For most manufacturers, procurement strategies for direct spend items are carefully planned and scheduled to ensure value for money, high levels of availability and optimal inventory holding. However, with direct items such as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) products and industrial consumables, the procurement process can typically be more unpredictable.
Purchasing from multiple local suppliers, holding excessive amounts of inventory and processing numerous invoice transactions can be a common occurrence. Single high volume use items could be purchased by numerous people, from different suppliers, at different prices, at the same time, and without consideration of stockouts or overstocking.
MRO distributor, Brammer recognised this challenge facing UK manufacturers, believing that if you can optimise your MRO procurement process then you can deliver significant savings in terms of pure product cost, administration cost, a reduction in inventory, and supply base. It launched Brammer Insite™ service, which is effectively a dedicated Brammer branch that sits in a customer site and is geared towards meeting the needs of that organisation.
In practical terms, the Insite™ service helps identify and source the right products to keep operations running smoothly and cost-effectively, while playing a role in managing technical and customer service requests. Strategically, the service focuses on helping make cost savings by driving vendor consolidation and pro-actively identifying opportunities to reduce total costs associated with MRO and industrial supplies.
Insite™ in action
Works Management visited The Cider Mill in Hereford during March, which is run by brewing giant Heineken. Brammer Insite™ was implemented at the drink manufacturer’s site in 2010 and is geared entirely towards meeting the needs of Heineken, offering support for purchasing, stores, maintenance and engineering teams, and reducing product consumption of fast moving consumables.
Since responsibility of procurement and stores management was handed over to Brammer, the maintenance team has been able to focus on overseeing and repairing machinery and equipment.
“The way I see it is we have the ability to lift the lid on a factory, see who is where, see where the problems are, and concentrate on helping them solve those problems as well as doing our day job of getting the product in on time,” says Simon Marsh, Brammer Insite™ manager.
In addition to overseeing procurement by consolidating stock and reducing suppliers, Insite™ has also helped Heineken with numerous areas within the plant, including the main stores and the kitting area.
Around 50 people, including Heineken engineers and Brammer InsiteTM personnel, have worked on redesigning and upgrading the main stores area. This involved the removal of ‘deadstock’ – old parts for machines that are no longer in use – and optimising accessibility by rearranging products and standardising racking.
“It is easy to follow and the bays are the same,” explains Josh O’Connor, maintenance planner at Heineken. “Bay A on every single file is at the far end, so, if I said 8C you would know exactly where that is and you can go and find the parts from it.
“That has also been linked into our computer maintenance management system, so we can basically search our number, get the spare part location, and get from the computer to the spare part in 40 seconds or less.”
Insite™ is also contributing to increased productivity and reduced downtime through a ‘kitting up’ process, which is done opposite the Brammer office.This is where the Insite™ team assemble individual work kits for Heineken maintenance engineers looking to carry out planned and reactive jobs.
The Insite™ team will assemble the work kits, which contain every spare part needed to fulfil that task. All Heineken’s engineers need to do is collect their job sheet and kit box. This allows them to spend the maximum amount of time on value-adding maintenance tasks around the plant.
“If an engineer says I have a job planned for next week, these are the parts I need, and it could be a stock part or a non-stock part, it is then our job to source those parts and get them in on time,” says Marsh. “Then the works order is planned, and it is our job to get them in on time for when the planned work is to take place.”
O’Connor adds that there are also tools “on the line” to save engineers carrying tool bags around the site.“We want simplicity,” he explains. “We want to spend our time doing maintenance not procurement, so by using Brammer and their contacts, resources and cost savings, it takes out a lot of the pain.”
The Cider Mill: In Numbers
6.5 million hectolitres of cider bottled each year
5 lines (two can, one PET (plastic bottles), one glass, and one keg)
24/7 plant (not all five lines)
2010 – the year Brammer Insite™ was implemented on site
40 seconds for technicians to access MRO products
A fruitful partnership
3 mins read
Heineken’s cider mill has incorporated a Brammer Insite™ service into its plant, which has optimised its procurement and stores management process. Adam Offord toured the facility to see first hand how this ‘pear’ work and what makes it so ‘grape’.
