Culina Logistics continues to set new supply chain standards

Culina Logistics, an associate company of the Culina Group, has secured full ISO 9001:2000 accreditation across all nine of its ambient and chilled distribution centres that cover the UK.

The multi-temperature food and drink supply chain specialist is believed to be one of only a handful of logistics companies that has achieved such a high standard, which has been independently verified throughout its entire operation.

The company started the process from its Market Drayton headquarters and has made continuous improvements to roll it out as its business expanded to sites in Milton Keynes and Stafford. In 2008 both a new chilled site at Haverhill and a major ambient facility in Wolverhampton were accredited.

Near the end of last year the company expanded the certification to the entire group adding Bristol, Leighton Buzzard, Warrington and Goole, which ensures the scope of the ISO standard now encompasses every operational site in the UK.

To obtain the ISO 9001:2000 certification, each site had to prove it has met or exceeded a range of specific management requirements, which were independently audited by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA). Following an intense five-day audit, it was confirmed that the remaining sites in the network had surpassed the required standard.

The LRQA assessment reported that Culina has an excellent data reporting system that covers customer satisfaction and depot KPIs (key performance indicators), which allows analysis per depot, per product, per customer etc. This is a valuable tool and facilitates decision-making and demonstration of performance. Areas of excellence are operations in general.

Rien Brakel, group operations director, said: "I know of a few other companies that have all their sites accredited but not within logistics. We are certainly one of the few multi-site companies within the UK to have this standard for every site.

"Culina is committed to maintaining the management standard across all of our operational sites. This undertaking started when we established the company in 1994 and as new operational sites come on stream we have ensured they work to the same standard. The accreditation reassures all our customers that every one of our facilities operates to a consistently high level."

Culina Logistics

Source: http://warehousenews.co.uk/