Basic HTML Version
FOREWORD
LOGISTICS BUSINESS MAGAZINE
3
Logistics Business Magazine | November 2015
“My previous role in the British Army
as Director of the Royal Logistic Corps
gives me some useful background,”
he told me. “If it was vaguely logistics
then it was in this Corps. I was head of
trade and responsible for recruiting,
development and training for 3 years
till 2010.”
Murray went straight from the army to
Agility, but remained in the defence
logistics arena. He manages defence
and government services in Europe.
“Largely a freight forwarder, Agility is
possibly the largest logistics company
many haven’t heard of.” His role is part
business development, in what is a new
sector for Agility in Europe. “Find out
what the needs are, win business and
execute it.”
He has a team of 17-30 at any one time.
“We sub-contract much of the execution
as we’re a 4PL. We partner with key
specialists, such as for the transport of
service personnel to and from Cyprus
bases, delivering heavy haulage and
cranes, with our skill set being in
understanding the customer. Currently
we have six contracts with the UK MOD
(Ministry of Defence).
The Logistic Commodity and Services
Transformation is a huge logistic
outsourcing won by Team Leidos, of
which Agility is a part. Leidos is an
American supply chain integration
specialist that has done lots of US
defence logistics. In this MOD contract
they sit over the top of the executors,
who also include Kuehne & Nagel, and
TVS (procurement). It’s a 13 year contract.
“The MOD put out to contract a
significant chunk of its warehousing,
distribution and procurement. Agility’s
role in this includes household goods
removal and relocation worldwide from
MOD housing or moving staff. There
are 45,000 moves a year. We also
manage heavy haul, cranes and over
dimensional cargo. If defence wants
something moving that they can’t move
themselves, they ask us. They have
their own organic fleet but geographical
restrictions mean they also need to use
private providers,” Murray said.
The new contract also involves
expeditionary support for the next
time UK armed forces undertakes
a significant deployment overseas;
from the first advanced equipment
shipment to second and third waves
of reinforcements and rotated
replacements, forward warehousing, in-
theatre reception of things coming down
defence supply chain and supplies.
“The MOD has a range of contractors
but they need guaranteed capability of
rapid deployment,” Murray explained.
Prior to this contract Agility provided
assistance to the MOD in the extraction
from Afghanistan, by providing them
with a disposal service in the country
for all items they did not want to bring
home. “It was a huge cost avoidance
and significant cash earner for Defence,”
Murray told me. “This is where Agility
earned its spurs with the MOD in
deployed space. Because Afghanistan
is so difficult to get to and such a fragile
location logistics was very expensive
over the 10 year mission. There was an
extraordinary amount of airfreight.
“So with withdrawal the MOD determined
not to bring home what wasn’t essential
or was low value. They’d already flown
2500 armoured vehicles home, plus
weapons and communication systems. So
they contracted us to set up in Kandahar
and Camp Bastion to ship and receive
everything else. We handled inventory
management and shipping. The cost
avoidance for the MOD was in the tens of
millions, in addition to millions of pounds
of items recovered and sold into local
markets in Afghanistan and the Middle
East. Some things were given away -
nothing overtly military – for example,
accommodation units, normal vehicles,
generators, plant machinery, white
goods, furniture and stationery. 9000 sea
containers of stuff was sold by Agility,
including empty containers. There’s a
number of things we’re very proud of
there over the last 2 years. They chose
us because we’re highly capable,” he
concluded. “Agility taught us to embrace
contractors in the deployed theatre,
rather than just endure them,” a Logistics
Staff British Army spokesperson told me.
Defence of the
supply chain
Logistics, of course, was originally a military term. How do
modern-day armed forces manage their unique supply chains
with the aid of private sector logistics service providers?
David Priestman
spoke to Agility’s Chris Murray – VP of Defence
& Government services for the global 3PL – to learn more.