G4S PLC’s Global Procurement and Supply Chain Transformation IN ASSOCIATION WITH
G4S PLC
DIGITAL REPORT 2021
02
G4S PLC’s
GLOBAL PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN
TRANSFORMATION 03
www.g 4 s . com
G4S PLC
Robert Copeland, G4S PLC’s Group Procurement Director (CPO) discusses running procurement for the leading global technology-enabled security solutions provider
T
The British firm G4S – known for being one of the world’s leading security services providers – recently found time for senior
leader Robert Copeland to sit down with Supply Chain Digital to discuss the organisation’s experi04
ences of a year plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic. Robert Copeland is G4S’s Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director, and has over 20 years in Procurement and Supply Chain. To start our discussion, we addressed the elephant in the room, COVID-19. The global virus has cast shade over almost every aspect of the supply chain process, and it only seemed fitting to ask Robert about its effect on G4S activity. “COVID-19 has impacted all organisations, some for the better, and others sadly for the worse. However, G4S has been incredibly resilient during the Pandemic. In several regions especially in the US, demand for G4S security services increased to ensure customer properties and facilities were fully protected during the pandemic. In the UK G4S has played an important part in supporting national efforts by successfully
05
www.g 4 s . com
Award winning company with over 70 years textile expertise at your disposal
Contract quality, business sector compliant (EN ISO, IMO, BS, ASTM), Bed Linens, Bath Linens, Fire Retardant Textiles, Curtaining FOR RESIDENTIAL ACCOMMODATION in: Prisons, Army Barracks, Immigration Centres, Council Housing, Shipping, Oil and Gas platforms,
Hostels, Hotels, Sleeper Trains, Furniture Contractors, Student Accommodation, Nursing and Care Sectors etc.
Learn More Established 1947
“ I also want people to get away from their desks and truly understand why things are the way they are, and to pinpoint the problems we are trying to solve” — Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc
07 team adapted and worked hard during the first few weeks of the crisis to source and expedite over 10 million items of PPE, helping keep over 500,000 employees and our customers safe. We teamed up with the G4S subsidiary
mobilising testing facilities across the
Hill & Associates Consultants Limited
country, including 18 regional, 92
one of Asia’s leading provider of special-
local & 65 mobile sites, requiring G4S
ist risk mitigation to rapidly go on site in
to rapidly recruit thousands of addi-
China to screen PPE manufacturers who
tional staff.
had never supplied G4S before, giving
With all of these programmes around
us greater visibility of the product qual-
the world in addition to day-to-day activi-
ity and business standards.
ties, the Procurement function has been
Beyond that, we had to ensure G4S
thoroughly challenged. The procurement
supply chains were responsive and agile www.g 4 s . com
G4S PLC
08
Trusted Partner: Thomas Kneale “Thomas Kneale has been G4S’ preferred supplier for contract quality, fire retardant bedding and bathroom textiles and prisoner clothing for nearly 20 years, providing sector compliant textile solutions for end users with differing needs and requirements across multiple business segments, primarily custodial,” says Thomas Kneale director Richard J. Manville. “Having invested in a specialist digital stock forecast system which permeates the whole of TK’s supply chain, the G4S/TK partnership has grown to now include Thomas Kneale operating an end-to-end,
vendor-managed G4S stock holding, ordering and replenishment business model. This system operates on a fully accredited and audited supply chain evidenced by the Gold medal award to TK on the EcoVadis Sustainability platform. G4S is rightly vigilant and uncompromising that it’s supply chain is transparent, auditable and compliant to its sustainable objectives. Thomas Kneale fulfils these obligations meticulously operating only with fully regulated and audited factories in China and the Sub Continent.”
