BACKGROUND

How Paragon TCM® improves lead-times, increases flexibility and reduces costs  

This company designs and markets a range of military and civil electronic devices, sold mainly to government departments. The products they manufacture have very varied batch quantities, from 5 to 5,000 per annum.

Traditionally the company used sub-contractors for a buy and build solution, but they encountered several ongoing problems:

- poor material availability: the sub-contractor’s unsophisticated procurement systems had caused projects to be delayed through long lead-time devices being overlooked, and subsequently components being purchased too late and at prices higher than budgeted.

- lack of flexibility: the company had to commit to the ‘build’ 10 weeks in advance, but with the variable volumes this was beyond the capability of the then current contractor.

- costs: the sub-contractor’s lack of procurement expertise and experience meant that the best pricing was not being obtained, and therefore was often quite expensive.

SOLUTION

Using the Paragon TCM® service, this company was able to commit to material in plenty of time, but delay decisions on choice of build partners until nearer the point of assembly.

- flexibility: because Paragon operates a customer specific management process this company immediately benefited. Impending orders are advised, and then Paragon informs which are the critical components that must be secured, and when. As designs are often ‘turnkey’, the final BOM is often not fully specified until 5 days prior to build.

- facilitating the individual order: - with Paragon TCM® this can be accommodated through loading the demands for provisional BOMs into the system, but not releasing the works order until full details are confirmed - including batch sizes and designated sub-contractor.

- reduced costs: Paragon’s procurement expertise has reduced costs as well as helping the company to achieve the fast turnaround demanded by their customers.

Quote from the company’s Managing Director

“I am extremely impressed with Paragon. They have been a real bonus for us and helped us enormously with new products and existing projects. The ability of their Account Managers to deliver what they promise is outstanding. I am genuinely delighted with everything they have done for us”.