Environmental solution finds home for customer's excess stock

Operational Excellence Manager Simon Marsh was recognised with a Mark in Action after implementing a solution to enable local communities and charities to benefit from excess NHSSC stock that was previously disposed of.

The solution saved the customer tens of thousands of pounds, benefited those most in need, and supported Unipart’s environmental sustainability business target of 5% general waste reduction.

Prior to Simon’s solution, the customer didn’t allow Unipart to donate or repurpose excess stock to local charities or organisations. This meant that for many years NHSSC’s excess stock, ranging from biscuits to disposable nappies, was simply disposed of.

Simon explained: “Sometimes we receive goods that have been incorrectly sent to us by large suppliers. They typically don't want the expense of returning them, so they ask us to write them off and dispose of them.

“For the past couple of years we have been working with our customer to try and come up with a solution that would retain the integrity of the products, whilst mitigating any liability to our customer. Ultimately, we are dealing with NHS stock funded by the taxpayer so any process change would/could have potential legal implications.

“Last year alone we put many tonnes of perfectly good food and non-medical products into our waste streams, which cost the business, and ultimately the taxpayer, tens of thousands of pounds.

“I was asked by Bridgwater General Manager Julian Westlake to look at a process that could satisfy both these concerns. After working with senior stakeholders Jill Massey and Chris Seamen we developed a final proposal that the customer was happy with.”

In just the two months since the implementation Bridgwater has diverted 2.5 tonnes of product and food to its registered charity partner Cancer Research UK, and reduced food waste uplifts by 50%. Simon expects his site to divert at least 15 tonnes of product this year.

Simon explained how all colleagues can have an impact on achieving environmental goals: “As the OEM it's an integrated part of my role to manage our waste output, provide continuous improvement opportunities, save money, and adopt or develop best practices. By meeting our ambitious environmental targets we can increase the profile of our company and continue to be known as innovators in everything we do - it's The Unipart way!

“There is opportunity in every aspect of our business to reduce or reuse. At Bridgwater we’ve reused goods from Cowley, Como house, and most recently Coventry, ranging from technology (display screens) to furniture (a very expensive conference table that was heading for the bin) to most recently a temperature controlled loading facility for our vans.

“Every business leader should look into their bins every now and then and question if an item really needs to be in there.

“As our environmental targets get harder to achieve we have to leverage every single opportunity we can find to reuse or reduce. My approach has always been to step back from the process, understand the opportunities, and try to apply the best resolution available.”

To nominate a Unipart employee or team for a Mark in Action award click here.