Gain Efficiencies with Expert Outsourced Chemical Management Services

Aerospace defense primes need to focus on their core mission of manufacturing aircraft. Prior to its utilization of Chemical Management Services, a large defense prime managed its own chemicals and struggled to gain a comprehensive view across multiple manufacturing sites.

Incora provided an integrated system of data management and onsite expert services to enable the prime to gain control of its chemicals usage. From chemicals procurement to life cycle management, Incora reduced complexity and increased reliability so that the customer could focus on its core manufacturing.

The results of outsourcing chemical management to an expert provider were significant. After consolidating 98% of the chemical spend, efficiencies included on-time delivery improvement from 82% to 98%, scrap rate reduction from 10% to 0.45%, average inventory turns from 4 months to 1 week, and $3M in annual cost savings.

Business Challenge

A defense prime managed its own chemicals purchasing for multiple manufacturing sites. Given the complexity of its enterprise platforms and data management systems, the customer struggled to gather a comprehensive view of total chemicals usage. This led to a series of stock-outs and high levels of expired materials that resulted in downtime and high costs.

The customer was challenged to:

• Reduce chemical management and inventory carrying costs
• Attain a consolidated view of chemicals across sites, including adhesives, sealants, cleaners, solvents, metal working fluids, and other chemicals
• Utilize technical data to support life cycle management, inventory optimization, and robust forecasting
• Gather constituent data for environmental compliance
• Continuously reduce use and cost of chemicals

Incora™ Solution

Incora's integration of the tcmis™ data management platform and multi-year CMS contract provided the customer with:

• Chemical gatekeeping/approvals
• Inventory planning, purchasing, and forecasting
• Quality Assurance inspection
• Off-site inventory control
• SDS management for 3,000 documents
• Drop shipments
• Just-in-time replenishment to point-of-use
• Consolidated invoicing to one monthly bill

Incora deployed barcode scanning equipment to securely track chemical movement to multiple sites, ensured appropriate inventory levels were maintained, and minimized shelf-life expiration. Incora's solution also provided accurate financial and environmental reporting.

Results

Incora's integrated solution provided notable cost savings and efficiencies for the customer:

EFFICIENCIES GAINED

• Consolidated 98% chemical spend across multiple sites
• 90% reduction in chemical storage footprint
• 98% OTD rating over 4 years (from 82%)
• 0.45% scrap rate over 4 years (from 10%)
• 2-day order cycle time (compared to 5-7 days)
• 1 week average inventory turn (compared to 4 months)
• Accurate environmental and financial reporting
• Reassignment of internal resources to higher value workflow

$3M ANNUAL COST SAVINGS

Reduced costs across multiple departments, including:

• EHS Labor
• Purchasing
• Use and distribution
• Logistics
• Waste disposal
• Chemical purchasing

With Incora CMS, the prime regained full control of its chemical inventory.

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