As the UK’s largest car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover’s operations need to be as slick as possible. Everything
from manufacturing – with production sites in the West Midlands and Liverpool – to parts supply has faced greater pressure than ever since the COVID-19 outbreak four years ago. The worldwide microchip shortage that followed only added further supply chain headaches.
In order to get on top of parts supply shortages for its Jaguar and Land Rover cars, JLR fast-tracked Project Mercia: an ambitious initiative aimed to consolidate its parts operations in the UK from multiple sites to one, in the heart of the country.
Project Mercia is a £220m warehousing project covering 2.9m square feet, and now provides car parts to all JLR customers around the UK. It should help ensure parts are supplied faster and more efficiently – and customers are waiting less time for parts to arrive and for their cars to be repaired.
But how do you reduce the time spent delivering car parts from one huge warehouse to anywhere in the UK?
Reducing order picking times with counting scales
Matt Jackson, Logistics Operations Project Lead for Project Mercia, sets the scene:
“The vast majority of our small parts SKU range offering are packed in singles, or between 5-10pcs for high runners. Some of our larger PDC (parts distribution centres) can order large quantities in one go - anything up to 4000pcs.”
So – how could JLR ensure order pickers spend minutes, not hours, picking and shipping out parts orders?
“These picks were being done manually which would take hours to complete,” says Matt. “So, we were looking at counting scales that could be added to our trolleys (and therefore be mobile) and used for the small parts picking process.”
How do counting scales make order picking processes faster?
Counting scales allow you to count multiple identical items instantly, eliminating the need to count items out individually by hand. Counting scales use the weight of an individual item to calculate the total number of items on the scale based on the total weight.
This means, as long as the counting scale knows the weight of an individual piece, it can provide a total count of tens, hundreds, possibly even thousands of identical items in an instant. This high-speed solution to counting multiple items can save businesses many hours – and helps to avoid the issue of human error when counting.
Why did JLR choose Adam’s GBC Bench Counting Scales?
Matt says: “Our requirement was for accurate counting scales to enable our small parts picking process to become more efficient.”
After working with the Adam distributor and JLR, our distributor supplied a single for JLR to trial and assess, an order for 55 GBC counting scales was placed – enough to fully-equip the Project Mercia warehouse.
“Adam’s GBC counting scales fitted the brief in terms of accuracy, size of pan (meaning we didn’t need to increase the length of the picking trolley by much), ease of use, the rechargeable battery option, and potential attachments available such as the ATP2 Printer.”
How did Adam’s GBC Bench Counting Scales improve JLR’s parts supply operations?
After a month of having the GBCs in use, Matt’s team were able to assess the impact of using counting scales instead of the traditional method of counting parts orders by hand.
“So far, where there are pick tasks for high quantities of the same part, the time to complete the picking task has been reduced by up to 85% when the scales have been used.
"This increase in efficiency has allowed the operation to use fewer resources to pick greater volumes.”
Want to see similar transformations in efficiency for your business? Take a look at our counting scales range, and then contact us or your preferred Adam Equipment supplier.
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