01732 759725 10 DISTRIBUTION last hour of the business day, with a final pull-time of 10pm. The Pick Tower has a shelf pick location, a pallet lane and a carton lane. In the case of the latter, two types of carton (large and small) are barcoded and launched into the Pick Tower on 2.1km of conveyor. This travels past pick points where item(s) are added to the cartons. At the end, they are weighed to make sure they have been packed with the right quantity of the right products. After the paperwork has been added, they proceed to the compactor where the height of the carton is reduced by folding the edges down so that there is a void of less than 8% in any parcel. These folded down edges protect the contents and ensure Exertis is not ‘shipping air’. Currently, 72% of all SKUs processed by the NDC are Pick Tower-compatible (some are too large) and the plan is to bring more of those items into the facility to enhance Exertis’s ability to consolidate orders and pick to order. Currently, just over one of the four floors is being used, so there is plenty of unused capacity. “One of the things that you will see over time is us consolidating more and more of the volume that we ship to customers through that particular capability,” explains Griffin. Data-driven In addition to its investment in infrastructure, Exertis is making significant advances in two other keys aspects of digitalisation: optimisation and automation, including machine learning/ AI; and digital marketing & ecommerce to help create a seamless, Amazon-like experience for customers. In the last 12 months, Exertis has established a data analytics function from scratch, investing in data scientists, data engineers and data analysts. Headed up by Dr Adeala Zabair, the Data Science & Analytics team derives insights and understanding from datasets to drive efficiencies in procurement and stock management. “The DNA of our business is becoming a lot more data-driven,” says Turner. He adds that Exertis is also doing a lot of work in robotic process automation (RPA) to optimise workflows for its own employees and for reseller partners. “We get thousands of emails on a daily basis from resellers saying ‘Can you quote me on this product? Or can you give me a price for this product?’ and it’s really, really easy with RPA to take that, supply a quote and do it in seconds rather than wait for a salesperson to respond.” Turner points out that the combination of data analytics and process optimisation also aids sales effectiveness. “Being able to predict churn, being able to provide cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, being able to provide switch-sell products for some of our vendors, alternative products where we’ve got constrained stock. Getting all those tools into the right people’s hands at the right time delivers value to our customers. And this function is starting to deliver that.” To stay abreast of changing consumer behaviour and the growing influence of TikTok and YouTube in the procurement process, Exertis is investing in its digital marketing capabilities to engage directly with influencers and specific consumer profiles on multiple platforms. “We’ve created a programme where we will start to do the marketing for our reseller partners and drive those end users, those customers into our resellers, so we’re not relying purely on our resellers bringing business to us. We’re doing a lot more for our vendor partners as well, who look to us to provide that leverage and reach.” As an example, he cites last year’s launch of the PICO VR headset, which Exertis managed and did the marketing for, including pop-up stands in Westfield, France and Germany. Griffin adds that in the meantime, Exertis will continue to invest in NDC operations to ensure its service offering and product delivery is as effective as its marketing. “We are constantly evolving the facility – we put in that mezzanine floor 18 months ago – and we will carry on investing in the facility to develop new capabilities. Services is one of the areas that we will be expanding, with continuing investment in close-to-thebox configuration opportunities. And we will continue to consolidate Pick Tower applicable SKUs into the Pick Tower.” How these developments affect the number of steps in the Burnley Bridge dance remains to be seen. All one can say for certain is that Sion Wineyard will be counting them. continued...
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