Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is an initiative, which sees the UK food and grocery industry working together to achieve total consumer satisfaction. The organisation ECR UK comprises a number of retailers and manufacturers to provide industry leadership, education and guidance on key issues.
The underlying principles of ECR are to streamline the supply chain, react to the requirements of customers and use resources more effectively. Over three years ECR initiatives in Tesco resulted in savings of £100 million and in Sainsbury’s £50 million of savings were achieved over two years (Source: IGD).
For anyone familiar with the Six Sigma process methodology, the ECR concepts are recognisable. At Key3 we believe the Six Sigma toolkit enables companies to achieve and maintain ECR.
Within ECR, the Transport Optimisation initiative is the hottest topic on the table. ECR UK has devised a ‘decision engine’ to help companies develop an approach for identifying transport optimisation projects and then implementing them to achieve benefits. There are very obvious synergies between this and the Six Sigma approach.

ECR Transport Optimisation Phases:

1. Strategise – identify the aims of the project, quantify the benefits, agree timescales  
2. Engage – Commit resources, scope the project
3. Design – Create KPIs, measure operations, scale benefits, agree methodology
4. Pilot – implement solutions on a small scale, monitor progress, adapt designs 
5. Deploy – roll out solutions, sustain benefits 

Key3 Six Sigma Phases: 

1. Define – scale the project, allocate resources, agree timescales 
2. Measure – Collect data, identify improvement opportunities 
3. Analyse – determine root causes of inefficiencies, scale benefits, rank opportunities
4. Improve – develop solutions, carry out small scale pilot
5. Control – gain benefits, keep track of benefits, sustain improvements

The tools created by Key3 to deliver Six Sigma improvements can also be used effectively to deliver ECR Transport Optimisation. Our experience leads us to believe that benefits can be achieved in this way much more quickly than using traditional methods. 

Call us today to discuss how we can support ECR initiatives in your business.