Labels attached to a stack of blanks will be scanned electronically by operators just before stamping. The scan will automatically alert one of the warehouses that additional steel is needed. Such quick service pleases Chrysler's managers. The Twinsburg stamping plant can get the steel it needs, even for emergency orders, without holding a large inventory. It can respond better to production fluctuations from the assembly plants it serves.
Operators can squeeze an emergency order from an assembly plant into production without much delay.
Gibraltar Integrated Terminals, an independent warehousing company, set up Ford's first steel warehouse in 1990, near the Buffalo stamping plant. Until early May, Ford required all Buffalo's steel suppliers to hold two weeks' worth of material at the warehouse. Now Ford allows suppliers to hold only one week. The automaker tracks each supplier's inventory levels by computer from the stamping plant. If they fall below one week, we can check that on the computer.