PROBLEM:
An industry-leading producer of contact lenses was in the midst of outsourcing its supply model in order to remove itself from the parts side of the business. The company was experiencing elevated parts costs due to many parts having little or no reliable repair services available. This put them in the position of purchasing new parts when failures did occur. A clear understanding of why parts failed had not been established in order to prevent these failures in the future. With parts repeatedly experiencing breakdown, the company was losing productivity. Costs were on the rise.
THE ATS SOLUTION:
ATS moved quickly to install their industry-proven methods and procedures. Taking an engineering approach to parts failure through an in-depth analysis allowed this manufacturer to see savings of more than $572,000 the first year. Through this analysis ATS developed methods to repair parts previously considered non-repairable. The total reduced costs are attributed to identifying the root cause of failure. This in addition to providing repairs for many parts with previously no reliable repair services.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Through a cooperative effort with the Service Centers, ATS went from providing 5% repairable parts to now repairing more than 70% of the failed parts. The root cause project and expanded repair capabilities have generated $1,200,000 in approved cost savings for 2004. Springboarding on the success of this program, ATS' services have now been expanded to providing management for this customer's Predictive Maintenance program and developing a dedicated bench repair system for those parts more suitable for on-site repair.
An industry-leading producer of contact lenses was in the midst of outsourcing its supply model in order to remove itself from the parts side of the business. The company was experiencing elevated parts costs due to many parts having little or no reliable repair services available. This put them in the position of purchasing new parts when failures did occur. A clear understanding of why parts failed had not been established in order to prevent these failures in the future. With parts repeatedly experiencing breakdown, the company was losing productivity. Costs were on the rise.