Dennis Eagle, a UK-founded heavy equipment manufacturer, has reportedly “navigated the way through unprecedented change” that includes Brexit, Covid-19, and the Ukraine crisis in a span of five years.
For the company’s head of purchasing and supply chain Paul Marvin and his team, it was all about getting through each challenge. The first port of call was to “keep its factories working and customers operating. It required good judgement, sheer grit and determination and occasionally, a bit of luck.”
Marvin says: “I’ve never experienced anything remotely like it and I’m not sure if it’s changed me as a person. It all started after the Brexit referendum. We had a lot to learn… new processes and laws … and there were obviously going to be supply chain issues, though it wasn’t clear what they’d be.”
The company, hence, set about buying stock it thought may be difficult to source – especially high-value items like engines. They kept this equipment in a warehouse just around the corner from its headquarters in Warwick, England.
“Of course, nobody could have realised how fortuitous that move would turn out to be. Thanks to the company’s foresight over Brexit, we were better placed than many to cope. The challenges, however, remained huge.
“We’d just about got on top of it all when Covid came along. France and Spain closed overnight, so many materials were quickly running short,” he adds.
Marvin describes a tedious period which involved several painstaking efforts from different team members finding supplies and long wait periods.
“You had to be able to trust people – not just to do their normal job but to go above and beyond while coping with the complications of working from home. And they did. In the end, we got production back up in five weeks.”
This was achieved by a flexible approach from the company’s manufacturing colleagues in Blackpool and Warwick. Manufacturing continued throughout 2020 and Dennis Eagle almost recorded close to record output.
The microchip shortage followed, and the team again did a “brilliant job” in negotiating with suppliers to secure plenty for its manufacturing. The recent Russia-Ukraine crisis has thrown a further spanner in the works.
“The impact has been profound, steel is up from £550 to £1,500 per tonne and energy costs have gone through the roof.”
Paul Marvin, head of purchasing and supply chain at Dennis Eagle
“Throughout all this, we’ve been dealing with production for the new venture in the USA. We started on that four or five years ago, sending people over to set the supply chains up, establish accounts, and provide credit checks. It was a lot of work and a lot of the businesses we were dealing with took a lot of convincing.
“We’re currently managing it all from Warwick with different working hours to cope with the time difference – and that’s all fine. But the volume of vehicles we’re producing has grown exponentially.”
Marvin said he is glad to be challenged for positive reasons, in fact he is glad to take the positive lessons learned from the last five years of menacing times.