Logistics Re-Engineering in Material Warehouses

We worked with subject matter experts (SMEs) in the subway car maintenance, track maintenance, and bus maintenance departments to develop plans and policies for procurement, use, and replenishment of 60,000 stock items valued at $150 million in a timely, orderly and economical fashion.  We analyzed historical requisition data to determine use rates and stock out events, and established minimum stock levels and re-order intervals to keep control of the logistics costs and address chronic shortage issues for certain items.  As part of this project we integrated three disparate, departmentally-designed mainframe computer systems into a consolidated Commodity Management System (CMS), to support SME parts and inventory needs in normal maintenance, special renewal campaigns, and asset overhauls.  In developing this process, we were able to support an effort to relocate smaller satellite store rooms all over the system to a centralized location, which further reduced the handling cost associated with each delivered part.  Additionally, we examined the data to identify parts with the biggest issues in terms of quality, availability, and lead-time, and created a multi-sourcing effort in an effort to address these issues.  As part of this project, we were able to monitor and identify the obsolescence of parts caused by subway car and bus retirements, which in turn resulted in $20 million reduction in inventory.