How a strategic partnership helped a market leader in analytical instruments to transform a time-consuming process
Inefficient and time-consuming processes can hinder productivity even for successful manufacturers. Forming strategic partnerships with trusted product and service solutions providers such as RS can help businesses to find more effective ways of working – here’s an example showing how.
The challenge
Nu Instruments is a division of the global firm AMETEK and a market leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance mass spectrometers. Academic and government institutions as well as industrial research labs around the world use these analytical instruments to characterise the isotopic or elemental composition of biomedical, geological and food samples.
Nu Instruments designs, assembles and tests its mass spectrometers on site at its manufacturing facility in Wrexham, North Wales. A significant and common problem was that the low-value, free issue consumables necessary for the assembly process were situated in the central stores, and the walk-and-wait time to retrieve them was high.
Managing the inventory was also time consuming for the busy stores team, who were dealing with 30 people each day. At an assumed cost per visit of £2.50 for each of those personnel, the low-value parts were costing the business significantly more by hampering productivity.
The solution
The Supply Chain team at Nu Instruments worked closely with a longstanding and trusted supplier, RS, to determine where the flow could be improved and develop a solution. RS ScanStock®, a fully managed inventory replenishment service, offered an efficient way to streamline working practices and save Nu Instruments both time and money.
With this inventory management system for manufacturers, RS takes care of replenishing agreed products so the customer and its employees can focus on core activities. For Nu Instruments, RS ScanStock® means fast-moving, low-value supplies are kept closer to those who need the products the most, reducing time previously spent walking to and waiting for stocks from central stores.
As soon as it was installed line-side at the Wrexham plant, Nu Instruments reaped the benefits of RS ScanStock®. Pressure on the central stores team fell, while technicians and engineers were able to concentrate on the assembly line with all the necessary consumables close at hand. With the RS ScanStock® module itself on wheels, it can also be moved around the workspace to serve the areas where the consumables are required the most.
The outcome
The use of RS ScanStock® has transformed the shopfloor processes by allowing quick and easy access to products. Assembly technicians spending less time waiting for products and more on their core activities, leading to an increase in productivity and significant cost and time savings. The results show a 40% reduction in time spent visiting central stores for the items now held line-side, which is the equivalent of £36,615 in potential savings.*
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*Costs are based on a number of assumptions made by RS and Nu Instruments.
