 BETTER STOCK CONTROL
September 1st 2005
A Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) solution from BuckHickman InOne is providing 99% stock availability for Westland Transmissions. It covers 8000 product lines used for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO). A previous central stores system had 50% stock availability.
The solution has also reduced the cost of transaction for each item from a typical £40 per order to effectively zero.
Lineside cabinets contain the MRO products needed for each production cell. Cribmaster inventory control software is used to check stock in each cabinet once or twice a week and stock is then replenished at the next visit.
Small items are stored in twin kan bans in the cabinets. When all stock is used from the yellow kan ban, the red bin is pulled to the front. This shows that stock needs replenishing and the information is collected using a barcode scanner.
Larger items on shelves are checked visibly. The scanner downloads data to a PC at BuckHickman InOne’s onsite office and produces online or paper purchase orders for the company’s NDC or for another supplier. More articles from Buck & Hickman Ltd: | 
