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Ace Express Freight Global Freight Forwarding & Logistics Solutions Assignment

Background

Ace Express Freight was established in 1989 as a small operation offering freight forwarding and customs clearance. They have progressively grown to a multinational, multi award-winning global freight forwarding company, with world class partners offering freight forwarding, customs clearance, road, air and ocean freight as well as logistics and warehousing solutions. They have successfully expanded their network in order to operate on a global scale. Throughout 1990s, they developed their own freight services. Starting with exports and imports to and from the UK, they established Ace Express Freight UK and opened their west Bromwich office in 1993, and later they continued their expansion into Europe. During this time they also developed a network of nationwide distribution partners. In 2007, they became a member of the Pall-Ex network of independent freight carriers, strengthening their position in the European pallet distribution network. Also in 2007, they formed a strategic partnership with global logistics giant, Hellman Worldwide, giving them exclusive access to a network of 489 branches in 173 countries. These partnership allow Ace Express Freight to provide a competitive edge in terms of world class service and globally competitive rates, whilst still offering a personal and local customer service approach.

In term of capacity, Ace Express Freight began with the purchase of their 7,500 square feet warehouse in Kinsealy. They have since then expanded with the purchase of warehousing at Blake Cross, M1 Business Park, to a current capacity of 235,000 square feet.

Role of Logistics Administration Map

Competitors in the Market

Alternatives and possible competitors to Ace Express Freight may include:

Here is the example I’m going to talk about:

• Flexport Take control of their supply chain with Flexport. Accelerate performance and growth for their entire supply chain. Ship to and from anywhere. Track everything. Collaborate with everyone. See what happens when data drives their Simplify everything, all in one place. The Flexport Platform is their supply chain source of truth. Automate orders. On board suppliers. Book logistics. Track cargo—even if other partners handle it. A single dashboard speeds work flows and surfaces insights. Ship, track, and scale in just a few clicks. With logistics partners in more than 80 countries, companies of any size can transport goods to and from more places with greater ease and agility. -80+ countries with Flexport Platform users -265K+ shipping docs digitized for speed and accuracy -4.8M+ milestones tracked annually for greater shipment visibility See Why 10,000+ companies choose Flexport.
• UPS
• Seas international Shipping, Inc
• XPO Logistics

Company’s competitive advantage KPI

Continuous Improvement

Ace Express Freight have been very aware of the need to constantly review their strategic goals and plans and build on their culture of continuous improvement. The objective is to ensure that each and every part of the company is aligned in its endeavors to achieve an excellent level of quality and service for their customers. Their success has been built on 6 KPI Pillars, recent innovations within each of the pillars include:

Safety: Staff right across the company are being trained to very high levels in different aspects of Health & Safety and they have hired a dedicated full-time Health & Safety Officer. Daily meetings take place on the warehouse floor to discuss areas for improvement in health & safety. Their H&S Committee meets on a weekly basis and H&S is on the agenda at all weekly tiered management meetings. One key initiative is the introduction of the iAuditor app which provides an electronic checklist to identify potential safety hazards, allowing immediate resolutions of possible safety issues. iAuditor is a paperless system that collects safety information from all over the business and facilitates weekly H&S audits.

fined by ( Rother. M & Liker. J 2015) “Lean is the permanent struggle to better flow value to each customer”. Ace Express Freight decided to implement a lean strategy to focus on continually improving their processes and supply chain in order to provide better service and value to their clients. Below is the current supply chain in operation for Ace Express Freight.

Quality: The company operates to ISO 9001 standards and we have recruited a Dedicated compliance Management Officer. They have also implemented a dedicated system for reporting of complaints and non conformity to identify and address quality and service infringements. They have renewed their focus on non conformance by running weekly reports on service failures and customer complaints, which are then analyzed to find areas for improvement and identify where they can implement corrective actions.

In addition, they have to also invested in developing a new dedicated customer service team that will become the first point of contact for all out customers, helping to deliver a seamless and rewarding customer experience. This approach reduces non value added activity while improving the customer experience , and it also allows their team to take the time to educate customers on the use of their online systems for regular, low urgency tasks. Their continuous improvement and staff development programme is helping them to significantly improve their customer satisfaction levels, motivate and retain staff, achieve excellence in compliance, and win important industry accolades and awards. This has given their customer, staff and partners renewed confidence in their commitment to the business and it continue to strengthen brand loyalty.

Cost: Controls of cost for any company is a priority even more so when you specialize in logistics and the movement of freight for and on behalf of client companies. On going investments include all warehouse and office electric heat and light fitting audited and replaced, resulting in reductions in the use of power nearly every year for the last ten years. They have also dramatically increased warehouse pallet storage capacity, without increasing the current square footage in use.

Investments in electric battery operated forklift fleets have also been proven to be extremely efficient use of power and resources. Training and implementation of new systems and processes in health and safety, and facilities management has had massive ongoing benefits not just in cost reductions but also in the improvement of excellence levels of health and safety measures being implemented and complied with. They have also heavily invested in the training of staff in LEAN, in the last twelve months alone 9 additional staff secured Lean Six Sigma Green Belt status. These training programme have resulted in the staff not just recommending but implementing in excess of 50 Lean programme in the past year.

Delivery: AEF have been at the forefront of investment and innovation for the last few years as they aim to grow their business and improve their delivery capability. They have made significant capital expenditure in facilities, infrastructure and equipment, as well as investing in staff training and development, allowing them to reach the next level of service excellence. In addition, Value Stream Managers(VSMs) have been appointed to each vertical market of the business, responsible for all touch points in that vertical end to end. They have undertaken a complete root and branch review of their current top 200 customers, audited the various services they provide, and identified the areas in which they can improve and gain sustainable growth. This review has enabled them to develop a strategic plan that will see their target and core areas of their business that they can expand, whilst maintaining or even reducing the current cost base. They have also commissioned a best in class TMS which will streamline all areas of the business, connect them with their Irish, UK and European Customers, Agents and Partners; while fully integrated with both Revenue and HMRC to facilitate efficient and timely customs clearance with minimal manual intervention.

People: They have implemented formal quarterly review with all staff, setting their tasks and objectives to align with the overall company targets and ambitions. In addition to this they also implemented including an online training platform with 420 modules providing over 400 hours of training. Selected staff have also been sent on Further Education degree courses and have also started a GTP.

Environment: They have remodeled and refurbished a large portion of their office and warehouse space and invested in an electric warehouse cleaner. Some of their staff have completed a train the trainer Ergonomics programme and all staff work stations are continuously reviewed to ensure optimum set up. Also desks are now set up with dual screens and telephone headsets, and they have implemented a clean desk policy. They actively recycle waste electric goods via the WEE programme and all wood waste is collected and reused. They have also invested considerable amounts in ensuring that they are future proofed by way of energy consumption by replacing all bulbs with LED lighting, saving money, reducing CO2 levels and providing a better quality of light. In addition, they have recently taken delivery of a fleet of new electric forklifts to be based in their Blakes Cross Warehouse Facility. The 6 new forklifts which are fully representative of both innovation and compliance have been designed with safety,comfort, productivity and efficiently in mind and will see AEF having an increased capacity across their warehouse as they aim to cater for the inevitable challenges that lie ahead as their industry becomes more demanding.

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