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0 NE of the most prominent examples of post-war development has been in the pharmaceutical industry. Modern synthetic drugs and antibiotics which have revolutionized the treatment of disease have been chiefly developed by the pharmaceutical companies. Allied to the introduction of the National Health ' Service the cost of pharmaceutical services has now risen to around £96m. Underlying this vast expenditure has been the necessity to introduce new manufacturing processes, warehouses and methods of distribution.
In this national development the Boots Pure Drug Co., Ltd., Nottingham, have played a major part. Moreover, with their increasing interest in other retail lines, their estimated rate of expansion is expected to result in the doubling of their overall shopping area within the next 10 years. This will be no mean. achievement since there are already 1,300 shops bearing the name of Boots The Chemists. And such development must inevitably entail the solution of new and allied problems of distribution and transport organization.
Moreover, many other companies have undoubtedly been faced with similar problems of grafting on to an already complex distribution system the handling of new materials or products. In some instances these may be of such quantity and potentiality as to necessitate a complete reorganization of the location of manufacture, warehousing and lines of distribution. The methods by which Boots have met similar problems could be adaptable to other spheres of industrial activity.
Before describing some of the methods employed by Boots to ensure economic and efficient retailing of their 60,000 separate lines, the main activities and growth of the company are briefly described to clarify subsequent reference to traffic movement and control. Incidentally, it would have been understandable if there had been a marked resistance to such changes in a company established as long ago as
1888. The recent introduction of an electronic computer in their central offices in Nottingham, however, to assist in solving many of Boots' administrative problems is indicative of their modern approach.
Despite temporary reeessions, the national income has been growing in post-war years and with it the standard of living. In the relatively short period of 10 years or so, commodities which were only recently considered luxuries have become virtually necessities today. With this change have come great expansion and demands on the resources of retail distribution and allied transport services.
To give one brief example, in 1955 there was only one Boots branch with annual sales exceeding £500,000. By the end of this year there are expected to be 14. Unless appropriate rearrangements in methods of intake and timing of deliveries had been made simultaneously, such records of expanding retail sales could not have been achieved.
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A major unit in the Boots organization is the modern factory group at Beeston, near Nottingham.. It occupies a site of 264 acres and is shownin diagrammatic form alongside. Although much of it was constructed 20 years ago, it remains a model of mechanized production.
Within this group there are two main pharmaceutical factories—the "Drys " (for powders, tablets, lozenges, and so on) and the " Wets " (for liquids, creams, pastes. and so on). There is also a soap factory. power house and chemical works at Beeston. The pharmaceutical factories are designed to allow a continuous flow of materials from the arrival point, through the manufacturing and packing sections to the warehouse and dispatch dock. Indicative of the scale of production, influenza mixture, as a random example, is made in batches of 1,000 gallons at a time.
Originally it was intended that future factory expansion should take place in the Beeston area, but at the end of the war it was thought desirable to modify this scheme. As a result a new factory was built at Airdrie, Lanarkshire. Among other products the whole of Boots' requirements of aspirin tablets are made there, whilst part of the site is Used as a distObutive warehouse from which branches in Scotland and the north of England are supplied.
The greatest recent development in medicine was the use of penicillin during the war and a special factory was operated by Boots in Nottingham which, by D-day. was making one-third of the country's supply. Antibiotics of
other types arealso manufactured now at this plant as is cortisone and similar products_ For the purpose of warehousing and distribution, the overall retail sales of Boots are divided into three groups— Boots' own products (manufactured at Nottingham, Beeston or Airdrie), patent medicines and manufactured goods. In volume these are in the proportion of 40, 35 and 25 per cent. respectively.
Stocks of Boots' own products are warehoused where they are made. Each such warehouse is the source of supply for its respective area which in the case of Nottingham and Beeston is the whole of Britain. Airdrie covers the area north of a line drawn approximately from Middlesbrough to Lancaster. For the remainder of the country items manufactured at Airdrie are supplied in bulk to Beeston and distributed from there.
Patent medicines and simile toilet requisites are stocked at three Boots warehouses situated at Stamford Street, London, Heywood in Lancashire and Airdrie. In this case the northern area remains the same, but the southern section is further sub-divided by a line drawn from the Wash to the Severn, south of which the area is serviced from the London depot.
Other manufactured goods purchased from outside sources are warehoused in Nottingham only, before their ultimate distribution to the retail branches.
This then is the basic pattern of manufacture and warehousing on which Mr. F. G. Bell, general transport manager to Boots has to evolve and maintain an 'efficient transport system. He controls this large traffic department from the company's head office at Nottingham, assisted by the deputy general transport manager, Mr, R. V. Baird Parker.
