The Warehousing and Distribution staff is comprised of competitive warehousing, supplier management, logistics, operations, environmental and safety, operations planning and various engineering and administrative groups.
The complex chain of events that culminates in the customer getting an ACDelco or GM Parts product actually begins with the engineering specifications department. Long before a new vehicle is introduced, SPO service engineers work with the vehicle platform engineers to develop a service strategy and identify the parts required to service that vehicle. As soon as a new GM vehicle design has been completed, a number is assigned to each part, and that information is forwarded electronically to SPO?s engineers. When engineering receives the new part numbers (about 29,000 annually) they determine if each part can be sold as a service part without modifications. (Necessary modifications would include things such as exhaust systems. When a vehicle is built, the exhaust system is welded together; but as a service part, exhaust systems are offered as separate units, to make replacement easier and less costly.) In addition, SPO engineers monitor all replacement parts to assure they meet GM?s high quality standards.
Publishing catalogs for many of our customers around the globe, including catalog statements which describe usage applications, is a significant service the engineering department performs. Catalogs are provided electronically to GM dealerships. For our ACDelco customers, catalogs are available in printed versions, CD-ROM and a Web-based catalog, called Web CAPS, is scheduled to debut on the information super highway early in 2000. All are updated regularly to ensure current information is readily available to the user.
ParTech, an important section of the engineering department, provides a toll-free number for our GM dealership technicians to call for assistance with technical questions and part number clarification. More than 70 highly skilled customer representatives answer close to one million calls per year.
Supplier management has the responsibility of ensuring that parts needed to service the new cars and trucks introduced by the vehicle divisions, as well as past-model vehicles, are available and shipped to the processing centers in a timely manner. This involves working with suppliers to balance their manufacturing capabilities with the storage capabilities of our processing centers. In addition, sales of parts must be forecast so that a schedule can be prepared for the supplier to maintain the proper flow of parts into our system. Finally, constant monitoring and follow-up are required to assure schedules are altered when requirements change and that parts are shipped on time.
Transporting the millions of parts that SPO handles each year -- from the start of the supply chain to the end customer -- is a Herculean task that requires cutting-edge logistics support. SPO warehouses ship and receive about 360,000 order lines each day. (An order line is a line on an order form and can be for a quantity of one part or 10,000 parts.) The logistics department acts as liaison to Schneider Logistics, a division of Schneider National, headquartered in Green Bay, Wis., that manages SPO?s logistics requirements. Using state-of-the-art technology and processes, parts are delivered to our customers in the fastest and most efficient manner using satellite communications, proprietary routing models and freight-tracking methods.
When the parts are delivered to the various warehouses, operations has the next level of responsibility. Employees at the processing centers and PDCs perform the vital function of receiving incoming shipments of parts, processing of raw material, putting them away in the proper bins, then picking, packing and shipping them to customers when orders are received. All of this requires careful attention to ensure each part is handled in a manner that avoids damage and that it gets to the proper destination on time. Parts are delivered to our customers daily, weekly or monthly, depending on how often they place orders.
Moving so many parts in and out of our warehouses requires a great deal of coordination and cooperation from many parties. To help ensure optimal quality and efficiency, our competitive warehousing team has developed a common facility template. This template commonizes facility layouts and utilizes common and lean processes. The same is also being developed for our processing centers. Visual operating controls, performance metrics and a Warehouse Management System are also part of this effort to attain world-class performance. Among the efficiencies the Warehouse Management System can enable are: real-time status of shipping schedule attainment, more accurate inventory at the bin level, more efficient replenishment scheduling, and more level work loads.