Customers

Case Study - Bristol Uniforms

Changes are afoot in the practice of winning and retaining new customers on the strength of high quality design and on-time delivery alone.

Legislation is increasing employer responsibility for the ongoing 'fitness-for-purpose' of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and the arrival of European PPE regulations in 1992 gave workwear suppliers the opportunity to offer more than just clothing-to-order.



The Health and Safety Executive began implementing the "PPE at Work Regulations" as part of the EC Directives in 1993. The aim is to ensure that certain basic duties governing the provision and use of PPE are applied. One part of the regulation demands that all equipment remains fit-for-purpose throughout its working life and this has heightened the need for UK workwear suppliers to deliver a high quality, ongoing maintenance service with appropriate tracking reports, as well as the garments themselves.

Driven by the quest for 'best value' and the need to comply with ever-changing European and international PPE regulations, one workwear supplier is now offering much more to its customers.

Bristol Uniforms supplies firefighter's clothing worldwide. Founded in Bristol in 1801, the company produced its first firefighters' protective clothing in 1962 and has since built an outstanding reputation, both nationally and globally, supplying high quality fire-suits to many fire brigades, airport fire services, marine and aluminised firefighters. Last year the company exported 30,000 protective garments to over 50 countries worldwide.

Complete Service Provider

Under the guidance of Managing Director, Jamie Lumsden, Bristol Uniforms has evolved in recent years. "Bristol Uniforms is now a world class, competitive service provider. We can offer our customers a full partnership contract, combining the supply of fire-fighting equipment with after sales care and performance warranties. We are committed to working in close co-operation with our customers and we strive to introduce innovative new care and supply options for them."

Bristol Uniforms manages more than just the ongoing supply of PPE. The company now provides routine inspections of garments, repairs or replacements for defective items, schedules for ongoing maintenance and up-to-date reports tracking the use and maintenance history of each item.

Improved Customer Service

In 1999, Bristol Uniforms became part of the Faithful Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of workwear. This partnership bought Bristol Uniforms a renewed focus on customer service, cost awareness and capital investment in the latest technology, including the implementation of a supply chain system, PrimaNet® from Prima Solutions, which includes the Bristol Care module covering Garment Rental/Service Care.

Bristol Care has enabled Bristol Uniforms to automatically monitor the life of its garments, providing the routine tracking of the condition of each garment and advice on its continued use. When a garment has been issued to a customer the information is automatically stored on the system. Each time that garment returns to Bristol Uniforms for a clean or maintenance check, the firefighter using the garment and its location is logged, together with its condition, any repairs that take place and the cost of each inspection. This enables Bristol Uniforms to trace each garment through its life without asking their customers to provide any information directly.

"We are able to offer our customers a much improved service because we have the capability of recording, tracking, analysing and reporting through our supply chain system," says Jamie. "We can therefore recommend the 'fitness for purpose' of individual garments during their working life for our customers, in a partnership-based, cost-effective and practical response to the requirements of the latest Health and Safety regulations."

 Integrated Business Intelligence

Customers are kept informed with detailed reports including; Garment History by Service Location and Employee, and Total Service Value by Account and Service Location, which are produced for each customer and sent via email.

"Having the best possible in-service care of complex and critical garments, like firefighting PPE is important both from a safety and best value perspective," says Jamie. "We can now offer our customers a clear monthly analysis of key factors including; time in service, suitability for ongoing use, number of wash cycles and a full repair history."

This type of reporting gives Bristol Uniforms' customers the ability to budget for protective clothing year-on-year and helps to identify abuse to garments, excessive costs and excessive use.

"Bristol Care supports our bid for new business," admits Jamie. "We firmly believe that we are ahead of our competition in being able to offer a complete solution with detailed analysis and reporting capabilities. We are able to aid our customers in reaching and maintaining garment protection levels that meet European and international regulations, leaving them to focus on other issues."

Supply Chain Management

Being able to provide such a high level of customer service has been a huge step forward for Bristol Uniforms.

The supply chain process at Bristol Uniforms is supported throughout by strong use of technology. The PrimaNet® system maps their business model in all areas of Customer Service, Stock Control, Planning, Costing, Order Processing, Manufacturing and Financials.

Jamie can remember how things used to be. "We were, on average, one week behind in delivering to our customers. Since implementing PrimaNet® we are now rarely even one day late. We have full control of stocks, enabling us to get the right items to the right place at the right time."

Commenting on their successful partnership with Prima Solutions, Jamie concludes, "Initially, we used the standard package from Prima Solutions and that experience gave us the confidence to work together to develop Bristol Care. The investment is worth every penny."