Case Study – Outsourced Spares and Logistics

Edwards Vacuum in Clevedon UK manufactures Abatement systems primarily used in the semiconductor market to clean waste gases from large vacuum systems.  The manufacturing facility became constrained as it released its next generation systems to the market.  They were similarly distracted by the high volumes of spare parts and service kits needed to maintain equipment in the field.

PSC Global worked with Edwards to partner them in the outsourcing of the spares and the service items over the initial period some 200 spares kits and sub-assemblies were transferred to PSC Global.  The initial benefit realised by Edwards was enhanced material availability, stockholding reduction and reduced vendor management, allowing the Clevedon Team to focus on ramping up manufacturing.

Initial lead-time reductions of 12 weeks down to two weeks increased material availability to Edwards service business and ultimately to their customers.

The second phase once the outsourcing had been embedded into PSC Global was the outsourcing of the logistics function. Initially the materials were kitted in PSC Global UK, then transferred to PSC Global CR and ultimately delivered to Edwards regional distribution centre (RDC) in the Czech Republic.

It was decided that PSC Global UK could operate a spares global distribution centre (SGDC) on behalf of Edwards, supplying product to their regional service centres and customers globally from its base in the UK, providing further lead-time reductions to next day supply of materials.

The benefits of choosing PSC Global to manage the total outsourcing has delivered the following

• Lead-time reduction from 12 weeks to 1 day
• Reduced stock holding as stock is held centrally in the distribution centre in the UK and not in the regional service locations, delivering significant working capital reductions
• Reduced ‘noise’ from spares requirements being actioned by the Clevedon manufacturing team in Clevedon, allowing them time to focus on delivering new product
• Increased spares and service item availability