Carmarthenshire Council's new stock ordering system saves staff
precious time, writes Ross Bentley.
Carmarthenshire County Council in Wales has implemented an
electronic supply chain system with one of its main suppliers that
it hopes will result in significant savings and free up council
workers to complete more jobs.
The eTrading solution, developed in partnership with Consilium
Technologies, has enabled the council to close its central stores
and instead source building materials and supplies from the Travis
Perkins chain under a five-year contract. There are also plans to
roll out the system to smaller, local suppliers at a later
stage.
The pilot project links Carmarthenshire County Council and Travis
Perkins with an electronic ordering, invoicing and stock control
solution using Consilium Technologies' Task software platform.
Council workers use Compaq iPaq personal digital assistants to
communicate with the system, which can also be accessed by
suppliers via a simple e-mail interface.
The council says the pilot has already resulted in a number of
benefits, including reduced waiting times for repairs, elimination
of paperwork, reduced waste and over-ordering, better cost control,
and improved quality of service.
Covering more than 1,000 square miles, the Carmarthenshire
operations team is called on to complete more than 35,000 jobs each
year to maintain the council's housing stock and public buildings.
The eTrading system is already popular because more jobs can be
completed in a day.
Previously, a lot of time was lost returning to the council's
central stores to source materials required to complete repairs.
The Consilium solution allows the orders to be remotely dispatched
and collection is requested from the nearest Travis Perkins
store.
Future phases of the project will support electronic invoicing and
automatic updating of the Task financial system running in the
operations department.
Owen Bowen, group accountant for the operations department in
Carmarthenshire County Council, says, "It is a win-win situation
for the suppliers and the council. Using electronic ordering and
removing the need for a central store means our workers can be much
more efficient, and our suppliers win more business. I expect the
£50,000 development costs of the project to be recouped just in the
savings made on diesel fuel."
By summer 2003 Carmarthenshire County Council aims to have 80% of
its 140 workers on the Consilium system, all using iPaq PDAs to
conduct transactions online with the various contractors in the
scheme.