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Aiding the vendor reduction process |
25/09/2007 |
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It is vital that, to be successful, suppliers do everything they can to help manufacturers run an efficient and effective supply chain management system. This covers many aspects of the business including: consolidating deliveries to reduce shipping and administration costs, setting up on-line ordering, providing IT systems that allow customers direct access to ordering and progress information, Kanban and JIT ordering and shipping direct to line.
Vendor reduction is one of the most important elements in supply chain management for virtually every company working in the electronics sector. Suppliers can assist in various ways. For instance at Aerco we hold 10,000 products from 35 manufacturers, through to offering a comprehensive kitting service and running full inventory management programmes.
Aerco’s long term aim is to build strong relationships with our customers, working closely with them to provide a highly efficient and valuable stocking service rather than basing the value merely in terms of unit price. Fruition of this policy is that Aerco is now running a full inventory management system for Raytheon Systems and is an appointed strategic partner for Westland Helicopters, Ultra Electronics, EADS and Astrium.
Under the terms of the Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) agreement with Raytheon Systems, Aerco supplies all connector requirements at its Harlow and Glenrothes sites. Raytheon provides Aerco with MRP data on a weekly basis and we deliver products, usually shipped the following day, for the next week’s manufacturing requirements.
Aerco manages the complete stock holding, including a buffer stock, thus ensuring that Raytheon never runs short of connector products while reducing their stock holding, producing higher stock-turn ratios and reducing administration effort and costs.
As a strategic partner Aerco forms a key part in a company’s vendor reduction programme supplying a wide range of products including switches, circuit breakers, connectors as well as a range of aircraft lighting products. Aerco’s administration system is highly flexible and can be tailored to suit each individual company.
Another area of great value to vendor reduction is providing high levels of technical design and support. The Aerco DESIGNSUPPORT team can evaluate a design, develop design changes if necessary and then source products from any supplier in the world that are best suited to the task in hand. This saves hours of engineering and purchasing time and also reduces time in getting a product to market while optimising product performance.
Procurement support is more important now than at any other time in the history of the electronics industry. With rapidly changing technology leading to volatile customer demand, plus the effects of statutory legislation such as EMC and RoHS compliance, literally thousands of products are becoming obsolescent every month.
At Aerco, a dedicated team literally scours the world searching for equivalent components for products that are either no longer available or are on unacceptable lead times. Identifying suitable alternatives can be tricky because for some products it is often extremely difficult to evaluate and source an exact replacement and this requires a great deal of experience.
In today’s highly competitive electronics market , Aerco, are prepared to offer full inventory management programmes at fixed price contracts over extended periods. It is what our customers need |
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