Both the number and range of vehicles operated are appropriate to the requirements of a company with a total annual sales of around £100m., and products ranging from a modest aspirin tablet to agricultural requisites. The current fleet consists of 452 vehicles, of which 185 are representatives' cars. Other vehicles include 13 estate cars, 4 buses, 4 radiocontrolled fire-engines and 3 ambulances, also radiocontrolled. A Coles mobile crane is used by the engineers department, as is a Weatherill mechanical shovel.
There are 33 tractors used by the various Boots farms. which also operate 7 Land-Rovers, 3 cattle trucks and a Massey-Harris combine harvester.
. Included in the articulated section of the fleet are 27 Karrier Bantam tractors and 99 trailers, again radio-controlled. Additionally, there is one tractor and two tank trailers employed exclusively in the movement of acid, n34 Directly allocated to headquarters' departments are 49 vehicles, whilst a further 31 are controlled by branches. The section of Boots' own fleet engaged on delivery pf goods from warehouses to branches is disposed as follows: Beeston depot 22 vehicles, Nottingham 6, London 36, Heywood 14 and Airdrie 8. But because of the varying use ot hired transport at the different warehouses, these figures do not reflect the proportionate volume of goods handled.
The vehicles are based mainly on Seddon chassis, with a mixture of platform and van bodies and a capacity, in general, of 7 tons_ They are employed chiefly on long-distance multiple deliveries to retail branches and all but four are fitted with Perkins P4 or P6 engines. The remainder have Leyland Comet engines.
Three Rollalong caravans are employed at agricultural
shows throughout the country. Two are towed by 5-ton Bedford vans and one by a Land-Rover. There is also a 5-ton Commer van fitted out as a self-contained unit for display purposes at agricultural shows. Another 30-cWt van has a plastics body constructed by Commercial Motors (Harrow), Ltd., Harrow. A Larnbretta tricycle fitted with box container operates as a branch 'delivery van in the Eastbourne area, whilst a 7-cwt. Ford van is based at Jersey and a 10-cwt. Morris van at Guernsey.
Regarding platform lengths, Mr. Bell tells me that around 16 ft. 6 in_ has generally been found adequate for their 6and 7-tormers. They are, however, now beginning to use larger, vehicles and four new Seddon 7-tonners with 20-ft. platforms have recently been put into Service. Much of their traffic is relatively bulky and light in weight, but with suc:-1 a wide range of goods involved this loading characteristic could vary substantially. Thus vehicles operating from the Nottingham warehouse carry payloads of around 4 tons, whilst at Beeston they average 61 tons.
As with many other ancillary transport departments, the rates of pay and conditions of service applicable to their staff is determined largely by the overall policy adopted by Boots. Just over a year ago a 40-hour week was introduced for everyone within the group. Apart from this differential in hours as compared with other road haulage rates and conditions, the basic weekly payments are higher than the existing national scales for vehicles of similar carrying capacity. The traffic department, however, does not operate any incentive schemes and vindication of their overall staff policy is contained in the excellent record of the length of service of a high proportion of their staff.
In considering the overall planning of distribution it should first be appreciated that at none of the five warehouses situated at Nottingham, Beeston, Airdrie, London and Heywood is there a stock of all items sold in their branches. It therefore follows that all shops are maintained by supplies from more than one warehouse.
Nevertheless, the majority of deliveries is made direct from warehouse to branch, though some trans-shipping is done if economies can thereby be achieved. Although mechanical aids are used extensively inside the warehouses, these are so far employed only experimentally when loading vehicles for delivery to the branches.
Because the average size of Boots' retail shops is getting bigger in order to handle an expanding volume of business, it becomes increasingly necessary to reassess the most economical way of effecting distribution. Obviously with an inventory of 60,000 items the extent to which standardization of containers can he achieved is limited.
Much of Boots' own products are packed in corrugated cartons. These in turn are placed in nestable trays, which are of plywood construction with sloping sides. Approximately 200,000 are in use throughout the organization. Wastage through loss is a little under 2 per cent, and an average life is from four to five years. Of standard size, they are 10 in. deep, whilst the length and breadth at the top is 24 in. by 18 in. tapering towards the bottom. Each
tray weighs 8 lb:
After giving careful consideration to other materials and designs, Boots consider that the type they have chosen is relatively easy to construct and, therefore, to massproduce. Consequently it is cheap whilst still retaining the necessary quality of durability. But even when damage does occur the plywood construction allows repair, at least to some extent, and a tray recovery section operates at Beeston.
