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Ford World, January/February 2006
DEARBORN, Jan. 4, 2006 (FCN) -- Ford is rolling out a new inventory tracking system within its North American assembly plants that is expected to save hundreds of thousands of dollars at each facility through significant improvements in speed and accuracy.
The new, web-based Scrap Tracking Management System (STMS) is used for inventory control of scrapped or rejected parts and material. STMS completed a one-year pilot program at the Michigan Truck Plant last October. The results were impressive, compared to the previous process of manually tagging each unusable part.
"The time it to takes to process the information generated from the manual tags has been cut from about a month to one day or less," said Ken Hamkins, launch leader, STMS. "As soon as the data is electronically entered into the system everyone in the plant can see it."
Hamkins says the current method of manually tagging parts yields data that isn't always accurate or legible and that the slow processing time can lead to unnecessary costs.
"Frequently, there are more production-ready parts in the plant than actually exist because unusable parts take so long to show up in the system," explained Hamkins. "The parts unaccounted for are considered missing, so the plant orders new ones. Later, when the previously designated missing parts turn up in the system as scrapped or rejected, a second batch of parts is unnecessarily ordered to replace them. The lag time in processing makes it very difficult to determine that the missing and scrapped parts are really the same."
Jeff Ukrainec used both systems at Michigan Truck and thinks STMS will have a significant impact.
"The accuracy of the data is much improved and will save a lot of money," said Ukrainec, an engineering change coordinator at Michigan Truck. "It's definitely state-of-the-art and is a best practice within the company."
STMS has been implemented at Michigan Truck and Chicago Assembly and is expected to be in operation at all of Ford's North American assembly plants this year. The new system also is being considered for use in the company's powertrain and stamping facilities.
Plant News – New inventory tracking system reduces cost, time
By John Fossen, FCN News StaffDEARBORN, Jan. 4, 2006 (FCN) -- Ford is rolling out a new inventory tracking system within its North American assembly plants that is expected to save hundreds of thousands of dollars at each facility through significant improvements in speed and accuracy.
The new, web-based Scrap Tracking Management System (STMS) is used for inventory control of scrapped or rejected parts and material. STMS completed a one-year pilot program at the Michigan Truck Plant last October. The results were impressive, compared to the previous process of manually tagging each unusable part.
"The time it to takes to process the information generated from the manual tags has been cut from about a month to one day or less," said Ken Hamkins, launch leader, STMS. "As soon as the data is electronically entered into the system everyone in the plant can see it."
Hamkins says the current method of manually tagging parts yields data that isn't always accurate or legible and that the slow processing time can lead to unnecessary costs.
"Frequently, there are more production-ready parts in the plant than actually exist because unusable parts take so long to show up in the system," explained Hamkins. "The parts unaccounted for are considered missing, so the plant orders new ones. Later, when the previously designated missing parts turn up in the system as scrapped or rejected, a second batch of parts is unnecessarily ordered to replace them. The lag time in processing makes it very difficult to determine that the missing and scrapped parts are really the same."
Jeff Ukrainec used both systems at Michigan Truck and thinks STMS will have a significant impact.
"The accuracy of the data is much improved and will save a lot of money," said Ukrainec, an engineering change coordinator at Michigan Truck. "It's definitely state-of-the-art and is a best practice within the company."
STMS has been implemented at Michigan Truck and Chicago Assembly and is expected to be in operation at all of Ford's North American assembly plants this year. The new system also is being considered for use in the company's powertrain and stamping facilities.