Wincanton is a leading supply chain partner for UK business with operating centres throughout the country, leading the design, implementation, and management of secure, efficient supply chains, often in highly competitive and compliance driven sectors.
Following selection as a result of a competitive tender process as EDF’s selected partner for logistics on the Hinkley Point C (HPC) Project, Wincanton undertakes warehousing and freight services from multiple locations across the South West which are dedicated to the storage and distribution of equipment required for the project.
Wincanton was officially awarded the contract in June 2018 and since then has provided warehousing, asset tracking, asset management, and transport services to deliver and control many items in-line with construction plans. We are delivering these services through a dedicated team of colleagues operating a mixed fleet of dedicated vehicles and providing bespoke storage solutions.
As a trusted and respected supply chain partner, Wincanton manages services and solutions which range from setting-up and operating distribution networks through to bonded warehouses and technology hosting, striving for operational excellence in everything it does.
We work hard to understand and respond to customers’ needs, build long-term relationships, and using our skills and expertise to deliver a smarter, added value service, every day.
Outside the scope of works as originally tendered, Wincanton has created secure logistics platforms for the storage and onward movement of materials as diverse as soil samples taken from HPC itself through to 23.2 tonne pipes for the reactor coolant system. Wincanton has also created and deployed a GPS tracking system to manage Development Consent Order (DCO) compliance for freight deliveries in to HPC, replacing the ANPR systems.
The bulk of Wincanton’s HPC work is centred around its operations at a Business Park in Bridgwater and recently added new locations in and around Bristol Port area.
The Bridgwater facility recently won a Pride of Platforms award for the HPC project. Pride of Platforms, run by EDF, rewards and recognises the best platforms on site. Focusing on good signage, clear access arrangements or welfare facilitates, as well as a great focus on health, safety, and the environment.
The first of the new Bristol based locations is a 250ksqft facility providing an extension to existing storage and distribution capability. The second location will see Wincanton take responsibility for the management of a 260ksqft facility where it will manage the storage of Abnormal Indivisible Loads (AILs) ahead of their onward delivery to HPC.
The Bristol operations represent the formation of a best-in-class collaborative agreement between Wincanton and another South West based company with leading expertise in the handling of AILs.
Building on its position as an integral part of the UK Construction sector supply chain for many years, this exciting opportunity is the first time Wincanton has been directly involved with a major infrastructure project in the UK. It also represents the first time any logistics provider has supported a nuclear new build in the UK for a generation.
To support the HPC project and facilitate its own operations, Wincanton has developed a Supply Chain and Materials Management System (MMS) to provide end-to-end visibility of materials across the supply chain, from supplier to final delivery point and then for reverse logistic flows.
The system provides real-time visibility on the location of materials and provides invaluable reporting on material availability, status, and flows. It also provides an automatic upload into EDF’s document storage platform of essential information relevant to a consignment or material, such as quality inspection, storage conditions and COSHH data sheets.
The MMS development enables and supports the safe delivery and tracking of the right consignment, with the right documentation, to the right place, at the right time, in the right condition to keep the construction teams at HPC working whilst maintaining a full audit trail in relation to movement of product.
As an integrated IT system, all suppliers have visibility of their purchase orders (POs) within the MMS and can update their PO status to show progress against key milestones. Milestones cover design, manufacture, and certification over the period of each contract. EDF can then monitor specific supplier adherence to milestones.
On EDF approval, the suppliers ship the materials and goods are receipted on delivery. Once goods are receipted, they feed into the EDF Inventory and Asset Management System so that EDF can see what has been received against the PO. EDF can then raise call-off requests in the EDF Inventory and Asset management system which interfaces into the MMS. Once loaded for transportation this then feeds into the Wincanton tracking system, Winsight, where an electronic POD is created, and photos of delivery are captured.
The unique benefits of the integrated system include the ability to segregate and manage several different storage aspects from temperature controls, preservation and maintenance, hazardous materials, spares and returns over a variety of equipment types varying in complexity from a nut and bolt through to 23 tonne pipes.
Operatives throughout the logistics process use handheld, electronic devices to enable accurate and reliable selection and tracking of materials across the logistics chain. The handheld devices are used to capture a time and date stamp record of deliveries made across various points of the supply chain, including the final delivery point. The use of handheld devices provides benefits to the Customer through real time event status as well as a significant reduction in paperwork.
To further support HPC, Wincanton has also updated the existing ANPR camera technology with a GPS-based solution to monitor compliance with a pre-booked route to the HPC site and back. Drivers have a set route to / from the site which must be adhered to along with a time slot in which to make their journey. Thus, the number of vehicles driving the pre-allotted route in each hour can be measured against the plan agreed within the Development Consent Order.
Carl Meewezen, Managing Director of the Public and Industrial sector at Wincanton, said: “We are thrilled to be working on such a significant project. We are delivering against our core set of propositions which offer our clients a dynamic and flexible approach solution which, over this 10-year project, will be instrumental to the success of the nuclear build at Hinkley Point C.”
Wincanton said it would recommend that all HPC suppliers engaged with the Hinkley Supply Chain Team as it helped to improve the flow of information and, ultimately, decision-making.
For more information, visit the website www.wincanton.co.uk
