Unipart

Unipart House, Cowley. Headquarters of Unipart Group, and some subsidiaries.

The Unipart Group is a 3rd Party Logistics provider whose clients include Vodafone, Play.com, Jaguar Cars, London Taxis International, Asos.Com, BSkyB, Airbus, Jessops, Halfords and Homebase. It is the UK's largest independent operator of motor factors for cars, vans and commercial vehicles through its Unipart Automotive division and has a significant role in rail network infrastructure and rolling stock parts supply through Unipart Rail.

Unipart's consultancy arm provides consultancy to other organisations in a variety of areas. As well as supply chain and logistics consultancy it offers consultancy in lean principles across a variety of industry sectors and the public sector. Unipart's lean consultancy methodology is known as The Unipart Way; a system of tools and techniques with a guiding philosophy to reduce waste or activities which do not add value.

Unipart operates in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan, and its head office is based in Cowley, near Oxford in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Unipart is one of the largest privately held companies in the UK.

History

Unipart Logistics warehouse, Cowley.

The history of Unipart can be traced back to 1974 when British Leyland appointed John Egan to be its director of the parts and service division. Egan created a new organisation, independent of the main car company but as losses in BL grew the company was nationalised in 1975 and the following year Egan departed to join Massey Ferguson. This left one of Egan's disciples John Neill in charge at the age of only 29. In the years that followed Neill began building up the business and creating the Unipart brand. The first high profile sponsorship was in 1978 with the Triumph Dolomite Formula 3 team and then in 1980 Unipart moved to F1 with the Ensign team. The firm then switched to McLaren for three years but after 1983 slipped from the international scene again. In the 1980s BL began to disintegrate with Jaguar being floated off and other divisions sold off and in 1987 Neil led a management buyout of Unipart. The company then decided to return to sponsorship with Tyrrell and later with Jordan. Since the company was privatised it has developed into a vast parts and accessories business for the whole industry.

Operating divisions

• Unipart Logistics: the core business. Europe's largest carparts supplier (Automotive branch), also has specialities in: Consumer; Technology (BSkyB, Vodafone); Aerospace and Defence
• Unipart Leisure: formerly known as H Burden Limited, distributors of camping, caravan, and motorhome products and accessories
• Unipart Marine: formerly known as Mark Dowland Marine, distributors of marine products and accessories. Subsidiaries include Wetline Ltd
• Unipart Consulting: logistics advice and consulting

The Unipart Way

"The Unipart Way" (based on learning from Honda, its own history and the Toyota Production System) is the name the company has given to its methodology. It involves a process of continuous measurement which is designed to lead to a reduction of wasteful activity, thereby ensuring the best deployment of time and resources.

The methodology is not without its critics. Most publicly, the work done at HMRC was censured by PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, who stated, "By reducing staff to nothing more than machines on the whim of consultants, the department is undermining the morale of staff who face imminent job cuts and office closures."

HMRC argue that Unipart's work has produced significant benefits for them. An HMRC spokesman said: "Lean is all about offering a better service to our customers and staff. It is a key element in HMRC's plan to provide improved service and meet efficiency targets. Staff are asked to organise their desks when shared with colleagues to avoid clutter and to make sure they have everything set up to do their job effectively. Any suggestion that staff are restricted to a pen and cup on their desk is simply not true. Rather than making work boring and repetitive, staff are being invited to work with their managers to improve the way tasks and systems are developed." .

The independent NAO report of 6 July 2007 describes the purpose of Lean as "to streamline key work processes to eliminate duplication or reworking, improve accuracy, increase productivity, and reduce lead times in processing cases", and it predicts savings to the taxpayer of £440 million by 2011 "the majority of which will be achieved through implementing Lean."

Unipart in the community

Unipart has strong links with the local community and education, supporting many community initiatives and organisations. Unipart has a traditionally strong affiliation with motorsport. In 2006, the company teamed up with Nigel Mansell and his sons, Greg and Leo, in a sponsorship deal in support of Nigel's sons' careers in Formula BMW.

As the Unipart Way philosophy is wedded to removing waste Unipart has long held to a reduce, re-use, recycle agenda, driving improvements in its environmental performance. [1]

Currently Unipart also supports a pilot initiative to support 11 young people who were struggling at school. They now attend classes within Unipart daily and are supported through work experience. By being treated as trainees rather than pupils their attendance records and academic progress have been transformed. [2] Unipart also supports an initiative to give homeless people supported and paid employment.With nearly 10,000 employees, Unipart people play an active role in their communities as councillors, special constables and as volunteers for numerous charities and organisations. [3]

Unipart supports Business in the Community's Per Cent Club principles aiming to distribute one per cent of its pre-tax gross profits in goods or in kind each year. [4]

In 2008 Unipart Group achieved overall Gold status in the BitC CR Index and Platinum status for its environmental performance. [5]

Clients

Among Unipart's notable clients are:

• Jaguar
• Vodafone
• BSkyB
• Asos.com
• Halfords
• Homebase
• Airbus UK
• National Health Service
• Jessops
• Play.com
• 3
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Zurich Insurance North America
• Apple

External links

• Unipart Group Official site
• Unipart Group Official site (mirror)
• Unipart Logistics Official site
• [6] Unipart Rail

References

• http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/spon-12115.html latest access on 13 dec 2009