Up to £42k in savings per year predicted for PEAK Scientific through warehouse optimisation

Up to £42k in savings per year predicted for PEAK Scientific through warehouse optimisation

28th May 2025 | 2 min read

The Challenge

PEAK Scientific, a leading UK manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen generators, faced a critical challenge in meeting the increasing demand for spare parts and maintenance kits due to capacity constraints and inefficient processes.

With rapidly increasing demand, growing at >15% annually, these challenges could impact the manufacturer’s ability to provide timely and accurate service, threatening customer relationships and ultimately, revenue.

The Solution

Unipart was tasked with conducting a diagnostic review of PEAK Scientific’s logistics operations. The review revealed unsustainable inefficiencies across their processes.

It was found that the service spares area layout and systems had limitations, which was compounded by a lack of standardised work operating procedures and, without intervention, staffing needs will increase by 1.8 FTE annually (c.20% of current staff numbers) just to maintain the status quo. Addressing these issues through process improvement, layout optimisation, and system enhancements is crucial to meet rising demand and achieve operational efficiency.

We engaged the project team to establish clear routines and governance, including reporting, risk escalation, and action plans. The existing process was mapped to identify areas for improvement by eliminating wasteful activities. To measure progress, we baselined current performance using Safety, Quality, Cost and Delivery (SQCD) metrics and established process cycle times for resource planning.

Following this, the roll-out of a new pick-pack process was recommended for one of their sites. To support future growth, the recommendation was made to develop an improved forecasting model, as well as a new layout for the service spares area.

The Impact

With Unipart’s expert support, significant improvements have been realised at PEAK Scientific through strategic inventory management and warehouse optimisation. These enhancements have resulted in:

  • £10,000 in annual savings by eliminating non-value-added activities
  • Expedited order fulfilment, with over 70% of sales orders now shipped within one business day
  • Streamlined order processing driven by system automation, replacing manual workflows
  • Efficient intercompany logistics, enabling the picking and packing of orders within two days, eliminating stock-related delays.

Following the implementation of our identified improvement opportunities, there is potential for further benefits to be achieved:

  • £32k-£42k in annual labour cost savings per annum
  • 46% improvement in customer service spares area throughput
  • 50-80% decrease in pick times from trialling the future state pick-pack process resulting in a significant reduction in travel distance for multi-line order picking
  • Time to serve reduced from 2-5 days to 24 hours, with an overall reduction in average lead time exceeding 50%
  • Significant reduction in errors and downtime across the process
  • Improvement in right-first-time performance from 90% to 97%

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