Q: What is your role in the company?
I manage the warehouse which really means looking after eight guys and making sure customers get their products when and where they need it.
Q: How did you get the job?
I joined as a warehouse man eight years ago when there were just two of us. As the company grew, an opening came up for a warehouse manager. I’ve been on quite a few management courses both inside and outside the company since then.
Q: How do you organise the work?
Everyone can do most jobs so it’s more a case of how we divide up the day. In the morning we’re usually clearing the decks up from the night before, unloading lorries, checking goods in and putting them away. There will always be a couple of guys cutting customer orders in the morning with five or six as it gets really busy later in the day.
Q: Sounds like a real party – cleaning up from the night before!
We wish! We don’t have a cut off time. If sales take an order at 5:45pm and we can ship it we will. All effort goes into getting the product to customers when they want it.
Q: Do you run your own vans?
No, I’ve worked for companies that do and it usually ends up giving the customer a poorer service. We supply to all over the UK and working with a good parcel and pallet carrier is essential. We can have cable to most of the UK mainland by 9am the next day – we couldn’t do that with our own vans.
If it’s really urgent we use a dedicated vehicle with an owner / driver who makes sure it gets to the right person as quickly as possible. They’re not expensive either, £45 into central London. Some days we may use them six or seven times, other days it may be only once, it gives us flexibility.
Q: Do you have a collections service?
Yes, it is mainly local wholesalers or contractors but we do get people driving a couple of hundred miles to pick up cables for breakdown situations. We’re open 8 - 6 and later or earlier by arrangement. We like customers to send through their orders before they arrive so we can have the cable ready, however this doesn’t always happen. In these situations they can have a cup of tea while we cut or process the order.
Q: You mentioned goods coming in, what’s the procedure?
We receive products from all around the world. It falls into two groups – product for stock or product for customers. Both have to be checked in the same way, first to make sure the cable is what the label says it is, and secondly that it is what we ordered. We also look for damage and shortages. If we have a new supplier we’re even more thorough, double-checking packaging, winding, labelling, cable construction and quality.
Q: You must have reasonable product knowledge?
You can’t help but pick it up over the years but we’re always learning. Before I started the job I thought cable was just cable you learn something every day. Also, there is always someone to ask if it we’re not sure.
Q: Do you have many rejects?
No, not many. We’re ISO9001 certified so any problems go into the quarantine area, but purchasing do a good job and most of the problems relate to bad packaging or damage. Digital cameras have made it very easy to explain the problem to suppliers!
Q: Do you have many errors or problems sending goods to customers?
Not at all, we have an excellent record. We keep our picking procedure under constant review and each item now gets three signatures before it’s dispatched to the customer. It’s too early to say an exact percentage but it’s at least halved the warehouse errors.
Q: What about the yellow cards you send out?
The first thing is that we don’t get enough back. It really helps us improve the service if we are informed of a problem, however small. We send out a yellow card with each delivery asking for comments and feedback, they are postage paid so please use them.
Q: What is the cut to length service you offer?
Some customers don’t want to buy in standard 100m, 500m or 1km lengths so on most cables we will cut to the length needed. If you want 170m in one length, 2 x 100m is no use and 500m may give you unacceptable wastage.
Finally I would like to say thanks for the business you continue to give us. You certainly keep us busy! I’ve been with the company for eight years now and have seen the company grow a lot in that time. The growth is down to the support of our customers and we never forget it. Long may it continue.