Forging Ahead: Steel Wheel and Axle Manufacturer’s Strategic Partnership with MSC Drives Cost Savings and Operational Excellence

This company is a leading manufacturer of forged steel wheels and axles for freight railcars, locomotives and passenger railcars. It holds the distinction of being the sole producer of forged steel wheels for railcars and locomotives in North America.

To learn more about MSC’s BNA, our unbiased process, and data assessment of your indirect supply chain, designed to identify customized solutions to empower performance, generate savings and maximize profit potential, call us at 800.645.7270.

* While the customer information is confidential, the story and results are real.

Product Availability, Inventory Visibility, Too Many Indirect Suppliers, Multiple PO’s, Rush Orders & Stockouts

Conducted an extensive operational site assessment through MSC’s Business Needs Analysis (BNA) to identify opportunities to achieve this customer’s goals for an automated and strategic inventory management solution.

Goals included:

• Prevention of Stock Outs and Downtime

• Supplier consolidation & PO reduction

• Data and Inventory Visibility

• Eliminate high freight cost due to rush orders

ControlPoint® Vending, In-Plant, Parker Hydraulics Program & MW Specialist

• Point of Use Vending Machines

• Automated ordering with Min/Max levels

• Supplier reduction & Order consolidation

• Customized reporting with 24/7 visibility of inventory

• Implemented Parker Hydraulics solution to manage hose, reels, crimper and saw and organize bins and racks

$133,398 cost savings in the first three months

• Reduction of PO’s and stockouts

• Increased reporting and visibility

• Partnership established

• Vending eliminated expensive freight costs because the product was stocked

• Downtime reduced because of a stockout

• Employee time freed up to be more strategic vs tactical

Established a cadence of quarterly Customer Improvement Reviews (CIR) at which MSC and the customer collectively review a “scorecard” to evaluate progress on identified goals and look for improvement opportunities. In addition, we continue to work with our specialist teams and the customer to identify improvement initiatives to keep their team at their highest levels of safety and productivity. Vending has been adopted very well and has expanded into multiple new departments since implementation, being utilized on a greater scale than previously thought.