LEAN Supply Chain Improvements
1st November 2022 | 2 min read
The Challenge
Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) operate 4 maintenance depots and 85 stations along the North-South and East-West
lines, as well as the Circle Line.
Their network covers over 129km of track and serves more than 2.1 million passengers every day. SMRT are a market leader in the Asian train network, with a continued and consistent focus on improving their service.
SMRT asked Unipart to carry out a review of their existing Supply Chain operation, provide recommendations and deliver Supply Chain improvements at their Bishan warehouse.
Unipart was asked to develop and deliver an improvement programme that improved the effectiveness & efficiency.
The Solution
Working with the Supply Chain Management, Warehouse and Maintenance teams, Unipart undertook an onsite Diagnostic to deeply understand the current operation.
Unipart used their Expert Practitioners to observe processes and analyse both transactional and inventory data, leading to the creation of a value stream map for the whole supply chain.
This allowed Unipart to deeply understand the real problems and how it affected performance, allowing the design of a future state operation aligned to the customer needs. Unipart’s standard project management approach was used to design, develop and implement the following improvements:
• Development of the SMRT team in the application of LEAN
• Transformation of the Bishan warehouse into an effective central distribution centre
• Improvement of the supply of material to support maintenance operational requirements
• Increased visibility of warehouse performance
• Improve the control and traceability of material within a pilot, rement of mote infrastructure satellite store
30%
reduction in stock holding
The Impact
• Trained 15 SMRT employees in the application of LEAN through Unipart’s LEAN Academy course
• Coached 2 LEAN Champions within the warehouse team, who can continue to deliver improvement projects within their area
• Carried out velocity analysis to develop an optimised inventory profile and material storage strategy
• Introduced best practice principles with over 770 material lines relocated within the warehouse
• Created over 1500 extra pallet locations
• 25% improvement in process efficiency across the warehouse
• Introduction of standard working that improved the effectiveness of the operation
• Implementation of a kitting solution to manage and improve the operation within the stores, increasing maintenance efficiency
• Introduction of a Supply Chain Control Tower that enabled the team to visualise their processes, making them transparent
• Allowing timely, focused and data driven meetings structure and a method for capturing and raising concerns
• Improved visibility and control of material through the
implementation of a Materials Management System (MMS)