EX EC UTIV E PROFILE:
Robert Copeland Title: Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO) Company: G4S PLC Industry: Security Location: London, UK Robert Copeland is an experienced supply chain professional with over 20 years’ experience in multinational organisations both in the UK and abroad. Having studied in the UK and France, he started his career at Peugeot Citroen (PSA) in Paris, returning to the UK to work at Danone and the Post Office before joining G4S in 2015. Robert has built his reputation reshaping Procurement and Supply Chain functions in a digital age, allowing the supply chain to become a business competitive advantage.
www.g 4 s . com
09
Experts in Delivering Corporate Clothing Solutions Your Uniform Solution Provider Introducing” Incorporatewear Ltd” – Sole supplier for all Uniform requirements. Providing uniform solutions to multiple industry sectors and blue chip brands for 3 decades, expertly clothing hundreds of thousands of wearers internationally, securely supporting you with the “perfect fit to perform “.
Learn more today
“ In a lean business like G4S, our stakeholders are won over by delivery – conversely, reputations can quickly be tarnished if change outcomes fall short of promises made”
At the same time, the business was preparing for Brexit, the divestment of its conventional cash business in 40 countries and the mobilisation of new major contracts won in 2020, including a new 10-year contract to operate the UK’s first resettlement prison, HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough. The pressure has been with us at every step; however, I am immensely proud of the way our teams around the world rose
— Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc
to every challenge.
to adapt to customers’ requirements,
mation programme to enable operational
which in some cases changed overnight.
excellence and cost leadership.
Given the on-going refocusing at G4S in a competitive market place, Copeland talks about a major supply chain transfor-
In parallel, the procurement team led
When I visited the G4S Procurement
the development and implementation of
teams around the world, I spent time
infrastructure to enable the rapid recruit-
with the operational teams to get a direct
ment of thousands of staff to run the Covid
understanding of how the businesses
Test Centres across the UK, using the
operated. I noticed the work-wear supply
latest digital workforce management
chains were highly decentralised and
platform and recruitment partners such
often suffering from range proliferation
as HR Go. The cloud based workforce
(i.e. 60 variants of white shirts used in
management platform gives G4S real-
just 6 European countries) and large
time visibility and reporting, ensuring
amounts of stock obsolescence clut-
the entire recruitment process is com-
tering up storage areas.)
pliant, transparent, and controlled from end to end.
Work-wear is a major spend area for G4S with an annual spend of $50M www.g 4 s . com
11
G4S PLC
12
2004
Year founded
£7,758 m+ Revenue in GBP (2019)
570,000+ Number of employees
supporting over 500,000 employees. Anyone who has been involved in the transformation of corporate work-wear will attest to the fact that it is deceptively complex. Work-wear is also an emotional subject and understandably so. The saying goes, ‘if you dress well, you feel well’ and this meant that any changes were scrutinised and challenged by many, from works councils to Managing Directors. The business was interested in improving how they managed work-wear and reducing costs, but the countries often lacked the capability to implement sustainable change. The competing dynamics of works councils, customer standards, staff churn, uniform customisations, bulk manufacturing lead times, mobilisation of new business (typically 30-day go-live from contract signature), seasonality, special events, quality and cost vs. garment design life, create a rather complex algorithm when blended together. Since 1996 G4S has owned a garment manufacturer in India called IBG, which currently supplies 15% of G4S’s uniforms globally. IBG had a difficult relationship www.g 4 s . com
13
R E CRU ITIN G IN DU STRY E XPERTS Boden Group partner with Facilities Management and Workplace providers to identify and secure the talent and expertise to give you the competitive edge.
