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Manufacturing exhibitions
News Release from: Subcon | Subject: Supply chain consolidation
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 26 April 2006
Right subcontractors for lean sourcing
The constant drive for supply chain consolidation and lean sourcing mean that it has never been more important to have the right subcontractors on board.
The constant drive for supply chain consolidation and lean sourcing mean that it has never been more important to have the right subcontractors on board - and Subcon 2006 is the place to find them The event takes place in Hall 3A at the NEC, Birmingham, from 16 to 18 May and aims to make sourcing suppliers easy for any buyer of subcontract manufacturing services
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 13 Feb 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Subcon seminar speaker, Chris McKellen of Manufacturing Awareness says that companies should be reducing their supplier base to concentrate of working with fewer partners, but they should have very close relationships with them.
"It is important that companies develop real partnerships with trust and openness - and that partnerships are intended to be long term," he says.
Chris himself led a project in the automotive industry that reduced the number of suppliers from 1500 to 200, and it has been the automotive industry that has led the process.
Further reading
Industry bodies line up to support subcon 2005
UK subcontracting show, Subcon 2005, has attracted the support of highly respected organisations from such a wide range of industries and technologies.
Subontracting show has machine tool zone
UK subcontract manufacturing exhibition will feature a complementary Machine Tool Zone to give machine tool companies the chance to reach a wide range of high-level buyers.
Subcontracting topic papers called for
The UK Subcon 2005 conference entitled 'Sourcing and subcontracting in global markets - survival strategies for buyers and suppliers' will be held alongside the Subcon exhibition.
"They want people to consolidate and shorten the supply chain, reduce lead times and cut the amount of inventory in the supply chain." There is a growing acceptance that the lean concepts such as value stream mapping don't stop at the factory door, and that to get the best results it is important to look much wider.
"The value stream starts at our supplier's supplier and ends at our customer's customer," says Chris.
"We should be looking at the whole of that.
We can make our own businesses as lean as we want, but unless we do the whole supply chain we are going to struggle.
The more suppliers you have, the more people you need to support those suppliers.
In a lean business we don't want to reduce the number of people in the business, we want to get them doing more value added work.
The more time they spend dealing with suppliers then the less time they have to add value.
Companies have adopted a wide range of different consolidation strategies, from simple price-based slashing to more considered and innovative approaches.
For some years, for example, Rolls-Royce plc has handed over the supply of low value, high volume Class C parts to a single service provider.
They handle every aspect of supply chain management, dealing with literally hundreds of companies - but Rolls-Royce only has one supplier to deal with.
There are also good examples of intelligent thinking on supply chain reduction among exhibitors at Subcon 2006.
AWS Electronics, for example, has taken perhaps the most traditional approach by offering a complete service that covers every aspect of a product's life cycle from design, manufacture and test to the after sales service and end of life disposal.
Where it doesn't have the skills it needs in house it draws on the skills of a network of like-minded companies.
The result is to take out at least one tier of the supply chain.
Keighley Laboratories has done a bit of lateral thinking and now uses its customer base as resource to help it put together complete manufacturing projects from a single source.
The Derwentside Engineering Forum offers yet another collaborative approach, with 30 companies coming together to offer an integrated sourcing service.
Enquiries come the forum, there is an internal tendering process to appoint a lead organisation, and that company then cascades the work out to other members.
As Subcon 2006 Event Director, Jon Hughes concludes, "However you go about consolidating your supplier base you have to make sure that you are working with the right people.
That's why it is so important to take advantage of an opportunity like Subcon to see just what is on offer in the marketplace. Request a free brochure from Subcon ...
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