Anglian used to source its fasteners from 14 different suppliers generating between 400 and 500 separate orders for fasteners every year. Each order created a different purchase order, delivery note and invoice. Following a radical re-think by Anglian, it granted total responsibility for all fastener supplies to Infast which now supplies around 200 different fasteners to Anglian windows on a JIT basis. The first step in the process of outsourcing is to establish the client's exact consumption of parts, in this case, fasteners, together with a list of any approved or preferred manufacturers. Any suppliers currently delivering direct, are directed to deliver to the distribution company which stores, quality checks and collates the stocks ready for delivery to the production line, exactly where and when they are required.
Integrated solutions are fundamental to supply chain management.
Rapidly developing new technology can be harnessed to deliver a truly bespoke service. The key to seizing these opportunities is the use of real-time data. The ability to monitor the product throughout the supply chain, reassures not only the supplier, but also the logistics and inventory management part of any business. There are many weapons in the logistician's armoury these days including bar code based tracking, mobile computing and laser scanning which have replaced paper-based manual methods. The much talked about e-commerce revolution also presents an opportunity to enable closer collaboration between multiple parties in the supply chain.