Inside 3PL: Meet Leon Parkinson, Continuous Improvement Manager

Hi everyone 👋

It’s time for the latest edition of Inside 3PL.

In this edition, we get to introduce you to another 3PL superstar.

So far, you’ve met John Scully, Brandon Vaughan, Hannah Banks, Kath Knowles and Rebecca Whalley

In this month’s edition of Inside 3PL, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our Continuous Improvement Manager and one of our longest serving team members Leon Parkinson. He plays a crucial role here at 3PL, always looking for ways to level up our technologies and systems and supercharge our customer experience at multiple touchpoints.

Ready to meet Leon? Let’s do this 👇

Questions:

Barry Ryan: To start, can you tell me a little bit about what a Continuous Improvement Manager does?

Leon Parkinson: I look for ways to improve all aspects of the use of technology across the business from developing our customer-facing cloud-based order fulfilment platform “Fusion” to designing and implementing processes within our warehouse environments.

Essentially, I’m tasked with looking for ways we can enhance our customer’s experience and our processes across 3PL. Sometimes it’s the little things that can actually make the biggest impact.

Barry: Why did you decide to join 3PL?

Leon: I joined 3PL almost 10 years ago, having historically worked in a courier parcel delivery industry my skills were transferrable to the early steps within supply chain. Working for an early-stage business that was growing really excited me. I felt that I had the opportunity to have my ideas heard and also get the opportunities to grow and develop as the business did – that’s exactly what happened. I’ve had various roles across the business and each one has played a part in helping me to get a deeper understanding of how to better serve our customers.

Even though I mainly work across our technologies, I’m still a firm believer that we ALL work in customer service.

Barry: What does your day to day typically look like?

Leon: No day is the same for me here at 3PL, one day I may be reviewing our new business processes. The next day I may be looking at how we can improve our tracking ability on parcels. I’m constantly looking for opportunities for innovation. It keeps it fresh and exciting.

Barry: What’s your favourite thing about working at 3PL?

Leon: The variety, our customers are all so unique in their own way and they all need a certain level of white-glove treatment to ensure they are getting the best service from 3PL. Working with technology means that you can never sit still, you have to always find a way to do things better, faster and with greater efficiency.

Barry: Can you tell our readers about how the order fulfilment and logistics industry has changed during your time at 3PL?

Leon: Technology has transformed the industry. When joining 3PL 9 years ago the team would manually key every order address into the carriers’ systems, Inbound operators would manually write down inbound receipts on to paper. We have invested heavily in our own technology, meaning that we use the latest barcoding software and implement automation into as many processes as we can with the aim of improving service delivery.

Barry: What’s a fun fact about you?

Leon: I once woke up on a pedalo with 5 strangers in the Ionian Sea. (I’ll leave what happened next up to your imagine)

Barry: What’s been your personal career highlight working at 3PL?

Leon: Launching 3PL Fusion. To see the impact this has had for our customers and the growth they have had as a direct result of our own technology, built from scratch has been Incredible. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done.

Barry: What makes 3PL a great company work for?

Leon: It doesn’t matter what your job role or title is, everyone has the opportunity to make a difference.

Barry: What advice do you have for prospective 3PL candidates?

Leon: Give 100% effort and you will be successful.

Want to join Leon on the 3PL team?
We’re hiring. Check out our latest roles here.