Maintenance at one of GSK’s UK manufacturing plants is carried out using parts and materials held in a main store operated by logistics specialists Eriks.
During business hours the store is manned and accurate records are maintained of the level of critical parts – items on high availability, essential to the smooth operation of the plant. However, since the plant operates 24/7, engineers have emergency access to the stores out of hours. During these times issues occurred because stock items were taken without being recorded, resulting in the stock system displaying higher levels of stock than was physically available. Replenishment stock was therefore not ordered, leaving the plant vulnerable to costly emergency shutdowns.
Codegate specified, supplied and fitted an RFID asset tracking system that was able to record details of any critical items removed during the night, and who took them. This involved setting up Lime software, providing engineers with ID tags, and an RFID tag printing system so that tags could be applied to items arriving at goods in. RFID readers were installed on every point of entry to the store, passively reading any tagged items passing in or out. When the stores staff arrive at the start of the day they can run a report detailing all the stock movements from the previous night, and were then able to accurately update the stores system. The result is a much higher level of stock accuracy, minimising any possibility of critical spares not being available when needed.
