FEATURE WAREHOUSING & STORAGE


THE MISSING LINK: HOW TO DRIVE RELIABILITY THROUGHOUT YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN


Engineers and their stores have a symbiotic partnership – one cannot exist without the other. Why then, are numerous studies highlighting the disorganised and unmonitored states in which store rooms are kept? It’s time for a warehouse revolution, says Lee Tebbatt, new business director at ERIKS UK & Ireland


What’s more, excessive purchasing of stores can have a significant effect on the balance sheet. It’s essentially throwing money out of the window that would have been better spent managing storerooms and monitoring equipment. Another issue that has been identified


L


et me ask you a question: how much time do you spend comparing your


production efficiency and output with that of your competition? I imagine it’s quite a lot. How much of that time, then, is spent looking at how your warehouses, storerooms and MRO are contributing to your production efficiency?


CUE THE TUMBLEWEED Storerooms and inventories are vital aspects of any smoothly running production facility, yet they are often overlooked. To put this in numerical terms, a study conducted by ERIKS revealed that 42 per cent of plant managers admitted to leaving their storerooms unmanaged, while 30 per cent had no formal store management system in place. Perhaps more alarming is the 50 per cent of respondents who admitted that their stores valued in excess of £250,000, with a further 56 per cent prioritising the purchase of new equipment over storing and maintaining existing equipment in storerooms. When we consider this in terms of its effects on both the efficiency and cost- effectiveness of a business, we begin to see why effective storeroom management is so important. For example, stores that do not have any formal management system in place are likely to be confusing and haphazard, making sourcing the right part difficult and time-consuming. In fact, 36 per cent of respondents said that it frequently took them more than 30 minutes to find the part they needed. That’s 30 minutes that could have been spent working on the factory floor.


S12 MARCH 2018 | MATERIALS HANDLING & LOGISTICS


The storeroom plays a vital part in keeping your production line running smoothly, but many of us still manage it on an ad-hoc basis. It may seem like a daunting task but, by partnering with a business that specialises in all aspects of industrial services, from procurement and storeroom management to repairs, you can ensure that stores-outs, downtime and part obsolescence quickly become history


by this survey is who actually looks after the storeroom. There are businesses that delegate this task to a member of the team, but quite often this person has limited technical experience and is not able to recognise what parts are needed, when, and whether any items in the storeroom are obsolete.


BRIDGING THE GAP – WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN FIRST Storerooms may be away from the main action of your production line, but they’re something you need to get right. After all, no-one really notices the scenery of a Shakespearian play, but if Hamlet were to conduct his soliloquy in front of a cardboard façade of Greggs, I imagine that one or two eyebrows would be raised. The consequences of poor storeroom


management are already being noted. A recent study conducted by Solomon Associates, for example, revealed that the bottom quartile of companies studied (i.e. those who make little to no investment in proactive MRO activities) spent over four times more on reactive maintenance than the top quartile of respondents. They also noted a 15 per cent increase in production downtime. If you’re concerned about where you sit in terms of MRO activities, ask yourself the following questions: 1. Do I have the ability to monitor and


predict equipment failure? What systems do I need to have in place to achieve this? 2. Does my maintenance team have the


skills and experience needed to do its job properly? 3. Is my MRO supply chain working? Do I have access to the parts I need without committing excess capital to stored parts? 4. Does everyone in the business understand the need to manage stores effectively?


TAKING STOCK If your answer to these questions is a resounding “no”, you could be wasting thousands in unnecessary capital expenditure and production delays. It isn’t all doom and gloom though. There are plenty of businesses out there getting it right, providing good examples of how a mixture of investment and outsourcing can help to get your storerooms back under control.


THE MISSING LINK The following steps will help you to re- establish the link between the engineering teams and their stores, so that they can once again work in tandem. 1. Establish on-site procurement support to make sure the only parts ordered are the parts that are needed. 2. Outsource stores management to a


specialist. This ensures that your stores remain at a consistent and suitable level, and also eliminates the risk of stores obsolescence. 3. Invest in inventory management


software and equipment. Not only is this more efficient than a paper trail, but it can also be automated for added efficiency. 4. Outsource spares order processing.


This frees up your team for more value- added tasks. 5. Ensure that you have sufficient support systems in place in the event of any repairs or technical problems. Depending on the size of your team, you can develop this in-house or partner with a business that specialises in both stores management and repairs, so that all bases are covered. 6. Implement a condition monitoring


routine. Sitting above all the points mentioned so far, a condition monitoring routine not only reduces unplanned downtime, but also gives you more visibility of the stores you will need, both in the short and long-term.


For more information, please visit www.eriks.co.uk/en/solutions- page/mro-supply-chain- management/storeroom-solutions.html


/ MATERIALSHANDLINGLOGISTICS


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