Lower cost-to-serve, without breaking service.

Services delivered under supply chain optimisation

We work across the full end-to-end chain, but every engagement is scoped around the two or three areas that will move the P&L or the balance sheet fastest.

Freight and logistics cost reduction

• Parcel, pallet and full-load carrier benchmarking and re-tender
• Mode shift analysis - road, rail, ocean, air - by lane and product
• Lane redesign, backhaul recovery and consolidation opportunities
• Fuel surcharge, accessorial and demurrage governance

Warehousing and 3PL

• 3PL rate benchmarking, renegotiation or competitive re-tender
• In-house vs outsourced warehouse decision modelling
• Footprint rationalisation - consolidating duplicate or sub-scale DCs
• Warehouse layout, slotting and labour productivity review

Inventory and working capital

• Safety stock right-sizing by SKU against real service-level targets
• SKU rationalisation and slow-mover clearance
• Min/max, reorder point and cycle-stock policy redesign
• ABC/XYZ segmentation and differentiated stocking rules

Network design and distribution

• Number, location and role of distribution centres
• Service tier segmentation - next-day, standard, economy
• Direct-to-customer vs stocking-location trade-offs
• Post-M&A network integration

Inbound and supplier flow

• Delivery terms, MOQ and packaging renegotiation with suppliers
• Inbound consolidation and milk-run design
• Incoterms review to shift cost and risk appropriately
• Dual-sourcing and resilience planning for critical inputs

S&OP and demand planning

• Forecast accuracy diagnostic and root-cause fix
• Monthly S&OP cadence, roles and decision rights
• Demand-supply reconciliation and exception governance

How we work

We start with a two-week diagnostic: flow mapping, cost-to-serve by channel and SKU, carrier rate benchmarking, and inventory health. That produces a prioritised list of initiatives with sizing, effort and payback for each. We then run initiatives in short waves so cash starts landing early, and every change is instrumented so service KPIs are visible before, during and after.

Typical outcomes

• 8-15% reduction in logistics cost
• 10-25% inventory reduction with equal or better availability
• Warehousing cost aligned to current volumes, not historical peaks
• Shorter, more reliable lead times on critical categories

Supply chain cost reduction: where the money usually is

When we run a supply chain cost reduction programme for a UK mid-market business, the savings almost always cluster in the same places: freight rates that have drifted above market, inventory carried against demand patterns that no longer exist, and warehouse footprints sized for a peak that never repeated. Sequencing matters - we go after the fastest-payback wave first, then reinvest capacity into structural work.

A seven-step supply chain cost reduction plan

• 1. Build a cost-to-serve baseline by channel and SKU so every subsequent decision is priced, not guessed.
• 2. Benchmark and re-tender freight - parcel, pallet and full-load - against the current market. Fastest cash in the programme, usually landing 8-15% inside a quarter.
• 3. Right-size inventory by SKU against real service-level targets. Retire zombie SKUs and shrink safety stock on the tail to release 10-25% of working capital.
• 4. Rationalise the warehouse footprint where volumes have shifted more than 20% from the design point - consolidate sub-scale DCs or renegotiate 3PL rate cards.
• 5. Redesign inbound flows - consolidate lanes, revisit incoterms, negotiate MOQ and packaging with suppliers to strip hidden cost out of landed price.
• 6. Fix S&OP and forecast accuracy to reduce expedite freight, obsolete stock write-offs and firefighting cost - the expensive symptoms of a chain that can't see two months out.
• 7. Govern the savings with a monthly rhythm tracking rates, service and inventory - or roughly 70% of the gains decay within three years.

Supplier consolidation - done properly

Supplier consolidation is a lever, not a strategy. It works when a category is genuinely fragmented, when the remaining suppliers have capacity, and when there is a fallback plan for the concentration risk you take on. It fails when it is used as a blanket target or when volume is moved before qualification is complete. We size and sequence consolidation category by category.

Supply chain resilience

Resilience is a design choice - where you hold buffers, how many suppliers you keep warm, and which risks you are prepared to wear. For most UK mid-market businesses that means targeted dual-sourcing on 5-15 critical inputs, capacity buffers on volatile categories, and a quarterly supplier risk cadence rather than blanket nearshoring or across-the-board stock increases. Our supply chain resilience guide covers the full playbook.

Supply chain review

A Caventis supply chain review is a two to three week diagnostic. It covers cost-to-serve by channel and SKU, carrier benchmarking, inventory health, supplier concentration and network fit - and outputs a prioritised initiative list with sizing, effort and payback. It is designed to be actionable, not a shelf-ware report.

Also known as

Buyers describe this work as supply chain consulting, supply chain consultants UK, supply chain advisory, supply chain improvement, logistics consultants, or a distribution network review. It is the same discipline - lower cost-to-serve without breaking service - scoped to where the payback sits in your business.

Supply chain sits alongside procurement, product sourcing and cost reduction as one of the six pillars we work on.

Optimisation work usually exposes prices that no longer reflect underlying costs. We break the price into materials, labour, overhead and margin so the negotiation is about cost drivers, not goodwill. See how we build a should-cost model.

Frequently asked questions