logistik unicorp - Canadian Defence Review

INDUSTRY PROFILE
LOGISTIK UNICORP
TAKING MANAGED UNIFORM SERVICES TO THE NEXT LEVEL
BY PETER DIEKMEYER
Louis Bibeau, founder and president of Logistik
Unicorp, has revolutionized the way military
clothing is procured, maintained and distributed and for his next move he is looking to once
again partner with the Canadian Armed Forces
in taking managed services to the next level.
Like most owners, Bibeau is proud of his
company’s facilities. His eyes beam as he takes
visitors through its product development,
sample making, manufacturing, IT and quality
assurance departments, and RFID-managed
warehouse. However, the president of Logistik
Unicorp, one of the world’s most innovative
military clothing providers, refuses to take sole
credit for its progress.
“It was a team effort,” says Bibeau. “We
have a solid base of employees, suppliers and
customers who are always open to new ideas.
For example, our partnership with DND was a
major linchpin in our success. Not only did it
enable us to keep Canadian Armed Forces personnel better supplied, equipped and dressed
than ever before, it also provided a good base
for us to build our international presence on.”
Military uniform providers operate under
enormous pressure. Soldiers adhere to strict
dress codes and have few direct choices in
the shirts, socks, jackets and even undergarments they wear, often for long periods of time,
under extreme conditions. That means Logistik
Unicorp has to supply high quality, cutting
edge products, fast, throughout Canada and
often to personnel on overseas deployments.
NIMBLY ADAPTING TO
CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS
Bibeau was quick to recognize and adapt to
these challenges and constraints. The former
public servant worked both in the diplomatic
corps and later upper management, where he
got a chance to visit many of the country’s top
clothing manufacturers. Bibeau quickly realized
that while private sector providers were highly
innovative and productive, few knew how to
deal effectively with public sector clients.
Bursting with ideas, he acquired a small tie
company which had been supplying Canada
Post. That tie division formed the base of what
today is the major provider of the Canadian
Armed Forces’ distinctive environmental uniforms (DEU) and many other items for the
Army, Navy and Air Force,. “Getting an order
from the Department of National Defence
wasn’t easy,” says Bibeau. “Our immediate
success with a managed clothing solution for
Canada Post in the early 1990’s led DND to
adopt a similar approach.
One of Bibeau’s major insights was that
uniforms and other clothing and related items
could best be provided through “managed services” solutions that included a mix of design,
production, sub-contracting, procurement,
quality assurance, warehousing and distribution, based on client needs. This ultimately
extended to innovative value-added services
such as individual account management and
direct-delivery to end users.
Photo: The company
plant in St-Jean-surRichelieu, Quebec
65
Supplying combat uniforms for the Australian Military
Company founder, president and visionary,
Louis Bibeau
“Color consistency is crucial,” says Bibeau.
“Before we took over the supply chain twenty
years ago, one military branch had existing
uniforms in about a dozen different shades.
We solved that problem by ensuring colour
standardization across the CAF.
Today Logistik Unicorp manages uniform
supply chains for a range of corporate and
governmental organizations, in Canada and
international markets. More than 300,000
end users, including Canadian Armed Forces
contracts, are serviced by 185 employees based
at the company’s LEED Gold-certified facility, in
St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. The campus is
located about 20 minutes south of Montreal,
near the DND’s 2nd Canadian Division Support
Group’s unit, where more than 4,000 new
recruits are trained each year.
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To ensure the highest standards, Logistik
Unicorp maintains strict controls over the fabric
–with an in-house laboratory -- and other
material that it procures for uniforms, many of
which are produced by a network of specialized clothing manufacturers. Raw materials
and finished goods are identified and tracked
using RFID technology.
More than 80,000 Canadian Armed Forces
personnel deal with Logistik Unicorp directly
using personal Clothing Online accounts. They
enter their own measurements in the platform
and are sent standard issue kit, often in as
little as three days. They then have access to
a “virtual closet” of uniforms, using a points
system to order more articles as required.
INVESTING
IN R & D
Carlos Agudelo, the company’s director of research and development, is a perfect example
of the talent that Logistik Unicorp has been
able to attract and nurture in-house. Bibeau’s
astuteness in luring the brilliant engineering
PhD, who is specialized in material science,
away from a local university, provides an insight
into one element of his strategy for success.
“He offered me a golden opportunity to
put my research into practice,” says the native
Columbian. “I couldn’t resist.” Those talents
played out well in a recent Soldier Systems
Program Management-related initiative to look
into ways to improve current uniform layering
systems in the Armed Forces. Key areas to
be studied include moisture management,
ergonomics, human factors and the use of
smarter fabrics.
Agudelo admits that the work is far from
the academic ivory tower environment he
was used to. “We test all of our ideas in the
shop through a range of strict procedures,”
says Agudelo. “These include stress, heat and
cold tests, as well as multiple passes through
washers and dryers, often with beads in the
machines, to see whether the clothing will
tear and how long it will last in rigorous conditions. But, we also go out in the field with
the soldiers as well as in their daily work environments, for extended periods of time, to
see how the gear performs in real life trials.”
