Premier Farnell gears up Vauxhall stock rooms

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 17 Oct 2002 11:11

Premier Farnell, the global distributor of electronic components and industrial products, has won a five year maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) contract with Vauxhall Motors.

The contract is for the management of Vauxhall’s MRO requirements at its Ellesmere Port production facility, home of the Astra and Vectra. The supply chain solution will be managed by Premier Farnell subsidiary, Buck & Hickman. Sales are anticipated to be in the order of £40 million over the term of the contract, the company said.

The deal will streamline and reduce Vauxhall’s indirect materials sourcing to one supplier – Premier Farnell. The extensive stock range and the sophisticated vendor managed inventory (VMI) technology solution proposed by Buck & Hickman, together with access to the global resources of the Premier Farnell group, were key factors in securing the contract.

“Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant achieves world class standards for its mainstream manufacturing and assembly operations – VMI is an area which offers huge potential in terms of time, cost and efficiency savings to manufacturers such as Vauxhall,” said Neil Harrison, General Manager and Director, Buck & Hickman.

Premier Farnell is now working to realise efficient management of Vauxhall’s indirect materials purchasing, by reducing the risk of production downtime and the amount of time operatives have to spend away from the production lines trying to find MRO products.

Under the new VMI system, Buck & Hickman will place many regularly used products directly next to the production line, while other equipment will be ordered via terminals and de livered quickly, straight to the lines as required, cutting down the ‘walk and wait’ time and thereby improving productivity.

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