Unipart Logistics and Sky – Going Beyond Repair


At the heart of everything Unipart Logistics does is a determination to understand and meet the needs of its customers better than anyone else.

Our partnership with Sky, one of the most respected broadcast and telecommunications providers, is longstanding and built on mutual trust. Operating in a fast-moving and competitive industry, Sky recognises the importance of customer satisfaction, and the need for safe and reliable equipment designed with the customer in mind.

A team of engineers at Unipart Logistics’ specialist Technical Evaluation Suite (TES) in Nuneaton drive product improvements for Sky through deep dive product assessments. The suite was set up eight years ago, and covers all products in Sky’s portfolio, from remote controls to set top boxes. Products undergo a series of in-depth safety and functionality tests, carried out by a qualified engineer. Units are stripped down and tested as part of the diagnosis process, which also examines component parts closely. Fan speed testing and thermal imaging are among the many tools at the engineers’ disposal. At the end of each assessment, a thorough report is produced for Sky. On average, Unipart Logistics’ dedicated team will produce some 35-40 reports in the TES Lab over a six-month period.

All members of the TES team are highly experienced in diagnostic repairs in an electronics environment, and have in-depth knowledge of Sky’s products and processes. Each report provided for Sky is typically 20-24 pages long, giving them a detailed, professional and independent product assessment. The focus of these reports is on getting to the facts rather than supplying opinions, with findings and data evidenced from the rigorous testing process.

Professor Sally Eaves, an international advocate of technology as an enabler for social good, is a torchbearer for ‘ethical tech’. Professor Eaves commended the work of the TES team by saying: “For me, this is the ethos of the long-term committed partnership between Unipart Logistics and Sky. A holistic combination of customer centricity, continual feedback for continual improvement and the enablement of informed decision-making. And all of this is underpinned by Unipart’s exhaustive diagnostics to establish exactly what has happened and why, providing Sky with the evidenced and trusted information to act.

“Industry 4.0 needs the optimized Life Cycle Management to match and this relationship is a prime example of the benefits this can afford, from quality and cost, to satisfaction and sustainability.”