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• Vitus Hakutangui has swapped his usual job as assistant
Page 52
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general manager with the Zimbabwe Dairy Marketing Board (ZDMB) for three months' onthe-job training with UK logistics expert Exel Logistics, as part of a unique international training programme.
Hakutangui, who heads the ZDMB's transport and distribution operation in Harare, is the Board's second senior manager to visit Exel and he hopes to return to Zimbabwe able to implement a new transport and distribution system which will transform the regional ZDMB into a national organisation.
The training programme will last for the next three years and is funded by the British Government's foreign aid agency, the Overseas Development Administration. Exel's involvement in the scheme follows recommendations made by Banbury-based consulting engineer T P O'Sullivan, which is already in Zimbabwe providing technical assistance on a number of projects.
The first visitor to the UK under the arrangement was Herbert Nkala, the ZDMB's deputy manager, who spent three weeks with Exel Logistics in January looking at ways in which the Board could improve its logistics and distribution infrastructure.
Hakutangui plans to spend until June working on three specific projects, one for Exel and the other two for UK dairy marketing companies, as well as attending a clutch of management training courses.
INTERNATIONAL LINK
Alan Bradbury, Exel's training manager, is co-ordinating the international link: "Increasingly, in Zimbabwe, there is a move towards delivery to stores in high-density areas, mirroring UK activity," Bradbury explains, "so the dedicated contract Exel Logistics' grocery division has with Tesco, for example, will be useful for Vitus Hakutangui to observe."
The whole programme has been specifically designed to meet Hakutangui's personal and professional needs: "The ZDMB wants to achieve cost savings through efficient route planning and scheduling and his projects will all focus on these objectives.
"But as well as going back to Zimbabwe ready to put in place a transport and distribution system, we also want him to be familiar with the range of management controls and monitoring systems now accepted in businesses across the UK."
Although Hakutangui will be based at Nantwich, Cheshire, part of his programme will be spent with Exel's Chepstow branch where the Tesco contract is serviced. "He will be comparing route planning in that operation with what exists now in Zimbabwe and making recommendations for changes that can be phased in," says Bradbury. "In order to come up with these recommendations he will have access to the transport operations for all of our contracts, which include Brooke Bond Foods, Mars, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury."
Hakutangui, whose background is in food technology, is no stranger to the UK. He spent three years at the Cheshire College of Agriculture until 1986.
At the moment, the Zimbabwe Dairy Marketing Board is organised on a regional basis with a fleet of 180 vehicles and a 3,800-strong workforce, including 820 people who carry out home deliveries by hand cart.
The operation will be 'nationalised' shortly, at a cost of £19.7 million, with the ultimate aim of improving efficiency and keeping a lid on soaring costs.
"My main objective while I am here is to get as good a route planning and scheduling software package as possible to help implement our plans," says Hakutangui, "But I will also be sharpening up my own management skills by attending external courses at the Institute of Logistics and Distribution Management and the Institute of Purchasing and Supply as well as Exel Logistics' inhouse training sessions on management accounting and budgeting," The training programme also has a reciprocal element, with Exel managers visiting Zimbabwe on secondment to the Dairy Marketing Board. "An initial training-needs survey was carried out and as a result we will be training about 40 people in Zimbabwe from supervisors and transport and distribution managers through to marketing executives," explains Bradbury, "and we have until the end of 1992 to complete the programme."
Engineers and consultants will also be flying out to train people who can then train other workers once the route planning software is in place. Finally, Bradbury will go to Zimbabwe to help introduce new selection and appraisal procedures and management control systems to ZDMB.
Exel Logistics is investing a great deal of management time in its first venture into Africa. Robbie Burns, divisional managing director of Exel, says: "We believe the export of expertise in logistics is a fundamental requirement, if the industry is to become truly international."
JOB ENRICHMENT
The company will receive consultants' fees for the practical work it does but Bradbury also sees a great pay-off in terms of job enrichment. "Anyone helping with this project will have a new dimension to their job and will benefit from their involvement," he says. "There is also the chance to learn something about the distribution operation in another country which many of us are very excited about."
Implementation of the ZDMB's reorganisation programme will begin when Hakutangui returns in June and he is confident that it can be completed by the end of the year. "After all," he says, "it may be difficult to turn an elephant through 180 degrees but it can be done."
0 by Barbara Millar