An MRP system, in the realm of contract packaging, is intended to simultaneously meet three objectives to better serve the Fapco customer:

• Ensure materials and parts are available for assembly, production and packaging for delivery to customers
• Lower customer costs by maintaining the lowest possible level of inventory needed
• Improve forecast and plan for manufacturing activities, receivables, delivery schedules and purchasing activities to accelerate getting product into the distribution system

“MRP systems are very complex because by nature the system must have its fingers into every aspect of the company,” says Materials Manager Jo Ann Pressey. “It begins when the customer order enters the system. It populates the choices of raw materials for our buyers to have on hand and acquire, and it lets production know what is due and when to meet the customer’s demand.”

Pressey explained that MRP is all about customer satisfaction. MRP is driven off the sales order. If the customer changes the quantity, the date of delivery, or materials, the system automatically recalculates everything to better meet the demands of the delivery.

“When the customer does change the quantity or the delivery date, and we can no longer support the delivery, the system notifies the purchasing department to expedite the order,” states Pressey.

In laymen’s terms, an MRP system is like having a constant “Plan B” always ready to react to customer changes and demands. With Fapco’s MRP system, the scenarios are programmed into the system to respond in real time to expedite and problem solve.

Pressey explained that MRP “schedules backwards.” MRP systems look at when the customer wants it, how long it takes to build it, when will the parts arrive for small part kitting or packaging, how long it takes to order and receive the parts and all the material specifications and cost surrounding the order.

“For example,” Pressey says as she points to his computer screen, “when the delivery date gets moved up, it used to really throw a wrench into the works. Take this part here. This part was ordered to arrive on 5/13. But they now changed the date to 3/29. So immediately, the system reports to our purchasing team so they can go back to their sources and expedite the entire process.”

She expounds that the principle of having a plan in place from which to modify and react to better serve a customer, is at the foundation of the MRP system.

MRP systems are common in manufacturing but not so prevalent in contract packaging. Fapco’s ability to partner with OEMs to purchase parts and become part of the supply chain drove the move to expand its MRP systems.

“As we move from a pure consignment house packaging parts, to a full-service contract packager actually purchasing parts for the OEMs as a supply chain partner, we found it essential to enhance our MRP capabilities. Now that we have become more inline with our automotive Tier One partners, taking in parts and converting them, we have essentially taken on many aspects of a manufacturer,” concludes Pressey.

Whether its clamshell packaging or cold seal packaging, or skin packaging, Fapco Inc. will work to help your business grow. Get Started with Fapco Inc. today!

The post Fapco Implements Improved Customer Service with Material Requirements Planning (MRP) appeared first on Fapco.

Investing in Clients

“There’s a sizable investment we make with our Tier One clients,” said Fapco President and Founder Larry Gardiner. “With this particular client we’re currently running at about $550,000 in inventory that we’re turning about 10 times in a year. Our inventory turns play heavily into what our costs are. We also have a carrying cost to cover overhead and to maintain the inventory.”

“Typically when a new business starts with us, they have never thought before about all of the idiosyncrasies associated with parts inventory that they have to deal with. Initially with this equipment manufacturing client, we had over ¾ of a million dollars in inventory. And they had another two or three hundred thousand dollars. We had to work together to determine the appropriate levels and inventory turns. It’s a real partnership.”

Providing Leadership

“Our role in the partnership is to be the project leader. This requires a lot of meetings where everybody involved sits down around a table and we determine what is going well and what isn’t going so well, and what we can do to fix it.”

“During the process with this particular equipment manufacturing client, we worked out the bugs for several months, and I am sure the general manager of this partner company today would say that now we’ve got things working pretty smoothly. Once the process startup bugs start to smooth out—you’ve got about six months of negotiations and working through the detailed logistics—then you start running the real and whole program. This is when they started to see real savings in costs.”

Saving Money

“This project wouldn’t have made sense if there wasn’t a cost savings to the client. They simply wouldn’t have done it. There are several factors to consider. For instance, you will always have price increases on components and the client will have to approve the price increases before we can buy. You’ll also have suppliers that won’t perform and we’ll have to go back to them and negotiate a lower price or suggest an alternate supplier.”

Dealing with Change

Other ways Fapco partners with clients is by recognizing when their business changes and making the proper adjustments. “When we first took on this client, they gave us lead times that were significantly different than what we had initially set up in our business model for them. They also laid off some staff, so they lost some of their knowledge base. Even so, we were able to work through these issues and resolve them.”

The Payoff

“Once everybody is finally on the same page, it all begins to work. Then as you fine tune the process, the costs go down and down and down. And what we’ve found is their end customers are usually happier, too, because they’re consistently getting their parts on time. How do you quantify that? The client we’re talking about in this case was getting new orders and word of mouth advertising to buy more of their new equipment. That’s true customer satisfaction.”

Whether its reverse logistics, kitting and packaging, or blister packaging, Fapco Inc. will work to help your business grow. Get Started with Fapco Inc. today!

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Begin the Process of Partnering with a Contract Packager for Seasonal Flex Demand

1. Make a thorough review of your supplier base

Simply put, is your supply base ready to help you meet your flex parts fulfillment or kit packaging needs? This involves gauging how much inventory is out there, how much inventory you want in the network coming through the fulfillment house and how much product is in the pipeline to replenish the contract packager to support the campaign.

