Highlights

• Leading water cooler supplier
• UK logistics network redesign and depot capacity planning
• Substantial cost savings proposed and an ongoing LogiMap strategic modeller

The Business

Eden Springs is the UK's number one water cooler supplier. Eden's leading role in the cooler arena is not confined to its British activities:

• The group is No. 1 in western Europe servicing more than 500,000 customers in over 18 countries
• Specialises in the supply and service of bottled and plumbed in water coolers, hot water boilers and the national distribution of small-pack (500ml) bottles
• Distribution points throughout the country giving a direct service to all of its 90,000 customers across the UK

The Challenge

Eden's question to us was essentially "What is the right number of depots to run our operation at minimum cost?"

In answering this question we would also consider the type and size of hubs, depots and outbases as well as their locations and capacities.

The Approach

We used LogiMap to configure a specialist model of the Eden Springs UK network. LogiMap makes extensive use of mapping visualisation to assist the analysis and design of the network.

In particular, we:

• Modelled water sources, hubs, secondary depots, primary transport links, secondary transport links and cooler servicing routes
• Imported operational data into the model
• Allocated customer groups automatically to the nearest (drive time) depots
• Built in a capacity balancing algorithm to account for depot capacities in terms of warehouse space, yard space and O licences
• Automatically re-balanced customers between depots where capacity was constrained.

The end result of the network model was a total logistics network cost calculation which allowed Eden to evaluate alternative depot locations and network structures.

Since depot capacity was a key consideration we then: Developed a depot capacity planning model Balanced water storage capacity with yard loading and parking Determined how much additional capacity could be fulfilled through the network Ran a physical pilot of this model with a typical depot Proposed and implemented a new depot layout that would allow the depot to considerably increase its capacity.