Vauxhall outsources Ellesmere Port MRO materials management to VMI

All maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) parts for Vauxhall’s substantial Ellesmere Port Astra and Vectra production facility will be in the hands of electronic and industrial components distribution giant Premier Farnell by January 2003. Vauxhall has signed a five year outsourced, vendor-managed inventory (VMI) service contract with Premier Farnell and its mechanical components subsidiary Buck & Hickman, which is expected to cover some £40 million worth of MRO items over the term. B&H is currently on track to go live with the first phase of the project next month, on budget and two months ahead of deadline. The firm, which will be responsible for all stock management, monitoring and delivery from its suppliers, is putting the finishing touches now to a virtual B&H on-site ‘store’. Neil Harrison, B&H’s managing director, says this will be linked electronically via a dedicated frame relay line to Premier Farnell’s bespoke Orbit AS/400 mainframe ERP backbone system, with a heavy duty, distributed, multiply-redundant IT infrastructure on site and terminals running on Citrix. The objective is to cut Vauxhall’s production and maintenance operatives’ ‘walk and wait’ time, thus improving line productivity and efficiency and saving costs. It will also reduce the cost of parts procurement and fulfilment, both in terms of transactions and business and people processes. In a sense it will mirror what Vauxhall is already doing with the joint Covsint web exchange system with Ford and DaimlerChrysler on the direct production materials side, but in this case with components replenished using VMI and B&H is the more conventional service provider. B&H will automatically manage regularly used products at around 30 production line grab store locations, while other equipment is ordered via some 200 line side touch screen terminals. Delivery will be straight to the lines in time frames according to service level agreements based on machinery and operations criticality, following research already competed by B&H staff with Vauxhall team leaders and shop floor personnel. 90% of products will be handled through shift-based bin and cabinet replenishment, with auto ID RFID and wireless systems recording consumed components, and demand sent to B&H’s Orbit mainframe to be served from mirrored stocks at its suppliers, many with direct EDI links. Vauxhall largely uses manufacturers’ own part numbering conventions so little or no cross mapping will be required. Others, for example, shadow boards, will be via visual inspection. Others again, like components for older machines and equipment, will be serviced via Premier Farnell’s and B&H’s massive global database of parts and suppliers in the time honoured fashion, with on-site B&H staff carrying out identification where needed. Harrison reckons B&H offers one of the most comprehensive VMI solutions around for industry. In this case, its inventory control software will be linked to stocks of some 50,000 items held at its national distribution centre for Vauxhall. For Vauxhall management, facilities will include being able to view how much equipment each production area or individual operator is using. Some 150 management reports will be available from the system, to facilitate strategic and trend monitoring.