Last month I spend a lot of time putting together our business and action plan for 2007 (using a special software program I will come back to on a later date).
One of the items in our ‘vision statement’ is having suppliers who work on the same main principle as us: quality, quality, quality; and I don’t mean only the suppliers of the products we sell, all suppliers of products and services we select on this.
Quality surfaces in times of crisis (well, in this case semi-crisis).
Two weeks ago the English Channel was hit once again by the French blocking Calais, followed by severe weather: creating Operation Stack on the M20 and many, many delays in ferry-crossings. We expected a shipment from our supplier that week, two orders of flooring we had to deliver to our customers at the end of the week (Saturday)
The transport company tried to avoid Calais and the ferry problems by crossing over higher up and coming down South from there. Normally not a problem, but two weeks ago the Motorways were troubled with chaos, road-works, delays and of course Operation Stack.
Friday morning our orders still hadn’t arrived at the storage facility we use, slight panic. Our contact at the transport company told us the truck was on its way and he would keep us posted. Halfway afternoon, still no truck.
At the end of the afternoon our contact came back to us again: truck was on M25 – stuck in traffic, but slowly moving towards the M2, which in itself was heaving with traffic trying to avoid Operation Stack on the M20. Our storage facility closes at 6 o’clock.
10 to 6: another phone call from our contact: truck is 10 - 15 minutes away from storage. Quick call from us to storage facility: ‘Houston’ we have a problem’. They agreed, very willingly, to stay open for another 30 minutes. 10 past 6: truck arrived and all's well that ends well.
And it’s all down to communication, starting with the driver of the truck.
He could have left it at faith and hoped to arrive in time; but he didn’t, he called his boss.
His boss could have left it at that and hoped for the best; he didn’t, he called us.
We could have left it at that and hoped for the best; we didn’t, we called to ask a favour.
So, once again a big thank you to Barsan and Space Saver Storage: proper and honest communications between quality suppliers up and down the line will never let anyone down.
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