As a development of this -policy of standardized nestable trays, Mr. Bell told me that despite the complexity of their traffic, they are hoping to achieve some measure of palletization. It is planned to have stillages measuring 3 ft. by 2 ft. capable of holding 14 trays in two banks of seven.
In conjunction with this experiment, a prototype vehicle is being operated consisting of a Bedford TK 7-ton chassis and oil engine with a York experimental van body, equipped with an hydraulic tailboard and Jo-loader. Initially it is intended that this vehicle will deliver to those branches capable of accepting full loads. As an indication of the savings expected to be achieved Mr. Bell claims that such a vehicle could be loaded in approximately 10 minutes, clampared with the present loading time allowance of 20 minutes per ton by traditional methods.
The total tonnage dispatched to branches per annum is 130,000. Of this total, 17 per cent, is distributed by rail whilst 65 per cent. is carried by hired contractors. Normally these are employed on the longer runs, involving overnight working, with Boots' vehicles concentrating chiefly on deliveries within a radius of 100 miles of the warehouses they serve.
The route, sequence and timing of all retail deliveries are directly controlled by Mr. Ben department, 'whether by their own or hired vehicles. Routes are so organized that most branches are served at least once, or in some cases twice, a week from one or more warehouses. By transshipping it is usually possible to get additional urgent deliveries to branches quickly.
The majority of vehicles, however, operate consistently on precisely fixed runs and the loads carried are fairly constant. Exceptional loadings do occur in October when Christmas merchandise can raise the average tonnage by approximately 50 per cent. In addition to variations in the density of the traffic carried, the value of merchandise handled can also vary, ranging from between £450 and £1,150 per ton.
Explaining the recording system used by Boots in connection with warehousing and distribution, Mr. Bell told me that each branch is advised as to the day when their indents for supplies should arrive at the appropriate warehouse. Overall, this could involve indents for 40,000 of a total of 60,000 items in any one week, and it is obviously essential that these should arrive on the appointed day.
The order form, .which is made out in triplicate and is also used as the invoice at the warehouse, shows the quantities actually dispatched and copies are sent to the branch concerned and the accounts department (which arranges for charging of the goods) whilst the third copy remains at the warehouse. Approximately 12m. orders are dealt with annually.
The present 'system is gradually being superseded by one based on the use of the EM1DEC electronic computer acquired by Boots last year and it is anticipated that substantial operating benefits will thereby be achieved. A large data processing system is being evolved, as are operational research techniques concerned with inventory control, production planning and distribution.
Goods detailed on the order are assembled in the dispatch department where they are weighed. A consignment note, together with a copy of the branch's original indent, is delivered along with the actual goods. The several deliveries are listed on a Motor Journey Sheet which also serves the purpose of a statutory log sheet
On arrival at the branch the manager checks the number of parcels received and signs the journey sheet in confirmation. The ready availability of the copy of his own indent facilitates the solution of any discrepancies should these arise.
Also recorded on the Motor Journey Sheet is the precise time of arrival and departure at each branch (indicated by its appropriate number) or outside customer in the case of schools, hospitals or similar establishments. In addition to detailing the number of packages destined for each branch, the weight is recorded as an extra check, whilst a record of
the driver's hours of work and data relative to fuel and mileage is also entered.
As an example of the preciseness with which every journey is controlled by Boots' traffic department, the following details are given. Whilst the particular journey chosen as an example is undertaken by hired transport, the same scheduling procedure covers the operation of Boots' own delivery vehicles.
Each duty is typed on a quarto sheet which in this instance is headed "Journey 70A " on the left side whilst the dispatch day—Tuesday—is recorded in the right top corner. After the name of the haulier concerned, there is then listed the branch number and address of the branches to which deliveries are to be made, together with their respective early closing days. In this example the seven branches concerned are situated at Whitchurch, Ruthin, Denbigh, Rhyl, Prestatyn, Mold and Wrexham. The appropriate mileage for the trip is then given, namely 265.
In compiling these duty schedules, which are similar in several respects to those employed by passenger vehicle operating companies, an approximate timing of 22.5 m.p.h: and 20 minutes per ton when loading or unloading is allowed.
As already stated, the dispatch day for this particular journey is Tuesday and loading is done at Beeston as detailed on the Journey Sheet. Then follows instructions of the work to be carried out on Wednesday. Commencing at 5.45 a.m. at Beeston, the driver proceeds direct to his first delivery point at Whitchurch, 31hours being allowed for the 71 miles involved and a further 35 minutes is taken unloading here. He then proceeds 35 miles to Ruthin for which 1 hour 40 minutes is allowed plus 30 minutes rest for a meal break.
