General Management
Headquartered in Preston, Air Power Centre supply a complete range of compressed air and electro/pneumatic control equipment all related services.
Originally established in 1941 as Heaps Collis & Harrison, Air Power Centre is renowned for the quality of its products and services. All the branches are BS.EN.ISO 9002 accredited. They provide a broad range of compressed air products such as compressors, pneumatic control systems, spray booths, spray guns, fluid pumps, and air-powered tools, to suit different customer requirements.
Air Power Centre deals with companies large and small, making sure that they all receive the same careful attention to detail for which Air Power Centre is renowned. Their customers include some of the largest industries in the UK, as diverse as Atomic Power Generation and Food Manufacturing, illustrating the wide ranging market in which they operate.
Productivity Issues
APC had concerns over a number of issues particularly their current management information system and their stock holding levels.
A review was conducted by Productivity Centre staff and this confirmed the concerns highlighted by APC. The three issues which could be impacting both performance and productivity were;
- Stock Levels and Stock management
- Service Department management
- The overall Management information system
An action Plan was prepared and put forward to APC
Actions
Concerning Stock Levels and Stock Management, some work had already been started by APC to address this issue particularly the problem of old non-moving stock. This included the sale or disposal of stock where there had been no movements in 12 months. The Productivity Centre helped with some suggestions on stock levels and stock turns. It was also suggested that the ordering lead time when purchasing for scheduled service jobs could be reduced. A shorter order cycle was recommended to reduce service kit stock levels
For the Service Department the Productivity Centre recommended that APC look at a computer based service engineer management systems which would improve on what was largely a manual diary system.
The current management information system is a UNIX based system which although not old, does not have the flexibility to give detailed or configured management data and reports.
Results
The improvement work with Air Power Centre is on-going but considerable progress has already been made in addressing the problems of stock levels. Better reports on stock movements are now available and levels of service stock have been reduced by £30K with an overall stock reduction of £100K. Stock turns have also increased by 50% and service department kit purchasing is better controlled.
Further contact with the Productivity Centre team has been going on to develop better standard forms for Service and Sales. These electronic forms are now being introduced and have dramatically reduced time spent creating what was originally hand typed paperwork. Service Manager Steve Stott said " These new forms have considerably reduced Service Department paperwork, we can create service agreements in a fraction of the time it used to take"
There is more work to do at APC to continue the stock reduction and to improve the way the existing management information system provides data and accurate reports.