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CORUS TO ESTABLISH DEDICATED DISTRIBUTION FACILITY FOR SUPPLYING MAYFLOWER VEHICLE SYSTEMS WITH STEEL BLANKS
The facility will improve efficiency and increase flexibility to enhance service levels of delivering steel skin panel blanks from its dedicated Automotive Service Centre in Wolverhampton to Mayflower Vehicle Systems. The 1200 m2 satellite facility, located at Swallow Gate Business Park adjacent to the Mayflower operation, will be fully networked with the Automotive Service Centre, which is based at the Corus Steelpark, a 50-acre steel supply and processing hub, in Wednesfield in the West Midlands. The networked JIT facility will allow Corus to provide Mayflower with full functionality including complete visibility and traceablity of stock, the processing of orders and even invoicing. The JIT facility will stock Mayflower’s complete requirement of 206 different sizes and specifications of automotive steel blanks for more than 100 different body parts, which the company supplies to several leading vehicle manufacturers. With a 2000 tonne stock capacity, the distribution satellite will provide a flexible and efficient supply of blanks timed to meet Mayflower’s specific manufacturing schedule. A back-to-back loading and off-loading system will operate between the Corus Automotive Service Centre, the JIT facility and Mayflower. This further streamlines the supply-chain allowing materials to flow in a more efficient and reliable way, thereby reducing storage, handling and transport costs. Locating the facility on Mayflower’s doorstep has enabled the company to eliminate its own steel stocks and release both capital and space tied up in this area. In particular, the new facility will help to alleviate the specific logistics problems posed by the almost constant traffic congestion on the M6 motorway between Coventry and Wolverhampton. The JIT facility is expected to be operational from the end of May 2003. Commenting on the supply facility and the added value of working with a material supplier such as Corus, Dave Watson, general manager supply, Mayflower Vehicle Systems said: “Reducing costs through the supply chain is a major challenge facing the automotive industry, and the investment and commitment Corus has made in establishing this facility will help us to achieve this. Corus has worked closely with us to understand our specific needs as a tier one supplier, which helps us deliver the quality of products and service demanded by vehicle manufacturers.” The new supply facility follows the recent £250,000 investment by Corus in an additional multi-strand blanking line at Wednesfield to help meet increased demand, which includes the contract to supply Mayflower Vehicle Systems with 100 per cent of its skin panel blank requirements. The new blanking line is the latest addition to the £30 million already invested by Corus in downstream facilities at the Steelpark site to help meet the increasing demand from the automotive supply chain for tailor-welded and full-finish skin-panel blanks ready for assembly. The site already boasts a comprehensive line-up of dedicated processing facilities, including two 600-tonne large-bed pressing and blanking lines. In addition, Autolaser Technologies, the dedicated laser welding business adjacent to the Automotive Centre, was the first facility in Europe to have the capability to manufacture production volumes of advanced, second-generation, non-linear Nd:YAG (Neodymium-Yttrium Aluminium Garnet) laser-welded blanks. These are being successfully used by BMW MINI and Jaguar. Other recent automotive downstream investments by Corus include the world’s first production-ready laser-welded tubular blank machine commissioned at the Corus Hyfo Competence Centre at the IJmuiden plant in the Netherlands.
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