A LEEP into the future as Edinburgh Recycler achieves new levels of efficiency |
| Posted on May 05 2009 |
LEEP Recycling–part of the Edinburgh-based Environmental charity Changeworks, collects recyclable waste from over 2000 businesses in the capital.
It’s a considerable task. A fleet of eight vans cover the city collecting everything from waste paper and aluminium cans, to fluorescent tubes and printer cartridges.
Therefore, the complex logistics of managing a four week collection cycle which can incorporate anything up to 20 different collection patterns across 100 different routes requires not just a cool head, but a robust data management system, as commercial manager Tom Kenny explains;
“The frequency of our service needs to match with our customer’s needs, which are dictated by volume and storage constraints. This means we have a highly variable uplift pattern. The challenge for us is to devise the most efficient way to manage and optimise our vehicle logistics. Year on year, our customer base is growing by 50%+ and we realised we needed to further enhance our reporting procedures and data management systems.”
We then contacted Valley Technology to have them evaluate how to best automate our back office and administrative support logistics by seamlessly translating our paper-based systems into a fully functional automated process. In simple terms, we needed a scalable way to improve our operational efficiency that would grow with the business.”
Mark Seddon, senior software engineer at Valley Technology was appointed project manager. Under his management, Valley Technology carried out a complete audit of the entire process and recommended a bespoke, flexible design and build software application be installed which enabled LEEP Recycling administration staff to send and receive data to and from its drivers using handheld PDAs.
Central to this was a need to replace the company’s legacy processing and invoicing system, which had become unnecessarily restrictive. It was a ‘closed source’ software platform which meant some data was hidden behind a proprietary layer, and since the company wanted complete control over their entire data, an open source, scalable solution was specified.
The new system is now up and running. It is being used by LEEP Recycling to provide order processing, customer management, invoicing systems through robust Allegro hand-held units carried by all drivers. The new system, by avoiding manual re-entry of data, gives greater accuracy of invoices, reduces invoice queries and ultimately, improves cash flow. LEEP Recycling’s management, at its Newhaven Road headquarters, can review an assortment of vital data, reporting for example, the type, value and volume of recyclates collected on a daily or weekly basis.
Tom Kenny is delighted at scaling up the company’s operational efficiency. He comments.
“We now have complete piece of mind that when we allocate a job to a vehicle using this system, we’ll have a comprehensive reporting summary by return, which means our administration is tighter, the need for paper-based systems minimised and virtually no wasted mileage. Thanks to Valley Technology, we are now a much slicker and seamless operation, which helps keep our competitive price advantage and enhances our service offer to our customers. All organisations have a duty to dispose of its recyclable waste and IT equipment in a responsible and secure manner and our new system helps to streamline the process.”
For more information on LEEP Recycling visit www.leeprecycling.co.uk
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