Self-taught coding skills unlock £70,000 savings

A Unipart Rail analyst used The Unipart Way and self-taught coding skills to develop a digital solution for inventory management with estimated savings of £70,000 a year.

Katelyn Clasper, Unipart Rail Senior Forecasting Analyst, spotted an opportunity to create a more automated process for validating minimum order quantities (MOQ) changes whilst writing her Masters Dissertation on Unipart’s purchasing policy.

Katelyn learnt to code, worked with the IT team to develop a Unipart app, and worked closely with the purchasing team to introduce the new automated process, which significantly reduces the time taken for MOQ, and eliminates human error.

Katelyn’s initiative and hard work saw her collect a Mark in Action award earlier this month.

Cate Glanvill, Head of Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning, explained her nomination: “Katelyn spent a significant amount of time analysing over 2,000 different part numbers to work out what the correct formula would be to determine automatically whether an MOQ was okay or not.

“I am absolutely outstanded with Katelyn’s progress within the company, with her attitude, with the fact she taught herself how to code, and that she delivered all of this without being asked to do it because she identified the problem herself and just went for it.”

Watch Cate Glanvill in the video below explain the reasons for her nomination.

Katelyn explained the project that led to her much-deserved award: “Over the last decade, the volume of requests for MOQ changes vastly increased and was beginning to become unmanageable. Richard Doughty, who led the Forecasting Team at the time, knew that he wanted some kind of programme which could be fed an MOQ request and give an automatic answer either denying or accepting the request.

“I spent approximately six months researching and another six months experimenting with SQL (a standard language for storing and retrieving data in databases) until we were happy with the results of controlled test scenarios.

“For three months after writing the stored procedure, our lead CORE Forecaster at the time, Neil Odlin, analysed all MOQ requests manually, as he usually did, and we checked his answers against what the app would suggest.”

Whilst Neil was testing, Katelyn taught herself how to create a windows-based app. Once Neil was convinced it could accurately replicate his decisions, the Digital and IT departments translated Katelyn’s work into a functioning intranet app.

With the app complete, Katelyn introduced it to the team leaders, and held training sessions to teach the new process.

Katelyn explained how vital The Unipart Way and support from colleagues was along the way: “The Unipart Way helped me structure the project in a clear and manageable way. I knew that if I were to create an app, I needed to look at it with a long term view and I knew that there would be no point to the project if I couldn’t find a way to standardise the decision-making behind the problem.

“I received a lot of guidance from the Forecasting Team during the conceptualisation of the project. I was also supported by Mark Field and Graham Cummings in the IT department, as they took my Python prototype and converted it into an intranet app. Graham designed a queuing system that enabled us to process multiple requests at once - extraordinary work that I would not have been able to do myself.”

This achievement has already inspired continuous improvement. Katelyn said: “Digital developments will always be necessary. We have plans for at least two more projects which will build off the SQL code behind the app, and offer even more opportunities within the business.”

The full Mark in Action ceremony from August 2023 is available to watch with this video link.

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