POS distribution & Installation Projects UK
Operations Director
Retail logistics & Installation of POS ( point of sale) equipment A new start project providing the project management of multi site installations of POS into retail outlets. Invited to join POPI to direct operations.
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Head of Operations
( a similar role to POPI but a more established company )
This 10 year old company had grown to be a market leader in the retail POS industry through an highly effective sales team but occassionaly the quality of project management failed the sales team's expectations.
I was invited to join the company as Head of Operations. Their business is the project management of multi site installations of display and point of sale equipment into retail outlets involving detailed project planning, fast moving warehousing, accuarte stock control, just in time distribution, quality control and the development of web based reporting systems and customer portals.
The company had been trading successfully for about ten years and grown steadily but directors wanted more rapid growth and of course more quality from the project team. I was asked to provide the processes to achieve that.
It became obvious quite quickly that they were fraught with process and personnel management flaws stemming back to the early days of recruiting from friends and family now affecting tenders, turnover of people, attitude towards health & safety and environmental management.
They did not have a transport manager so the use of goods vehicles had not been well managed often breaching regulations out of ignorance. Directors at least recognised the need to establish management systems more in line with their current size.
I headed the management team covering all operational aspects of the business. The processes and reporting systems I introduced provided the foundation continual improvement.
The NVQI I developed and submitted on behalf of the formerly unrecognised industry was welcomed by the training standards board and the awarding body City & Guilds. Unqualified project managers were offered Prince 2 training. Sustainable processes and sequential working practices were implemented. Tenders then included more than just figures in an e mail they now demonstrated the company’s commitment to changing legislation and to the welfare of employees and other stake holders.
Within two years turnover was substantially increased, possibly doubled. Risk was minimised by revised terms of business, and disaster recovery planning. Health & Safety and environmental management systems were accepted and supported by the workforce. Transport was operating legally and I’d achieved significant reductions in fleet costs.
Major brands associated with this company included Tesco, Orange, Woolworths, GM, M&S, Abbey, HSBC, Gillette and a host of household names. Marketing is a wonderful thing but someone has to deliver the promises at the end of the day and all to often that someone is an unknown name sorting out problems resulting in a highstreet success.