The Samuel James Engineering team wins Mark in Action

The Samuel James Engineering team has been recognised for outstanding communication and problem-resolution skills in responding to an urgent customer request.

Atkins Rail avoided significant project delay penalties when the Samuel James team delivered upon a 10-day supply promise, where the industry-standard lead time can be up to 26 weeks.

Senior Production Manager Nick Leaf said: “The problem statement being ‘We needed to build this for our customer in just a 10-day period’, was resolved through cross-functional collaboration between the customer service team, commercial team, production team, and engineering team.

“We’ve aligned ourselves as a great partner to Atkins Rail over the years. We’ve shown we can respond well to customer requirements and we’re seen as a trusted partner within the supply chain. Internally, it’s shown us that when we work together collaboratively we can get to the finish line quickly and efficiently.

“This achievement can be used as a model for future stocking strategies and as an example of how we should work as a team. We are also looking at using this project as a case study in the industry, so we can share with the supply chain and other customers what can be achieved.

“We proved that as problems had arisen we were able to tackle them head on and come up with positive solutions to deliver upon the aim of “customer satisfaction”. Our ultimate aim is to offer this level of service as a standard offering, rather than an exceptional circumstance.”

Sam Foster, Technical Sales Manager, said: “The current lead time it would take to deliver a product like this is between 24-26 weeks. When we received the enquiry we did a quick check on our stock, and the stars aligned for us as we had it all available except one or two pieces spread across the Unipart Rail sites.

“We advised Atkins Rail that we could do it the week after – so rather than a 26-week delay, we promised a significantly faster turnaround to help them avoid late penalties and commissioning costs. The customer had asked other suppliers but they were all quoting a much longer lead time.”

Being recognised with this award is great motivation for the team. Sam explained: “From a team perspective it’s great to be a part of. It makes you proud to be in a team that has pulled together to identify that something could be done, gone back to the customer with a promise, and then delivered on that promise. There's great satisfaction once you achieve something like that.”

The full Mark in Action ceremony from December 2022 is available to watch with this video link.

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