Smarter Materials Purchasing based on Visibility to the Shop Floor

Overview

Profitability in manufacturing often hinges on the ability to be flexible, to quickly react to changing conditions. This includes components. Smart materials purchasing will increase flexibility by reducing buffer stocks and optimizing inventory levels based on actual consumption data as it happens. In addition it is critical to get maximum use out of alternate parts from the Approved Vendor List, and lock down critical use parameters such as pin contact area, component body dimensions to equivalent values for each manufacturer part number approved for use. And finally, professional buyers need to know when specific part numbers and date codes from their supplies, are responsible for yield loss. Accurately tracing manufacture dates codes to component failures on the shop floor and in the field is the best way to hold suppliers accountable for the quality of their products. This is information that buyers can use to leverage better purchasing contracts and make significant contributions to the success and profitability of the manufacturing operation.

Visibility to the material transactions on the shop floor is essential to enable smart purchasing, but unfortunately often unavailable from the day to day perspective of material buyers. Smart software creates visibility of the real-time usage of materials as they are kitted and moved from stores to the line, consumed as good placements and as dropped (scrapped) parts, and eventually unused parts remaining on a reel are returned-to-stock with accurate counts maintained for each individual reel. The net result is the automated maintenance of an accurate inventory of part numbers reel by reel, both in stock and in use on the shop floor. There is no doubt that if every time a material operator went to find a reel it was in the correct location(s) and contained the correct PN and quantity, then material managers could allow stock levels to be reduced. Buffer stock would no longer be needed.

What You Will Learn

In this webinar you will learn how professional buyers can benefit from new software technology for process planning and manufacturing operations management.

• Maintaining an accurate inventory means reducing buffer stock and increasing flexibility
• Maximizing the use of alternate parts without risk to the manufacturing process
• Improving vendor performance by tracing vendor lots codes to yield loss due to component failures