Manufacturers are increasingly turning their backs on standardised vendor managed stores solutions, according to industrial MRO specialist ABCO, which has undertaken nine bespoke site roll-outs in just 18 months.
While off-the-shelf stores management works for many businesses, ABCO says complex, multi-site manufacturers face a fundamentally different challenge: fragmented processes, inconsistent stock data and widely varying operational requirements from one site to the next. A solution designed for one facility, the company argues, rarely translates to another.
ABCO’s approach combines procurement and engineering requirements from the outset, using site-level data to design inventory solutions around individual operations, before connecting sites digitally to provide group-wide visibility of stock, usage and spend. Its technology also enables asset association, linking MRO components directly to machinery, giving engineering and procurement teams a true understanding of lifetime cost and where every item is held and used.
Recent deployments illustrate the impact. At Eurocell Profiles, the UK’s largest manufacturer and recycler of uPVC, ABCO delivered a 50% reduction in PPE spend and created a microstore that eliminated an 80-minute round trip for engineers collecting critical parts. At a Compleat Foods site, ABCO identified £9,000 in MRO product cost savings within the first six months, established the site’s first accurate stock valuation, and began identifying de-badged components with savings potential of up to 70% on individual items.
Marie Hounslow, Sales & Marketing Director at ABCO, said:
“Replicating a one-size-fits-all vendor managed stores solution across a multi-site business often sets the customer up for failure from the off. Every site has its own equipment, people, processes and challenges and our job is to understand each one individually before connecting the picture at group level. That gives customers an engineer-led solution that works on the ground and the global visibility that procurement and leadership teams need. Nine roll-outs in 18 months tells us manufacturers are ready for something better.”
ABCO provides MRO supply, vendor managed inventory, engineering stores management and inventory technology to the industrial sector across the East of England. For more information, visit here.
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