Nickleby - real people for a change

"Nickleby's exceptional skills in re-engineering processes for efficiency and effectiveness impressed us so much that we employed them to introduce an intelligent, flexible maintenance process for Somerfield too". Ian Callaghan, Director of Construction and Renewals at Somerfield.

Nickleby worked with Somerfield from 2003- 2010 to help them reduce their maintenance costs and improve the performance of their maintenance supply chain.

Somerfield needed Nickleby's help because they faced a number of challenges in managing their maintenance spend. They had a paper-based recording system that struggled to manage the complexity of a maintenance operation that spanned 1,300 sites (with no standard store footprint), a multitude of suppliers, and over 10,000 engineer visits a year - with numerous ways of working and recording maintenance activity.

This was leading to a management headache. Costs were escalating, communications were poor throughout the supply chain, and most importantly it was difficult, if not impossible, to understand what value Somerfield were getting from their maintenance spend. 

By applying process management thinking to the problem - an innovative approach in a conservative industry - Nickleby worked with Somerfield to:

• simplify their processes
• eliminate unnecessary processes
• introduce service standards
• and reduce infrastructure costs

Nickleby developed Emergense - a unique combination of software, processes and business rules - to bring Somerfield, its contractors and suppliers together in a single system that:

• provides accurate, detailed and objective real-time information
• enforces a new way of working built around Somerfield's needs
• gives Somerfield visibility and control over transaction costs, engineer performance and quality of service delivery

Somerfield opted for Nickleby's Helpdesk, and to use our network of Regional Facilities Managers to manage contractors and compliance. 

The outcome for Somerfield has been a massive increase in value: costs have been reduced by more than £30m while significantly improving their service levels, e.g. escalations have dropped by 70%.

Call us now to start managing your maintenance more intelligently.