had been created
from the 1995 acquisition of the Russell Davies Group.
This acquisition gave the company a substantial foothold
in the logistics market.
DHL Freight is now the UK’s leading
container haulier, handling more than 1,600 container
moves a day.
|
<<<Continued We
then have an individual approval chain for each category of
invoice (over 130 chains in total), each with six levels of
approver based on the value of the invoice. Once the invoice
is allocated to an approval chain, its progress through to
final approval is automated, as is the upload into the JDE
system at ‘approved for payment’ status.
Stage two will be a purchase order system which means that
purchase orders will be raised electronically, coded and approved
prior to placement. This stage of the project has been fully
spec-ed and should be live by the end of this year.
We have been closely monitoring this system since we introduced
it last December. One of our biggest issues previously was
the timely payment of suppliers. We are dependent to some
extent on being able to call on reliable subcontract hauliers
to help us meet unexpected demand. Many of these guys are
small businesses and if we don’t pay them on time, they will
look for work elsewhere. There is also the ethical dimension
of paying suppliers promptly.
We now run Cognos business intelligence software over the
purchase invoice system so that we know if a particular invoice
has not been actioned, and the relevant person will get an
email reminder.
One of our major KPIs is the number of unapproved invoices
in the system at any point in time. Since the introduction
of the system, this has dropped by 50%.
Using the electronic purchase invoicing system, we know precisely
at every accounting period end what our commitments are –
there has been a distinct benefit in the accuracy of our accounting.
More...
If you are not registered with the site, please register now to read the rest of this page.
If you are registered, please sign in to read the rest of this page.
Conspectus 2005
|
Copyright © 2005
|
 |
|
