The Challenge

A renowned supplier in central Europe needed to maintain its reputation for maintaining quality standards through the inspection, containment and rectification of its manufactured parts.

It also recognised the need to provide best value for money to its own customers by keeping production costs to a minimum.

Furthermore, it had to be confident that any outsourcing activity work would not cause any logistical issues that might impact negatively on quality, time, costs and efficiency.

The Solution   

G&P sourced 1,100m2 warehouse space in a neighbouring country to reduce operating costs.

Parts were delivered to the warehouse by the customer. At that point G&P took control of the parts and all associated logistics movement.

This off-site facility was used for inspection, containment and rectification.

The processing area housed 90 work stations for inspection and rework.

All work stations were equipped with electronic displays, work instructions and visual aids.

The work stations were clearly zoned into STOP, OK and NOK areas to support single piece flow and process step segregation.

All goods were clearly segregated into four very separate areas – incoming material that has not been processed, processed material in an OK state, processed material in a NOK state (rejected), packaging and recycling area.

G&P handled all the human resource requirements in line with the customer volume demands and a five-day week/three shift structure was established, with the flexibility to work weekends too.

Stock was controlled and processed to a delivery schedule and PPM threshold was agreed with and measured by the client.

The operation was an extension of the customer’s workforce and ran as if it was the customer’s factory.

The Results  

G&P, in essence, became the customer’s team through its extended workbench solution. It was not G&P and the customer – it was one team.

Moreover, the customer benefited from a circa 60 per cent cost saving. The savings more than offset the additional logistics cost while maintaining quality standards.

As a result, G&P has successfully been providing its extended workbench solution for the customer through an open and transparent operation with targeted KPIs to drive performance, which remains ongoing today.

It was further proof of G&P’s extended workbench solution delivering cost efficiency while promoting best working practice through teamwork, which has subsequently resulted in the opening of an additional facility in central Europe to implement the same solution for other customers.