LEVERAGING
INTERNATIONAL
EXPERIENCE FOR THE
CANADIAN MARKET
One of Logistik Unicorp’s growing advantages
is the company’s increasing presence on the
global stage. This provides not only returns
Employing and training Canadians
to scale, which improves the supply chain
worldwide, but also to take lessons learned
in one country and to apply them, if relevant,
in others. One example is the company’s Australian Defence Apparel (ADA) subsidiary. The
Melbourne-based unit, which employs 180
people and whose origins go back more than
a century, recently won major contracts related
to the Australian Defence Force’s load carriage
equipment (LCE) program. These include wet
and foul weather, non-combat (service dress,
mess dress etc.) and under garment clothing.
In an ultimate validation of Logistik Unicorp’s
innovative business model, its Australian subsidiary also inked a letter of intent with the
Australian Defence Forces to provide overall
supply chain management similar to what the
parent company provides the Canadian Armed
Forces with DND’s existing Consolidated Clothing Contract (C3).
In Australia, as in Canada, innovations in
Logistik Unicorp’s defence-related work has
provided a platform which it has leveraged
to build its civilian business. For example the
Australian division recently picked up a major
contract with Toll, a leading integrated logistics
provider, as well as orders for corporate apparel
and image-wear for Ergon Energy a major
electrical utility company.
LASHKEVICH
BRINGS VALUABLE
CANADIAN MILITARY
KNOWLEDGE AND
EXPERIENCE
One key player in Logistik Unicorp’s international strategy is Larry Lashkevich, its director
of business development. Lashkevich, joined
the company following a long and successful
career with the Canadian Armed Forces, where
he reached the rank of Brigadier-General, and
now heads its Ottawa office, which he uses as
a base to develop foreign business initiatives.
So far the response from customers has
been extremely positive. “They are very impressed with the managed services concept,”
says Lashkevich. “Many countries’ armed forces
still operate using the old model, consisting of
dozens of storage sites, in which huge amounts
of redundant or unused inventory accumulates.
Inventory turnover ratios are extraordinarily
low and there is thus huge waste. Dealing
with us offers international clients a substantial
advantage as many of the software platforms
that we have developed here can be easily
adapted for overseas use.”
The good news is that the international
work has also had a positive impact on staffing
in Canada, which has increased by about 5%
Logistik Unicorp uses advanced systems to
improve supply chain efficiency.
during the past year, says Matthew Rosenberg,
director of uniform programs.
“We have been gradually increasing our
workforce,” said the managed services veteran.
“However, due to the highly technical nature
of much of our work it is increasingly difficult
to find people with the right qualifications for
certain positions. The good news is that we
are increasingly training new talent in-house,
which of course makes them more productive,
as they do things correctly right from the start.”
Logistik Unicorp’s ability to leverage its
Canadian management talent and skill sets in
growing its Australian division, particularly in IT
systems developed internally, was crucial to the
latter unit’s success. However that knowledge
flows both ways says Rosenberg. One example
is the company’s contract to supply combat
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Modern testing equipment
uniforms to the Australian Forces, which has
provided Logistik Unicorp access to numerous technical insights that it can apply here
in Canada.
“We pay close attention to what uniform
providers across the globe are doing, particularly in countries where soldiers operate
in tough Northern climates,” says Rosenberg.
“We also recently opened a procurement hub
in Vietnam to improve service to international
markets.”
TARGETING
UPCOMING DND CLOTHING
REQUIREMENTS
That international experience is going to
be coming in handy during the coming
years as Canada’s Department of National
Defence is going to be needing a lot of help
on the uniform front. Bibeau is currently
leading the development of a range of
new ideas and proposals related to the
upcoming Consolidated Clothing Contract
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(C3) and Operational Clothing and Footwear
Consolidated Contract (OCFC2) tenders.
Logistik Unicorp’s experience with managed
clothing solutions should give it a leg up in
the latter bid because DND could substantially
increase productivity if personnel could get
more of their uniform kit from one source.
“Stakeholders are increasingly seeking to
leverage the benefits of the prime vendor approach to supply chain management,” says
Bibeau. “These include reduced acquisition,
overhead, inventory management and distribution costs. The success of the consolidated
strategy adopted by PWGSC and DND has,
since 1996, demonstrated that when government and industry work in true partnership,
major innovations and productivity advantages
can be achieved. That’s something we can all
be proud of.”
Peter Diekmeyer is CDR’s Quebec
Bureau Chief
CORPORATE SNAPSHOT
Company:
Logistik Unicorp
President:
Louis Bibeau
Web-site:
www.logistikunicorp.com
Employees:
185 in Canada, 180 in Australia.
Facilities:
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu,
Quebec, Australian Defence Apparel:
Melbourne, Australia
Key Customers:
DND, Canada Post
Upcoming opportunities:
Consolidated Clothing Contract (C3),
Operational Clothing and Footwear
Consolidated Contract (OCFC2), Combat
uniform multilayered research