Allan Webb helps to keep Glaxo Smith Kline’s critical drug production lines running

As the world-leading manufacturer of Innovative Medicines, Vaccines & Consumer Healthcare Products, Glaxo Smith Kline needs to ensure their production lines are foolproof at all times, especially during a global pandemic. This, in turn, drives a need for early warnings of any potential obsolescence issues before starting long production runs.

The Challenges

With increased manufacturing output targets, GSK’s production line maintenance teams needed to be confident about the availability of spares for the production line machinery to ensure minimal downtime and mitigate the risk of a slowdown in output.

The production line had to keep running while a solution to parts management was found. This solution had to cover multiple lines, with different ages of machinery and differing designs, each with additional modifications.

Our Solution

From our work in the defence sector, the client knew that Allan Webb brought a track record in managing parts inventory for mission-critical equipment. Our first task was to establish a clear line of sight with a new Bill of Materials (BOM) for each production line. As Allan Webb’s subject matter experts soon realised, the machines on the production line had been upgraded and modified to take on new tasks since their original installation. This meant our specialist team had a few weeks on-site to carry out inspections, visually checking all parts of the production line.

With a complete BOM created for each production line, the next stage of work could begin. All data was input into Allan Webb’s DiamondOM (Obsolescence Management) tool. The tool begins with establishing the current obsolescence status of the parts within the BOM list. It then continually monitors for any changes. Using DiamondOM algorithms, the BOM was filtered to remove parts that were not cost-effective and detect any risk of obsolescence to existing parts.

The DiamondOM tool checks the availability of parts online and Allan Webb’s specialist OM team emails contact lists of suppliers worldwide, helping the client’s maintenance teams make informed decisions about their machinery and parts supply status.

Benefits / Outcomes

DiamondOM acting as a repository of structured parts lists for each of the production lines meant the client could, for the first time, identify common parts between the production lines, which had not previously been possible.
The DiamondOM tool also gives the client, through a secure customer portal, the ability to look into the parts database to run reports while it continuously updates itself in real-time.
All part types (e.g. electronic, mechanical and assemblies) are now continuously analysed and monitored.

Savings

The whole process has saved our client vast amounts of time and money, checking parts on the production line and giving a clear line of sight to any obsolescence issues. The client now also has the ability to swap shared parts between production lines.

The obsolescence process is critical for reducing costs and downtime in any industry. If you require further information and assistance in obsolescence and parts management, or would like a demonstration of our DiamondOM tool, please email sales@allanwebb.co.uk or call +44 (0) 1453 824581.