How Westmill Foods Fixed Two Bottlenecks in its Supply Chain Workflow

Niki Morley manages logistics at Westmill Foods, one of Europe's largest specialist food companies. Her mornings used to follow a familiar pattern: open several different daily reports from their freight forwarders, one for each business unit, and review the status of their shipments. 

"We are contracted to several different carriers. I would either have to open and check several daily reports from our forwarder or login to various different carrier websites to find out the information I was looking for, like ETAs."

The information was out there but it was scattered across different systems, different portals and different spreadsheets. Finding the required data was challenging and extremely time consuming.

Invoice verification had a similar issue. When a forwarder sent an invoice with a purchase order number, Niki would match it against spreadsheets, cross-reference carrier websites, verify dates and routing - all before approving the charges.

Every morning, the same hunt for information

Westmill sources and distributes specialty food products. That means managing complex logistics through multiple carrier relationships and freight forwarders.

For Westmill, supply chain improvements don't come from finding one big silver bullet. They come from identifying specific problems and solving them one by one. 

Problem 1: No unified view across carriers and forwarders

The information existed but it was scattered across several reports, multiple carrier portals and various spreadsheets. Finding it meant hunting through different systems every single day. Westmill was spending valuable time looking for information rather than acting on it.

Problem 2: Slow invoice verification

The fragmented data created a downstream problem. When forwarders sent invoices quoting a purchase order number, Niki had to piece together information from multiple spreadsheets, systems, and carrier websites just to verify the details before confirming charges. This delayed approvals and pulled time away from more strategic work.

One workspace instead of five systems

Westmill needed to fix these two specific challenges and they chose Beacon to help them do just that.  

"Onboarding and implementing was seamless. Beacon is very easy to use. The support is very good, friendly and approachable. Good communication and timely responses."

Beacon gave Westmill what they needed most: a single place to view shipments, with live, accurate ETA’s across all their shipments - irrespective of their carriers and forwarders.

Niki created several Live Boards, allowing for specific teams within the business to see what's relevant to them without having to ask her for updates. When she suspects there might be issues with several specific shipments, she creates a Live Board, shares it with relevant colleagues, and adds comments and documents. Her colleagues can check the board whenever they need to - no interruptions, no back-and-forth emails asking for status updates.

"At the touch of a button I can track a shipment. The information is accessible instantly."

The invoice verification process also changed. Now when a forwarder quotes a purchase order number on an invoice, Niki now types it into Beacon and dates, routing, carrier information appear immediately. What used to require checking multiple sources now takes seconds.
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"It has helped me speed up authorising invoices immensely. Everything is in one place - I'm not opening various spreadsheets or another system or website."

Two hours back every week

The improvements are tangible. Niki estimates she's saving 1-2 hours per week on invoice verification alone. And she's not the only one using Beacon - multiple users across Westmill are seeing the same time savings.

But it's not just about getting hours back. It's about what those hours enable.

"Because the information is instantly accessible  we can give instant answers."

When customers ask questions, Niki can answer immediately. When issues come up, the team can respond faster.

It's changed how Westmill communicates internally. Niki can pull reports and share them across the business instantly.

"Reporting in Beacon is a good tool and looks professional and is instantly available to share with the business."

Next up for Westmill

Niki is already thinking about the next improvement. The flexible custom fields mean she is currently developing and customizing Live Boards in Beacon for specific business units. 

Currently, those business units  rely on a once-a-day report from their forwarder. Which they have to pay for. Once Niki finishes developing the Live Boards that satisfies everyone, they can stop paying for the forwarder's report entirely.

Time savings turned into better information. Better information turning into cost savings. That's how incremental improvements compound.