Bedford Spares Off the Shelf
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Every day, 185 tons of spare parts leave Vauxhall Motors, Ltd. Extensive use is made of cage bins and fOrk-trucks.
T"provision of adequate supplies of spare parts to meet the needs, estimated and actual, of models in production now or made possibly over 20 years ago, is a big and worrying task for any vehicle manufacturer. This applies particularly if the output is so large that there may be almost a million vehicles of a particular make still in operation.
One concern faced with this problem is Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., and a recent visit to Luton and Dunstable, showed how the company are dealing with it. Some idea of its immensity can be gained from the fact that the personnel of the parts department totals 865, of whom 330 are in offices and 535 in the warehouse. A few basic figures were given in this journal last week but they merit repetition with some additions.
Last year the number of separate replacement parts sold was over 54 m. and the factory's stock comprises 25,000 items, covering 18 m. pieces with a retail value of over E8 m., whilst parts to the value of over £4 m. are held by dealers here, apart from stacks of the same value located abroad. In the same period shipments were made to 132 countries.
In fact, far from deteriorating, the Vauxhall parts service is better than in pre-war days and it may be said to be virtually "off the shelf." but is not direct from the parent factory to the user. Home dealers normally stock 5,000 to 10,000 items, whilst almost all replacement orders arc met within six days and those of an urgent nature in 24 hours.
The whole control is at Luton but at present sheet-metal parts are stocked at Peterborough, those large and heavy at Bedford and only " hinnable " accessories at Luton. Soon, however, all will be brought together at the new Dunstable works, in a 440,000 sq. ft. building alongside the Bedford truck factory, which is costing Om. to build and equip. The parts department may, indeed, be described as a works within a works; for from it are dispatched 185 tons daily.
It is interesting to note that 58 per cent. of the spares go to Bedford commercial vehicles and 42 per cent, to cars, with which are included vans. This gives an indication of the mileage achieved in the commercial sphere. Such activity demands the employment of the latest methods and machines, and the I.B.M. card system is employed throughout. Operators of these punched-card machines produce the documents required for parts collection and dispatch all over the world.
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One type of accounting machine, working from the cards, produces invoices at the rate of 100 lines of type a minute, whilst another electronically controlled unit carries out 70 separate costing operations on 400 cards per minute.
At the time of the visit, difficulty in the normal supply was being experienced with only 300 part numbers out of 25,000. Mechanization includes the employment of a large number of fork-trucks, operating with pallets, whilst much space is being saved by dispensing with normal bins and employing portable containers which can be stacked to a considerable height. Each of these has cupped feet resting on the extended frame members of the receptacle below. The aisles are only 6 ft. wide and the fork-trucks employed in these are known as the "reach" type, in which the forks can be withdrawn into the normal length of the machine.
Great care is taken in the preservation of parts and all liable to corrosion are carefully dried and given lanoline treatment. This material has the property of healing over if accidentally wiped off part of the surface. Even cardboard boxes are treated internally with paraffin wax, applied hot, as the millboard is frequently found to contain corrosive substances, such as chlorides and sulphides.
Periodically, stocks held by dealers are checked and those holding excessive supplies are asked to return them to the factory. Investigation has shown that only in 4 per cent. of cases are main dealers unable to supply any part on demand and this small percentage accounts for 17,000 of the items held at the factory