Managing Risk in the Supply Chain

It’s tempting, isn’t it, to make sure that you have more than enough of a material to make sure you can ‘ride out’ any disruption to the supply chain. And having a cupboard with these items ‘squirrelled away’ isn’t harmful to the business – it stands to reason that this will remove risk.

But does it?

Hoarding materials has several massive impacts on the wider industry – and your costs.

• Money is tied up in inventory that is just sitting there and not adding value to your business. The funds your business has MUST be actively used to extract its value.
• Imagine if you multiply up that ‘small value’ across hundreds of items squirrelled away – it’s a huge amount of cash that could be used elsewhere.
• Who knows they are there? What happens if a colleague needs one of those widgets but isn’t aware that you have them?
• What is their condition? How long before the product moves from State 1 to State 2….or even 3. You may then use that material and import risk onto the railway through it not conforming.
• Do the items need calibrating? Where’s the record-keeping to ensure they’re kept fully ready to use?
• Has the item been superseded with a more up to date version and so should be scrapped or returned for an upgrade?

Of course, you may be keeping all these materials in a properly managed store, but many of these issues still apply. By managing your inventory more tightly – better aligned to the need of the operations AND having access to materials not just in your store, but across hundreds of locations nationwide – you can keep your inventory levels to the optimal whilst maintaining availability.

Which is where Unipart Rail comes in. We have many solutions that will meet your needs:

• Stock review – we can review your existing materials and make recommendations to keep, refurbish, recycle or scrap.
• Manage your stores for you, with expert staff and the back-up of the entire Unipart Rail system.
• Source urgent products for you from across our extensive supply and management base.
• Take end-of-project materials and store for you in a controlled environment until required for the next project.
• Overhaul/service/refurbish older material when required for a project – and store it in the meantime.

Find out more on: https://www.unipartrail.com/supply-chain-solutions.html

Contact us for more information: enquiries@unipartrail.com

   Adding Value through Reduced Risk, Improved Performance and Optimised Cost