For the last two decades, Intelsius has been designing and manufacturing the best temperature-controlled packaging and sample transport packaging to serve customers worldwide. The Operations department at Intelsius is a vital part of how Intelsius ensures the highest quality of products and services for our customers, including customer service, logistics, purchasing, and supply chain, and it oversees the entire product-building process.

In this article, Intelsius Operations Manager Lee Saville explains how the Operations department has ensured the highest quality of products and customer service over the last 26 years.

What does your role at Intelsius involve?

I am the operations manager at Intelsius, a department which includes various company functions such as customer service, logistics, purchasing, and supply chain.

My role is to deliver an effective and efficient operations and production function, oversee the various departments, ensure good communication, and facilitate a positive team working environment. I also oversee health and safety matters, such as ensuring a compliant and safe workplace, and office and warehouse site improvements, such as site repairs, safety and security systems, and energy and waste management.

On the employee side, I organise employee coaching and training, employee engagement and wellbeing activities, and ensure that the company has enough trained first aiders and adequate mental health support services.

What is the role of the Operations department at Intelsius?

The Intelsius Operations department is responsible for production planning, direct and indirect procurement, stock and warehouse management, assembly and manufacturing, customer service and transport and logistics.

We are also responsible for building the products, and this process includes sourcing component suppliers, liaising with third-party logistics providers, purchasing components, and ensuring the smoothest possible flow of the product supply chain.

The main function of the Operations department is to manage the entire supply chain from beginning to end, from receiving customer orders and enquiries, which are processed through customer service, to delivery of our finished products—all in the shortest possible time.

We also support other Intelsius departments, such as Technical and Sales, when introducing new products to market and implementing product improvements.

How does the Operations team interact with other departments at Intelsius?

When we have a new product design concept, the usual first point of call is the Technical department, which is where the product design process begins. Once the Technical department specifies components, those requests are run through the purchasing department, which then liaises with suppliers to identify manufacturers of those components.

Once this is done, they will obtain costs to determine the complete price for a product. Once the final price is determined, it will be communicated to the sales team, which will provide the cost for our customers.

We also have to fulfil the on-time-in-full policy, which is a company-wide KPI measuring the percentage of sales orders that are delivered in full and on time. We have various service-level agreements with customers that require next-day delivery or delivery within five days, and it’s a measure of how well we are doing against how quickly customers expect us to deliver the products.

Over the last two years, we have achieved a customer complaint percentage of less than 1%.

Internally, we also ensure that our processes and methods are regularly reviewed so we can ensure the most efficient outcomes. We conduct a monthly meeting with the other heads of department to discuss any areas of improvement that need to be addressed. Once these issues are flagged, we take steps to ensure they are addressed, whether through amending internal processes or otherwise.

How we select suppliers

The Operations team is responsible for sourcing the best suppliers based on several criteria, including quality and cost of materials.

When selecting a supplier, we have a strict process to ensure we only source the best materials for our products. Any supplier we use must be ISO 90001 (2015) accredited or a member of the British Retail Association (BRA). We can source components from them as long as they have at least one of the above accreditations. We add these suppliers to our approved suppliers list, which is regularly updated.

Accreditations against these international standards are important because they mean that external parties have properly audited the suppliers and must adhere to a high quality standard for their products and services. It also means they have SOPs and ethical policies to ensure their materials and quality.

We regularly benchmark our suppliers’ lists. We aim to find the most competitive pricing of materials to keep our prices competitive for our customers without compromising quality.

Bespoke and tailored solutions

Another important aspect of Operations and Intelsius as a business is our ability to provide bespoke, specifically tailored solutions. If a customer needs custom branding on one of our solutions, we provide that service. Or if they need a completely bespoke solution with specific requirements, we can cater to those needs.

We work with the Sales and Technical Teams on these bespoke requirements and regularly check in with customers throughout the process to ensure that their specifications are being met accordingly. These bespoke solutions are also assured of the same quality of materials and accredited suppliers, just like all our other solutions. We pride ourselves on being able to accommodate almost any customer requirement.

Besides bespoke solutions, we also cater to various logistics requirements to ensure that customers receive their products most efficiently and conveniently possible. We understand the need for products to be delivered on time, and we want customers to have the most seamless experience possible.

We work with multiple hauliers to ensure we have a wide range of delivery options available to our customers, such as same-day delivery, timed deliveries, small vehicles, tail lifts, etc. All these delivery options offer customers flexibility when receiving their orders. We aim to make the process as painless as possible and offer customers flexibility.

Sustainability

Another important aspect of our business is sustainability. We take sustainability very seriously, and it is not just a buzzword at Intelsius. Our customers and suppliers also take the duty of sustainability seriously, so Operations play a big role in ensuring our business processes are as environmentally friendly as possible.

Some of the ways we are moving toward our target of net zero by 2030 include installing more solar panels in our headquarters, which uses less energy. We have also installed infrared heaters in one of our York warehouses, and we plan to do the same for the other warehouse. Infrared heaters use much less energy than gas heaters, making them more energy-efficient.

Besides these bigger changes, we are factoring in the environmental impact in everything we do, like replacing our forklift trucks with more energy-efficient ones that use lithium batteries. From a supplier perspective, all our suppliers must be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and must use FSC-certified paper for all the components they sell.

We are also in partnership with two environmental charities which support positive environmental impact. We hold regular fundraising events for the U.K.-based ORCA Charity, which protects UK marine life. You can learn more about ORCA charity and their mission by clicking here.

Intelsius is also proud to partner with Switch2Zero, with whom we plant trees for every purchase on our web store. 5% of all our e-commerce sales go towards planting trees, ensuring a positive environmental impact for every purchase from Intelsius.

To find out more about our net zero strategy, click here.