Parallel supply chains are a necessary part of business – changing supplier locations, resourcing materials to a new supplier, overcoming Quality issues in Production. At times like this all the pieces matter, and business decisions are only as good as the information available.
Our client operates a very high-volume assembly and sequence JIT facility, so when they started to have component failures in the field, their Senior Management Team set to work immediately to contain the situation.
They found tiny dimensional discrepancies in a fastening clip, and connected this to the plating process in their supplier. The only problem was that their supplier was 7,500 miles away and the deadline for consumption of all available good parts was just hours away.
The only alternative was to transport parts from another source, with enough quantity to bridge the gap until parts could be sourced from the original supplier. On the first day of the containment plan, the first urgent collection was made, tracked on a direct flight until delivery just 36 hours later. In tandem, checking fixtures were sent in the opposite direction, to original supplier, so that new-level parts could be checked for dimensional accuracy. As soon as the new batch was ready, and second and third urgent collections were made from the original source, until stock coverage levels were finally able to return to normal.
Accuracy was vital in this episode – accuracy of measurements, accuracy of stock levels, accuracy of delivery timings. Production came close to consuming all available material, but the confidence in the transport information underpinned a complicated recovery plan. It is important to know that you can trust the information you receive when you need it the most.