Similar intermediate journeys and timings are made until' he eventually makes his last drop for the day at Mold, starting to unload at 3.40 p.m. After completing this delivery at 4.20 p.m. he proceeds to Wrexham where he goes off duty. The delivery to the Wrexharn branch commences at 8.30 a.m. the following (Thursday) morning, after which he makes a return journey of 90 miles to Beeston, for which 4 hours '5 minutes are allowed, with . a further addition of half an hour for a meal break, so arriving at approximately 2.30 p.m. at Beeston.
Exact Scheduling Relative to the complex distribution system inevitable with such a vast range of goods and nationwide coverage of branches, it is remarkable that such exact scheduling of deliveries can be achieved. But Mr. Bell insists that for the same reasons it is essential that such precise timetabling can be relied upon by everyone concerned if overall efficiency is to be achieved and maintained.
The annual mileage for the entire fleet of Boots' vehicles is about 5-fm. of which 3m. are run in delivering goods to branches. Individual vehicle mileage naturally varies according to type and size, but 30,000 per annum would be a, fair average, and for vehicles engaged on retail delivery five round trips a week are normally accomplished.
Exceptional maintenance problems are presented by the distribution of such a wide range of vehicles throughout the country. At Nottingham, Beeston and London this work is carried out entirely by the company's own staff, but elsewhere vehicles are maintained at public garages.
Overall responsibility for the servicing and repair of all Boots' vehicles (other than those based at warehouses with their own facilities) is undertaken by Mr. G. E. Haywood, maintenance engineer, who is based at Beeston. He controls a staff of 34 divided between Nottingham and Beeston. In addition to one foreman and three chargehand mechanics, 10 mechanics, two electricians, one storekeeper and 17
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other personnel are employed. Night work is undertaken on which 14 of the staff are engaged. Routine servicing is based on a combination of both time and mileage, due to the fact that several of the special-type vehicles and equipment used cover only a comparatively short distance.
Mr. Haywood said that he had been able to standardize on one set of lubrication oils, namely Sternal 10/30 Multiplic for the petrol-engined vehicles and the corresponding 10/30 Minx grade for the oil-engined counterparts. A fully equipped fuel pump maintenance shop has been installed at Beeston and cylinder reboring is undertaken. Also available in the Beeston repair depot is a 12-ton Laycock electric lift.
Other equipment at the Beeston depot includes an 80-ton Laycock Press, an Ingersoll-Rand air compressor, and a Merlin 2-gun washer. The repair shop covers an area of 140 ft. by 90 ft. with three bays of 30 ft., whilst the vehicles are fitted with Bray water heater equipment. Track is kept of the sequence of maintenance for this large fleet on an indicator board in the maintenance engineer's office.
Fuel Consumption Relative to fuel consumption, an average of around 25 m.p.g. is being obtained from many a Boots' 3-tonners fitted with Perkins P4 oil engines. The Seddon 7-tonners, with P6 engines, are averaging around 16+ m.p.g. and an engine life of approximately 300,000 miles is being achieved after' overhaul at approximately 160,000 miles. Their Karrier Bantams, fitted with on engines, have a fuel consumption rate of 15.5 m.p.g.
Individual vehicle costs are recorded on a monthly card. Corresponding to the company's financial year this runs from April to March with an intermediate sub-total after six months. Details recorded in the heading include the registration number, type of vehicle and engine.
The card is then divided horizontally into four main sections. The first is devoted to standing costs and is subdivided into wages—direct and indirect, licence, insurance, garage rent, garage general and interest. The running costs in the second section consist of fuel, lubricants, tyres, depreciation, repairs—labour and materials, together with breakages and sundry expenses.
There then follows lines in which to record the total monthly cost, mileage, hours worked, tonnage, book value and actual tyre costs. In the fourth section both half-yearly and yearly summaries are computed in which these several costs are shown as a percentage of the standing and total costs. Total average costs per mile, per hour and per ton are also calculated. It is then the policy of the traffic department to aim at charging branches and departments for services provided at a level which will recoup the overall cost of operation.
The benefits that can be derived from radio control of commercial vehicles are shown to maximum effect in its employment on the 264-acre site at Beeston. Two men are fully employed in the control room and are in direct contact with the many points within this large factory group concerned with traffic movement. Radio contact is also maintained with corresponding points at the Nottingham premises of the company.
A magnetic indicator board is used to show the position of any of the 27 tractors or 99 trailers at work throughout the area and whether they are loaded or empty. For a variety of reasons the precise time at which a trailer may be required or' released cannot often be predetermined. On such occasions the availability of radio control is of great valae to both the production and transport departments. An average of 400 calls per day indicates its practical use and in Mr. Bell's opinion justifies the outlay of approximately £100 per vehicle on this Pye equipment.