Long term contract confirms materials management supply partnership

Keywords: Metals, Distributors, Supply

A Materials Management supply partnership between TW Metals and ABB Automation Ltd, which has grown and been developed over many years, has confirmed the benefits to be gained by both supplier and end user.

Specialist metals distributor, TW Metals has been a major supplier of stainless steel pipe to ABB Automation for approximately 10 years. Supplied in bore sizes from 3mm to 300mm, the pipe is used in ABB's range of flowmeter products. More recently the supply package has been extended to include stainless steel bar for the manufacture of small components for flowmeters and on-line chemical analyser systems and for ABB's Thermowell temperature sensor protection devices (Plate 1).

Plate 1 The ABB Sensyflow range of thermal mass flowmeters

As one of ABB's preferred suppliers TW Metals has set up its Materials Management systems to meet the requirements of reliability and flexibility which are fundamental to the supply chain management of a manufacturer operating under strict "just-in-time" principles. TW Metals maintains a comprehensive inventory on behalf of ABB so that orders can be "pulled" in predetermined quantities to meet production schedules.

TW Metals believes that Materials Management is a specialised skill developed through experience. It means providing a level of service to customers where procurement, delivery reliability and consistent quality result in cost benefits to both supplier and end user. Typical programmes include procurement,forecasting and installing information systems geared to build rates, inventory storage and handling and quality management.