Taking more time out of the manufacturing cycle is difficult simply because it has compressed so much already, therefore we now take time out of the supply chain. Our aim is to take an electronic order without any pre-warning from a customer, produce the books at the factory and deliver them directly to retail outlets, such as book shops and supermarkets, all within a few days.

Claysonline incorporates an easy-to-use yet highly complex order control system, demanding careful attention to detail as now every book can go directly to the end user. This means that the quality of the product and the information we work from is ever more critical.

We are now giving our key customers direct access to our online production system, which means that they can amend current deliveries or add new ones straight onto our live system.

They can view the books we have made:
-view when and how many were sent.
-view the despatch notes.
-view invoices for every delivery of every title.

By encouraging customers to input the changes we have been able to dramatically increase our speed of response and also reduce the error rate in processing orders as data is not being retyped. This also gives the customer access to exactly the same information that we have, for instance if the books have been delivered we can prove it if they have not they too can prove it, there is no hiding from the truth!

After manufacturing we are sometimes asked to hold books as either the delivery destination is not determined or the delivery date is somewhere in the future. With Claysonline customers can now view and allocate these stocks for themselves. Our aim is not to become a long-term warehouse but rather a short-term store prior to sending books to your selected destinations, thereby achieving commercial gain for all concerned.

Distribution
Over half of all the books manufactured at Clays are now despatched directly to the end user. In addition to the service benefits we firmly believe that publishers are benefiting from significant cost savings. We can speed up books to market, which reduces the requirement for stock and in turn improves customers working capital and cash flow, reduces redundant stock and write downs and minimises the risk publishers take. Most importantly however it will greatly reduce the number of occasions on which a book is out of stock in a shop leading to a lost sale.

Direct deliveries also have the added benefit of reducing the miles your books travel before reaching the market place thereby providing a more environmentally friendly manner of distribution.

Clays in Bungay is currently undergoing a £5million development scheme for a new warehouse extension.

This new facility will enable us to provide more services to customers and deliver books faster directly to the end user.

The new scheme comprises of the building of a 45,000 square feet distribution centre intended for despatch and storage

Half of the new building will be intended solely for the storage of finished goods in a 20 meter high bay racking area which will hold 5,000 pallets of all sizes and weights. A Warehouse Control System will optimise the storage and picking plan and will drive a rail guided crane system. Customers can already directly access the system to either view or update their requirements. This ensures that we get books delivered direct to store next day.

The other half of the new building is divided in two, a despatch area and a working area. There is a new despatch area, which will be able to control the loading and unloading of 9 Lorries at any time as well as a new Despatch office. This will give better control of our deliveries and also remove lorries from the congested town centre.

The working area will automatically feed the books we produce into the warehouse and despatch area using lifts and conveyors.

It will also provide 15,000 square feet for a specialist value added area where we can personalise books for individual customers. These products include, shrinkwrapping, stickering, boxing, and collating.

The actual first phase of the building project is due to start at the beginning of August 2007, and aims to be completed with the despatch team moved in within 40 weeks.

Please speak to us about how this facility can help your business.