CASE STUDY
visit our website: www.downton.co.uk
Sapa Profiles UK
About Sapa
Sapa is the world’s leading manufacturer of
extruded aluminium products. Operating in
more than 40 countries, Sapa’s clients range
from small manufacturers to the largest global
producers, in sectors including construction,
energy and automotive.
in the UK: Tibshelf in Derbyshire, Cheltenham in
Gloucestershire and Birtley in County Durham –
the latter being a former Hydro Aluminium facility.
Together, these three sites produce almost a third
of the 170,000 tonnes of aluminium extrusions
manufactured in the UK each year.
Sapa announced a joint venture with Hydro
Aluminium in Autumn 2013 – an enterprise
that means Sapa is now the largest producer
of aluminium extrusions in the world. The
company operates out of three key locations
Sapa also operates an Application Centre in
Redditch, Worcestershire, where aluminium
profiles are designed, fabricated and assembled
to create semi-finished products for a wide range
of industries.
THE SAPA CHALLENGE
requirements to meet. Any delay to our processes
could have a knock-on effect on the whole supply
chain. This simply cannot happen.
Sapa’s customers are primarily other manufacturers
who take the aluminium profiles produced by Sapa
and use them to create other structures or products.
Often their entire production schedule will revolve
around the delivery of these materials from Sapa.
There is a great deal of pressure, therefore, to ensure
that the distribution of Sapa’s products runs efficiently.
This is easier said than done. Sapa has a huge
manufacturing operation, with thousands of tonnes
of aluminium extrusions being produced each week.
There is also the added complexity that in some
cases extrusions must be taken to the assembly
facility at Redditch, to be fabricated into bespoke
structures before being delivered to the client. All
of this must be timed to correspond with Sapa’s
customers’ own production timescales.
Scott Holt, Global Transport Manager at Sapa Profiles
UK, explains the scale of the logistics challenge:
“Because in most cases our customers are
themselves manufacturers, they have strict timescales
they need to adhere to and their own customers’
“Our logistics operation has to be a well oiled machine,
working in complete harmony with manufacturing to
ensure no matter what the product or quantity, it will
arrive at its destination exactly when it’s needed.
“We simply don’t have the resources to handle this
planning process in-house, so we need our logistics
provider to manage the whole planning aspect of our
operation, as well as physically getting products from
A to B. They need to take control, take ownership, and
make sure they have the capacity and the flexibility to
never, ever slip up.”
“No matter what has happened over the past seven
years we’ve been working together, Downton has
been willing and able to respond to the challenge
and find a solution.”
Scott Holt,
Global Transport Manager, Sapa Profiles UK
We deliver
the difference
“We have to be
able to quickly
respond to our
customers’
demands, and
having Downton as
an integrated part
of our team is what
really makes this
possible.”
“We are able to
give this much
freedom and
autonomy to
Downton because
we have complete
trust in their
capabilities. It’s a
huge benefit to me
to be able to leave
our distribution
operation entirely
in their hands and
know that they will
do everything in
their power to keep
things running
as smoothly as
possible.”
THE DOWNTON SOLUTION
WHY DOWNTON?
Downton is Sapa’s lead logistics partner in the UK,
and has been working for the aluminium giant for over
five years. Many would call Downton an ‘outsourced’
logistics provider, but the relationship between the
two companies is far closer than this would suggest.
It is the complete flexibility Downton provides that
Downton has two members of staff permanently
based at both the Cheltenham and Tibshelf
manufacturing sites – a contract manager and
contract assistant at each site – who work closely
with Sapa’s own team to ensure the manufacturing,
warehousing and distribution operations work in
tandem with each other. According to Scott, it is this
close cooperation between Downton and Sapa that
has made the partnership such as success:
Indeed, Downton is completely integrated into the
business, with its team given considerable autonomy
by Sapa to handle distribution as they see fit.
Once an aluminium extrusion has been taken from
the production line to Sapa’s warehousing facilities,
the rest of the product’s journey is Downton’s
responsibility. Working in close collaboration with
Sapa’s warehouses, the Downton logistics team
has complete visibility of the production schedule,
warehouse stock lists and customer orders, and use
this information to build a delivery programme. This
includes working directly with Sapa’s customers to
book in deliveries and plan unloading operations.
“We are able to give this much freedom and autonomy
to Downton because we have complete trust in their
capabilities. It’s a huge benefit to me to be able to
leave our distribution operation entirely in their hands
and know that they will do everything in their power to
keep things running as smoothly as possible.”
To make this possible there are a series of robust
KPIs in place to govern the logistics operation at
Sapa. Once extrusions come off the production line
and into the warehouse, for example, they need to be
dispatched within 48 hours. Similar KPIs exist for the
return of stillages, which some customers retain after
delivery for a short period of time; Downton must
wait until a collection note is issued by the customer,
at which point Downton has 10 days to return the
stillage to one of Sapa’s manufacturing sites.
Scott explains how important these KPIs are to
Sapa’s operation:
“With the economy growing and evolving at the rate
it is, our customers’ needs are in a constant state of
flux. We have to be able to quickly respond to their
demands, and having Downton as an integrated part of
our team is what really makes this possible.”
Having had such success at Cheltenham, Tibshelf and
Redditch, Sapa is now giving even more responsibility
to Downton; moving the handling of products out of
Sapa’s Birtley manufacturing site to Downton from
the legacy logistics provider. As with the other sites,
Downton will now have staff stationed at Birtley, and
will be using this integrated approach to achieve
further efficiencies across the Sapa operation.
Scott sums up the benefit that working with Downton
has brought to Sapa:
“Our operation is incredibly complex, with numerous
different factors affecting our distribution requirements.
But no matter what has happened over the past
seven years, Downton has been willing and able to
respond to the challenge and find a solution – and that
adaptability has been invaluable to Sapa Profiles UK.”
“If we run out of stillages, we can’t deliver our products,
pure and simple – so getting these units back to our
sites is a business critical operation. In the seven
years they’ve been working with us we’ve never had
a problem with lack of stillages, which shows just how
consistent Downton has been in hitting their targets.”
WINNER
HAULIER OF THE YEAR
Address:
Head Office,
C M Downton (Haulage Contractors) Ltd
Bristol Road, Moreton Valence
Gloucestershire GL2 7ND
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 01452 720 242 or 01452 720 637
Fax: 01452 722 446
Web: www.downton.co.uk