Learn more today
As we developed the operating model, we identified 3PL as an option and one that had the potential to solve many of our problems. We evaluated the merits of both a fully outsourced 3PL solution alongside maintaining a direct relationship with a panel of manufacturers/ distributors. What we found during the detailed evaluation was that for a tight margin business such as G4S, a direct relationship with a uniform distributor, in terms of technical and service support along with a TCO price, outweighed the benefits of a 3PL solution. In a lean business like G4S, our stakeholders are won over by delivery - con-
“ The digitisation of procurement at G4S has allowed my teams to focus more time on front-line projects and business growth and allowing us to accelerate our important supply chain ESG agenda.” — Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc
15
versely, reputations can quickly be tarnished if change outcomes fall short of promises made, so a robust operating model was critical to withstand the operational pressures and demands exerted through the lifecycle of managing customer expectations. Given that work-wear covers six continents, it was important to divide this programme into manageable phases, with the first phase being the UK & Europe in 2018. The first element was to develop the right operating model, which critically would allow G4S www.g 4 s . com
with G4S as an in-house supplier. Each
G4S, like many companies, over time
local country operation demands a high
can find itself becoming overly reliant
touch and responsive distribution service,
on and beholden to suppliers where the
and frankly, the demands are often
knowledge sits firmly with the supplier
unreasonable but this is driven by the
base. It can be a real struggle to get hold
needs of our customers. Whilst IBG was
of robust management information, per-
renowned for the quality of its products,
formance KPIs, accurate stock liabilities,
it simply could not compete on service
and in the case of work-wear a clear
with strong local distributors (200 sup-
understanding of the specifications and
pliers in Europe alone). This truly had
cost per wearer. Past attempts made by
become an existential threat to IBG
local business units had limited success.
and so the opportunity for the procure-
This presented a great opportunity for
ment team to help IBG pivot it’s business
the Group Procurement team to show-
model and to focus on its core strengths
case its ability to re-imagine the way the
was timely.
business thought about work-wear.
G4S Integrated Security CLICK TO WATCH
|
2:26
17 to retain control, scale the solution and
audit our work-wear supply lines for mod-
leverage volumes with flexibility for any
ern slavery risks and ethical standards.
local and national requirements.
We also partnered with a boutique
The solution had to conquer key iss-
Dutch software house, EC Manage,
ues including the build-up of obsoles-
which developed a digital work-wear
cence stock, wearer level management
management system for distributors,
(including start and end of life), zero
able to give wearer level allocations and
based budgeting, cost per user track-
controls, the trick being to create flex-
ing, garment performance in the field
ibility without excessive working capital.
tracking, order vs user requirements,
Customer contracts often require G4S
working capital optimisation and
to mobilise a workforce numbering in the
inventory management.
1000s with 30 days’ notice.
To ensure the new operating model
The Procurement team ran several
met stringent business ethics, we collab-
complex prequalification tenders and
orated with EcoVadis to independently
e-auctions during 2018 to ensure the best www.g 4 s . com
G4S PLC
18
“ It is important to take the time to engage with the business and suppliers at all levels to find opportunities that are often known of, but not acted upon” — Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc
partners were selected to deliver the right economic and operational blend. We appointed the well-respected UK based workwear distributor Incorporatewear Ltd, to to supply the six largest European countries, consolidating over 200 suppliers into one contractual relationship. The project team had to undertake a major user trial phase as agreed with the European Works Councils to ensure that the optimised range was exactly right, often with very
19
positive feedback from the users,
Work-wear transformation has been
in parallel to the trials the supply chain
a challenging project, one that has seen
had to be fully Brexit proofed, able to
us navigate through some interesting
operate in all possible Brexit outcomes.
moments (including Brexit), but it has
The output of the programme in
also demonstrated the value of a truly
Europe delivered overall cost effi-
capable and trusted procurement func-
ciencies of 20%-25% (40% in some
tion, able to provide leadership and
countries), and a range rationalisa-
commercial credibility.
tion of around 60% across Europe. This enabled G4S to reinvest some of the savings in targeted areas to improve the look and feel of the uniforms and the morale of our people. www.g 4 s . com
G4S PLC 5TH FLOOR SOUTHSIDE 105 VICTORIA STREET LONDON SW1E 6QT UNITED KINGDOM
P0WERED BY
T +44 (0)208 770 7000
www.g4s.com