International automotive first-tier suppliers such as Delphi and TRW are major customers of Black Country precision pressings manufacturer Clamason Industries of Kingswinford, and the requirement to supply exact quantities to them of often several component variants just-in-time has increased the complexity of deliveries, packaging logistics and time pressures. Electronic data interchange (EDI) and barcoding are now providing an important part of the solution at Clamason, improving the quality and accessibility of information, guaranteeing supply and achieving significant time savings and productivity gains.

Clamason has been designated by Delphi Automotive Systems as a “Worldwide Supplier of Choice”. Delphi, headquartered in Troy, Michigan, is the World's largest automotive supplier (with 172,000 employees at 159 wholly owned manufacturing sites in 34 countries) and Clamason’s no.1 automotive customer to boot.

Clamason supplies metal pressings in cardboard cartons with barcode labelling to Delphi plants in Liverpool, France, Germany, Hungary, Mexico (2), Kokomo (Indiana), Portugal (2) and Singapore. Clamason provides a similar service for components to four TRW plants – in Peterlee (Co Durham), Germany, Italy and Chihuahua (Mexico). Deliveries to the Peterlee facility are executed in standard, returnable, green plastic crates.

The global car industry having blazed the trail, Clamason now uses barcoded labels for despatches of pressings to almost all its customers, each carton, plastic box or container stating customer name, part number, date of manufacture, batch number and quantity. Normally this takes the form of an alphanumeric, human-readable ASCII 3-of-9 code (the industry standard), part number, quantity and batch number, although Clamason has recently extended the use of such labels to outwork (plating, heat treatment and painting). Full traceability of all components, materials and processes is essential to the automotive supply chain.

Delphi require ASN’s (Advanced Shipment Notifications) with every shipment despatched from Clamason using system provider Covisint’s Web EDI®. So Clamason emails out an ASN one week prior to the arrival of a shipment in order to assist Delphi’s rigorous just-in-time planning. Clamason’s computer system further generates Delivery Notes (one per box in a plastic document wallet). These double up as a Certificate of Conformity, whilst featuring the requisite information to ensure that the correct components are delivered in the right quantities and prescribed containers to the appropriate site.

All shipments going to Delphi are entered onto a database, advising the customer of the part numbers and quantities despatched with dates and times. The system automatically updates Delphi’s schedule requirements and generates a barcode label to be attached to the cardboard carton for shipment. On the system Delphi actually publish schedules of dates and quantities expected for some 12 months ahead, so that Clamason can download details and better plan for its future manufacturing, raw materials, tooling, manpower, machine loading and outwork. Quantities received are checked against quantities scheduled to identify any discrepancies, and invoices are then automatically raised against actual deliveries.

TRW, on the other hand, prefer Supply Web® EDI from system provider Agilisys although do not demand ASN’s from Clamason at the present time.

Two examples of automotive applications for Clamason’s EDI and barcoding systems are in-car entertainment products (audio chassis units) for Delphi and safety-critical airbag inflator housings for TRW. Clamason produces in galvanised CR4 mild steel two versions, a left and right hand, of a curtain airbag inflator housing for TRW. This goes on the Jaguar X-Type and X-Type Estate models being assembled at Ford’s Halewood plant as well as on a General Motors SUV (sport utility vehicle) being built in Mexico.

EDI can facilitate the maintenance of consignment stocks at a customer’s premises for self-billing. Components are then paid for only when they are taken out of stock by the customer. Thereby saving traditional paperwork, with communication purely from computer to computer, such a customer relationship is based on trust, with Clamason Industries checking the actual inventory only every few months.

Together, electronic data interchange and barcoding have made possible such flexibility along with the many other benefits shared by Clamason Industries and their customers: it is a win-win situation for all concerned.