March 13 2024  |  Partnerships, Collaborations & Acquisitions

Guest Column: How supply chain specialists make things better

By Andrew Sharp, Supply Chain & Procurement Director, En Route International

This is a special feature from PAX International's March 2024 Amenities & Comfort issue, on page 32.


En Route offers supply chain solutions to help airlines and airline caterers optimize efficiency, control and innovation

The last few years have seen some major changes in the way airlines and airline caterers manage the complexities of supply chains. A greater need for efficiency, control and innovation has not only resulted in a significant shift in organizations focusing resources on their core business, but also an increased desire to partner with specialist providers to deliver a multitude of outsourced services and solutions.


Andrew Sharp, Supply Chain & Procurement Director, En Route International

Simplicity in a complex landscape
Clients have always appreciated that it is easier to manage a single relationship than numerous companies within a supply chain. But the increasing need for transparency and accountability is crucial. Consumers are demanding this more every day which is why organizations like ours have thorough governance mechanisms in place to report and monitor on behalf of our clients.

For example, for an existing client, we use PowerBI reporting to show current inventory levels by SKU in various warehouse and customer locations throughout U.K./EU, as well as reporting in-bar availability, upcoming orders and number of days stock held. This is crucial to maintain control.

With more than 20 years’ experience, we have fit-for-purpose processes that are tried and tested in each of our regions. Through our continuous improvement culture, we have worked hard at creating a supply chain process that gets the best value for our clients.

Transparency and optimization
Value must also be achieved through optimization. It’s vital that organizations optimize procurement, enabling suppliers to deliver products in bulk, manage and deliver in the right quantity to the right place, at the right time, for each catering location.

With solid inventory and procurement management systems, it is important to optimize stock and more efficiently manage fluctuations, as well as offering inventory visibility. This way, airlines can be faster to market with new products and services with- out having to think about old stock sitting around. We use a purpose-built Inventory Management Software to reduce excess inventory, minimize stock-outs and place better orders.

Economies of scale

We’ve leveraged our global scale and established relationships with warehouse providers to create cost efficiencies. For example, instead of a single airline having to fill a delivery vehicle, we can aggregate stock, enabling airlines to benefit from scale punching far above their weight. This has resulted in us driving logistics savings of up to 20 percent as well as avoiding cost increases.

By combining transport and using the latest advances in logistics, cost to serve is reduced and stock is turned around more quickly so it doesn’t have to be held. As a result, fresher stock is delivered in smaller batches, more often, meaning more manageable minimum order quantities without added costs.

Ultramodern technology

As an external partner, we can take a ‘whole market’ approach to what tech we use, keeping us nimble. By combining both investment in our own processes and partnering with suppliers who have the latest technology, we can create the best solution for clients. Choosing supply chain partners with state-of-the-art technologies and systems, such as automated warehouse storage, we can streamline processes, increase operational efficiencies and reduce errors, creating the best solution for clients.

The more control you have over your supply chain—with guaranteed consistency, integrity, resilience, and reliability—the more you can focus on what really matters to guests and will differentiate you from the competition: service innovation and improvement.

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