The magazine - Lafarge

AGGREGATES:
PRESERVING RESSOURCES
To provide its customers with more added
value, Lafarge Aggregates is making
improvements by focusing on river transport,
the complementary nature of its offering and
waste management. In several areas,
Lafarge Aggregates decided to use an
alternative mode of river transportation
to deliver materials from the production site
and collect excavated material from its
customers’ premises. Customers find the
excavated material collection service
useful and it also benefits Lafarge as it
recycles the material to redevelop or fill in
quarries. Moreover, river transport is an
environmentally-friendly, competitive,
consistent and safe mode of transport.
Certain Lafarge Aggregates sites already
crush the concrete from demolished
buildings then resell it to road builders
who use this recycled material in the
capping layer.
In the United Kingdom and France, another
service, developed at the initiative
of Lafarge Aggregates, involves delivering
aggregates in large heavy-duty sacks which
are then used as waste sacks on site. ■
••• To optimize its logistics and management planning, Lafarge
is planning to boost its skills in the field of new information technology,
particularly geolocation, which has already proven to optimize and
ensure the smooth running of operations. The aim is to deliver
on time, whatever the constraints and conditions. “Deliveries to urban
environments are the trickiest. We have to deal with numerous
unknown quantities such as traffic jams or the weather. We have
started to equip our trucks with GPS linked to our information systems
to optimize planning using real-time data management. Eventually,
our software will include the specific features of each site for a more
customized service."
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CEMENT
OPTIMIZED INVENTORY
MANAGEMENT
In the United Kingdom, the Cement
business line has developed a system of
outsourced inventory management. This
allows customers to optimize their logistics
chains and provides them with improved
visibility of their inventory. Tom Caldwell,
coordinator at Bredero Shaw, a customer
specializing in pipe coating says: “In 2005,
Lafarge set up a remote silo management
system for two of our projects in Scotland.
This outsourced management proved to be
a real bonus for us. Deliveries were
automatically planned by Lafarge teams
in Dunbar, which also carried out close
monitoring of the cement tankers. This
prevented us having to constantly carry
out checks or make telephone calls for
commissioning and cancellations. All the
time we saved allowed us to concentrate
on planning the purchasing of other
materials we needed. In the end, we
significantly reduced the risk of stock
outages." ■
In the ready-mix concrete
sector, transport and logistics
are extremely important.
Lafarge moves forward taking its customers’ needs into account.
It adapts to their requirements by breaking down the offer or proposing
specific support. For example, in Chile, the Valdivia site team
offers customers only requiring small quantities ready-mix concrete
packed into 0.5m 3 or 1m 3 plastic cases. Lafarge Concrete is also
developing new indicators and management tools to increase customer
satisfaction. “We are going to monitor customer satisfaction in a more
systematic fashion,” explains Gaëlle Monteiller. By implementing
indicators, we can detect sources of dissatisfaction and take corrective
actions immediately. This will enable us to boost our responsiveness
and ensure a consistent quality of service.” ■
© Hamilton de Oliveira / REA
MOVING FORWARD IN OUR BUSINESSES
GYPSUM
GIVING INSTALLERS
A LOCAL SERVICE
Wherever it is located, Lafarge’s Gypsum
business line has the same goal: to make life
easier for installers. Backed by specialized
skills and expertise, they are real ambassadors
for the brand and its products, and are
ensured a local service all over the world.
In Australia, Lafarge has given all the
franchised stores the same visual identity
(logo, signage, product presentation, etc.)
in order to provide installers with the same
points of reference. A technical manual has
been produced for franchisees to assist their
customers. Similarly, in Thailand all the
products in the range are sold under the brand
Elephant Board® via the Gypsum Express
network. Thai installers, who are extremely
mobile, can thus find the same ranges,
products and services everywhere.
In the United Kingdom and in France, the goal
is to make life easier for installers.
For example, Lafarge collects plasterboard
waste from sites and returns it to the factory.
This initiative has been warmly received and
should soon be extended to other countries.
At the end of the chain, customers are
pleased with the OTIFIC program (on time,
in full, invoiced correctly). The customer can
also receive a customized response by
contacting one of the Group’s call centers:
a single contact person deals with the request
and ensures entire statisfaction throughout its
relationship with Lafarge. In the Netherlands,
Ireland, Romania and Indonesia, Lafarge
gypsum training centers offer our trading
customers a day-long session to become
familiar with the products: after the morning’s
theorical presentation, participants take part in
building a wall. ■
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