JW Kane is an integrated solutions provider for all CNC milling requirements and specialises in the aerospace industry. In growing the business, the company had experienced challenges associated with inventory management which had the potential to affect productivity and efficiency. JW Kane has enjoyed a working relationship with MSC for more than 10 years, so asked them for advice.

Challenges

By working in collaboration, MSC and JW Kane highlighted a combination of too many suppliers with limited reporting which caused an overlap of stock ordering and associated high admin costs; an inefficient amount of unnecessary and unidentified dead stock; and engineer downtime caused by sourcing non-stocked products creating a risk to production.

Aligned with its strategic development, there was a drive to achieve data-inspired insights across the business, such as; understanding tooling usage, managing stock levels, and improving productivity. Understanding these issues would create new sources of value and smarter revenue generating opportunities. Controlling cost and having the ability to report and project on inventory, production, and other business areas would enable JW Kane to build on its business growth and better understand the inventory areas to optimise. With a significant value of items held up in dead stock, JW Kane wanted to streamline its supply chain. It was concerned with tool availability, stock-outs and ensuring nothing prevented customer deadlines and quality expectations from being met.

Solutions

MSC's application engineers worked with JW Kane to plan, record and implement all projects. MSC also provided engineering support to the team to up-skill their knowledge of new product development as well as legacy projects.

MSC gathered usage data to analyse stock holding and investigate current and future project needs. This approach ensured the right supply and demand of consumables were in the supply chain. MSC application engineers recognised the unidentified stock and catalogued all tooling to understand the current inventory in operation. MSC also worked on the tooling consolidation, trailing and implementing better performing tools, cost saving exercises and improving production efficiency to create operational excellence for JW Kane. To further enhance productivity, MSC implemented a regrind process to extend tool life and reduce overall cost. 

Finally, MSC recommended ControlPoint, an inventory management solution aimed at gaining visibility, saving time and driving profitability. MSC implemented the vending solution tailored to meet the current tooling needs of JW Kane, but expandable to handle future plans. It consisted of two stock optimised locations on the shop floor, based on production requirements. It can dispense more than 300 products and has scope for expansion.

MSC’s breadth of additional metalworking and MRO categories meant that JW Kane could source its industrial consumables from the company. In doing so, they benefited from a reduction in admin and time spent getting quotes from multiple suppliers.

JW Kane now has greater control over its tooling and spend. Each month the company receives a suite of reports highlighting its purchasing breakdown – by product category, department, role and individual. It has a data-driven insight into spending trends which can be used to understand how to further optimise its supply chain.

High tool availability limits risks to production and saves time previously wasted looking for tooling on-site or waiting for the delivery of stock. By using the ControlPoint inventory management solution, JW Kane has products that are specific to a user’s application. Moreover, due to MSC’s dedicated inventory specialists, the machines are automatically restocked.

MSC also implemented a regrind process to extend tool life and reduce overall cost. To further support this cost-saving exercise an additional vending bay, dedicated to regrind stock, was installed. 

MSC’s application engineers have invested time into new product development which means JW Kane is using an appropriate tool for the job from the start, rather than making tooling improvements when production is underway.