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COMPONEN1 DELIVERIES
Page 31
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— Most car manufacturers use consolidation centres close to their plants to feed parts to the assembly lines. These centres are run by contractors who collect the parts direct from the suppliers.
Land Rover's Solihull plant is supplied from a consolidation centre 8km away. Andy Fitt, MD of operations for TNT Logistics, which runs the site, reports: "Parts will be called off on a four-hour or shorter timescale. They are taken to the line as close as possible to when the car builders need them."
Parts destined for dealers are handled by US-based Caterpillar. Logistics, which runs the company's global distribution hub at Bedard, Leics. This warehouse can hold more than 50,000 different parts and has the capacity to deliver 12,500 orders a day to more than 300 dealers worldwide.
Within the next two months TNT Logistics is due to launch a rail-connected parts distribution service for Volkswagen Audi Croup near Junction 10 of the M42 iii the West Midlands. The idea is to use rail to bring parts in from the Continent before delivering them throughout the UN by road.