by Natalie Edwards

TRT - Tidd Ross Todd, Hamilton - Success Story

 

'The time saving for purchasing and stores was also real benefit we estimate 5 to 6 hours per week across each department. '

 

We visited TRT's head office in Hamilton, and caught up with manufacturing manager, Simon Carden about why TRT implemented QuickStock as part of their inventory management strategy.

Tell us a bit about TRT….

TRT is a Privately-owned Family run business. We have been providing solutions to the transport and construction industries on both sides of the Tasman and the Asia Pacific region for over 50 years. Our head office and manufacturing plant is here in Hamilton and we have branches in Auckland Christchurch and Brisbane.

We have a full manufacturing process from design to paint and assembly. We predominately manufacture bespoke heavy transport trailers and are the only vehicle manufacturer left in NZ with our TIDD pick and carry crane. We have a team of 260 with about 90 in the manufacturing plant, from trades as varied as welding, fabrication to mechanical engineers and diesel technicians.

We have a fast moving and varied manufacturing environment that requires our supply of consumables and stock to be timely and accessible. Delays in supply can have repercussions right through the various production areas.

How did you manage consumable stock inventory before QUICKSTOCK?

We have good accountability for consumable stock through our job system, but it is very manual to manage, this meant our consumables were ordered by monitoring levels on the shelves and ordering them as required. This also meant that a lot of orders were created throughout the month and when we had unexpected use, we either had to manage urgent order or were caught short. This led to downtime in production and the habit of stock piling within the teams.

What led you to try QUICKSTOCK?

Over the past 3 years TRT’s operation has grown rapidly and we identified the need to work smarter and inventory management was a key part of this. With our 5 different manufacturing areas in different locations each requiring different consumables. We challenged Andy and the team at Euromarc to use their expertise to help us find a solution. With some clear goals of reducing consumable cost and creating a more automated ordering system.

What were some of the costs involved in ordering before QUICKSTOCK?

The majority of the costs were related to resources allocated to managing stock, including manual checking of stock levels, creating purchase orders, tracking delivery, then distributing the stock to each location – and it’s a large site! We also had the unmeasured cost of the production downtime when the team had to access stock or when stock was no longer available.

What made you decide to give the QUICKSTOCK solution a go?

Euromarc were able to provide a solution that fit not only our lean production planning and ISO 9001 quality systems, but it was also going to eliminate costs associated with our old manual processes. It really ticked all the boxes. We have the consumables located in close proximity to where the work is being done, and stock of consumables to suit each location – creating stock on hand instead of having to access a central storage point. The time saving for purchasing and stores was also real benefit we estimate 5 to 6 hours per week across each department.

Were there any hurdles with getting used to QUICKSTOCK?

The biggest hurdle was deciding how much stock of each SKU was required within each area. Euromarc made this easier - they had a history of stock of what we had been using. This was able to be fine-tuned over a couple of months and is now very smooth. Even if you don’t have a history with Euromarc, I can imagine they will make this transition easy.

How would you say QUICKSTOCK has improved your business?

We believe that we have reduced stock outage across the Euromarc range by up to 95% this equates to real saving across the operation. The other advantage is a big saving of purchasing time and distribution time. An added bonus of this system is the convenience and cash flow management associated with the ordering process - which is all managed by Euromarc, stock is invoiced when it is used – meaning we are never caught short. We will be looking forward to finding out the full extent of the benefits when we analyse our first year of operation.

What would you say to other engineering companies looking for an inventory management solution?

I have no doubt Euromarc’s Quickstock is a successful system no matter how large or small the engineering workshop is – the benefits are tangible form day one and Euromarc have been front and centre for the purchasing team, making the process to change to Quickstock easy.