Agility’s Paperless Branch initiatives involved the implementation of an integrated document management system, which provides a central repository for all job-related documents. This isn’t just good for the tracking and fidelity of job information, as well as operational efficiency, it’s also good for the environment.

An average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year, and nearly 50% of that ends up in the trash. Implementation of the system in three of our offices, Barcelona, Hong Kong and Penang, has reduced our demand for paper by almost one million sheets per year; the equivalent of over 100 trees. In the Barcelona branch, the implementation of the system led to a monthly reduction in paper usage by more than 70%.

Our increasingly warmer world has an impact on the safety and comfort of our employees, as well as our energy costs. Agility Hong Kong invested in four industrial High Volume, Low Speed (HVLS) fans that cool down the high temperature of the warehouses on hot summer days, keeping employees comfortable.

Six HVLS fans can do the work of 300 small space fans, using less than one tenth of the energy. Unlike a small, high-velocity fan that creates small, turbulent air streams that quickly disperses, the HVLS fans, with diameters of up to 7.3 meters, rely on size, not speed, to move a significant amount of air. Streamlined aerodynamic, air-foil blades move a large mass of air, producing silent, non-disruptive, even distribution of breezes over large spaces, fulfilling to the double functions of ventilation and cooling. In warehouse spaces, it’s a challenge for ventilation to reach the floor and corners of buildings where people and equipment are located. HVLS fan can solve this problem by sending a well-aligned wind in full space.

Based on positive feedback, Hong Kong plans to invest in fans for all of its warehouses in coming years.

A global automotive customer needed help improving the reliability and environmental impact of its supply chains from China to the West Coast of the US. A careful analysis of the customer’s supply chain revealed a few key opportunities for improvement. In a multi-faceted optimization project, Agility’s supply chain solution team proposed buyer consolidation in China to reduce the total number of consolidation points, which would also facilitate load optimization. Shipments were re-routed away from less efficient ports, allowing for better consolidation at destination and creating opportunities to double stack containers for inland rail transport. The comprehensive solution saved the customer 24% on logistics costs, reduced total shipment time by at least one day, and as much as 17 days, with shipments arriving four days faster on average. The solution also reduced emissions by 9% overall.