Many of our key customers in the FMCG space have been experiencing significant increases in order volumes during the Covid-19 crisis with levels for many reaching previously unseen heights. Organisations are under more pressure than ever to ensure that supermarkets are stocked and that groceries and essential medicines get delivered to people’s homes.
One such customer, Foodstuffs North Island, one of two regional cooperatives with supermarket brands that have been a household name for over ninety years in New Zealand, deployed the complete Microlise Journey Management and mobility solution across their supply chain operations in mid 2019, to gather real-time data and visibility of vehicles against planned routes and schedules, improve fleet efficiency and strengthen customer communication.
The paperless Microlise Proof of Delivery (POD) solution has also reduced the company’s administrative load with all delivery documentation being stored digitally, while features including driver communication, access to site notes and manifest information, job dispatch and schedule adherence have streamlined many previously paper-based processes.
Perhaps of critical importance at the present time, the integrated solution – from back office through to point of delivery – provides for low or zero contact – a factor which will doubtless remain a key health & safety issue and business imperative for some considerable time to come.
At a recent quarterly customer review, Gareth McFarlane, Group Transport Manager for Foodstuffs North Island, highlighted the business benefits of the Microlise platform:
“Foodstuffs, like all food retailers globally where nations have undergone a lock down period, have been handling unprecedented volumes throughout our network for the last ten weeks. The volumes through our stores have hit ‘biggest ever’ levels and blown away the entire FMCG industry in NZ in relation to the demand pressures and the safety compliance restrictions required for us to continue to operate.
“The Supply Chain teams have needed stable and reliable systems in order for us to meet this demand – and Microlise has provided an extremely stable solution throughout our lock down period and handled our increased volumes without issue.
“Not all of our application partners have had the same success and these failures have had a direct impact on our ability to operate. The stability of the Microlise solution throughout this period of uncertainty has been outstanding and we want to thank the entire Microlise team for enabling us to continue to operate with such confidence.“
Microlise has a well-established foothold in the retail sector, with its solutions already delivering value to some of the world’s largest companies and transport fleets – including Coles Online in Australia, Gilmours and 14 of the UK’s 15 largest retailers.
