Reducing Manufacturing Lead Time

German owned company manufacturing medical parts in the UK benefited from a long-term agreement with Oxford Engineering to call off parts when required – reducing manufacturing lead time.

This large account consists of a number of components per kit delivered in volume. The manufacturing process uses forgings which are sourced through a supply agreement from both the UK and Eastern Europe, they are machined and kitted up into sets for delivery to the customer. Normal lead time is 16 weeks but the agreement enables the customer to call off 40 kits per week – with only a week’s notice. Oxford Engineering achieves this by lean manufacturing in kanban quantities and consignment stocking, using state of the art machine tools that can run at 20,000 rpm achieves extreme productivity. To drive costs down parts are machined at Oxford Engineering’s Estonian company. The customer derives all the benefits of JIT as well as the economies of a lean manufacturing process.