2. Assess your current parts packaging/distribution/warehouse system. Do you currently have a parts distribution warehouse system?

If not, where can you build in efficiencies using the full range of services from your contract packaging and fulfillment supplier? You may want to consolidate all your suppliers to ship, warehouse and fulfill through your full service contract packager during these peak periods.

3. Are there procurement opportunities with your contract packaging partner that can expedite the supply chain?

Well-established, full service contract packagers such as Fapco can actually procure the parts directly from your supply base during peak demand periods. This can expedite the supply chain dramatically. In this scenario, parts are ordered and purchased by the contract packager. Once received parts are packaged and shipped or warehoused based on historical peak demands.

4. Work with the full-service contract packager to streamline and customize your packaging needs.

How does this flex demand packaging usually ship and is there a better way? Is it in bulk boxes, point of purchase or point of sale materials—from clamshells to blister packs for rack hanging? The team at Fapco will work closely with your flex demand campaign managers to make sure the packaging is right to save you time and lower your costs. Whatever your packaging and display guidelines and specifications, Fapco works to make them better and less costly.

5. How is the product coming in and what is the plan to fulfill?

Is the product coming in raw in an overseas container? Will Fapco be purchasing some components directly? Once this is determined what will the flex program actually be? Many manufacturers ship specific numbers of seasonal parts to distribution centers or dealerships based on previous years’ demand.

Others support the launch of new products, equipment or vehicles with estimated seasonal bundles. Fapco has the experience with a wide variety of OEMs to help your company work through this seasonal program in the most efficient manner. And see our part kitting services.

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Shipping and Receiving

As your business expands, you’ll want to ship further and faster. The volume of activity at your loading dock will increase. Fapco can help. We have experience shipping to overseas ports, distribution centers, depots, terminals, stores, dealerships, and even to customer’s homes. Our staff’s combined experience can help your growing company fine tune your material and logistics management, with expertise in flex demand, private labeling strategies, bar coding, strategic fulfillment services, consolidation services, and container or overseas shipping. Not only can we provide the expertise that you need; we can also implement programs to help you save money. With Fapco, you’ll add a highly trained group of shipping, receiving, and distribution experts to your team without having to hire or train any additional staff. We can quickly and efficiently ship to or receive from anywhere to meet the client needs through their vast distribution network.

Warehousing

Don’t have the warehouse space or staff to handle the volume of parts you’re experiencing? Let Fapco provide the space you need off-site in one of their centrally located warehouse facilities. Our experienced staff will take care of your materials and you won’t need to hire or train new employees. Fapco can scale their services to fit your business levels as your company continues to grow. We can also leverage their buying power to lower the cost of the parts, such as small parts kitting, you buy on an every day basis.

Packaging

Want a professionally packaged product that will help to further your company brand and look just like one of the big players in your industry? Fapco is a source of highly trained, flexible labor to meet your needs for packaging, materials management, and packaging design. We have packaging engineering capabilities to improve the design, quality, and durability of your packaged product. Partnering with Fapco reduces the training, labor, facility and equipment costs associated with packaging and warehousing in-house. We do the hard work and tackle the expense associated with packaging, and make you look like a star.

Whether its part kitting or cold seal blister packaging, Fapco Inc. will work to help your business grow. Get Started with Fapco Inc. today!

The post Tier One Consolidation Benefits appeared first on Fapco.

Fapco has the systems in place to assure quality control — from the first part to the last.  “Everyone is in charge of quality control at Fapco,” said Plant Manager, Rob Kolecki, “What we do for all our customers is a unique system to assure the job is done right.” It all starts with a standard work order designed to be easily understood by the Fapco team for any customer or production run.

“We have a very flexible labor force in that no matter who the customer is, the work order is understood by the team working on the job. It may be a generator part or an plumbing component, but the work order contains the information in a standard format to identify the components, packaging materials and packaging and labeling requirements.”

“We verify we have the correct components, the correct packaging materials and then we assemble and package the first piece. Then we must get a ‘first piece buyoff,’” said Kolecki.

Dedicated quality control management and team members assure that the first piece is correct and document the process. Once the team gets the “first piece buyoff,” the run is started. Every four hours this process is repeated to assure that the packaging run is on track to be as perfect as the first piece produced. This process occurs for production runs of all sizes.

“At the end of almost every run, whether it’s a 25-piece job, or a 50,000-piece job, we must get a ‘last piece buyoff’ to make sure the last piece produced is the same quality as the first piece produced.”

This high quality standard system translates to other areas of the process as well.  Fapco team member, Angie Wilson, receives the packaged parts and is in charge of making sure they are prepared perfectly for shipment. “Our process runs a bit differently, our quality control auditor checks to see if our packages are sealed properly, documents the process, and returns every hour to repeat this inspection process.  We are checked every hour for quality,” she concluded.

This process goes on relentlessly at Fapco, each and every day, in many different forms for each department, to assure quality and high levels of customer satisfaction. As a part of the ongoing pursuit of the highest quality performance for our customers, Fapco was recently re-certified as ISO 9001:2008 compliant.

Whether it’s auto parts fulfillment, small parts packaging or cold seal packaging, Fapco Inc. will work to help your business grow. Get Started with Fapco Inc. today!

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