Preparations are being made at Longbridge in Birmingham to once more begin production of MG cars. Now owned by the Nanjing Automobile Corporation (NAC) Ltd, MG has been resurrected as an international brand, whilst keeping true to its British roots.
NAC (UK) Ltd has been hard at work preparing the Longbridge production lines to allow the recommencement of manufacturing. As part of that process a new Inbound Logistics area has been created, complete with bespoke storage solution from LINPAC Storage Systems. Located in Cell 6, adjacent to the assembly plant, Inbound Logistics will receive components from China, Europe and the UK.
Gary Egan, Business Services Senior Manager for NAC (UK), was part of the contracts negotiation team which awarded the contract to LINPAC, he says, "We were looking for a quality storage solution that could be finished within a tight timescale and that would be project managed by the selected supplier from start to finish.
"LINPAC Storage Systems was chosen because they conformed to all of our requirements to deliver this turnkey project on time and in budget. Although we already had an overall concept for the plan of the area, we called on LINPAC's expertise to develop the scheme, making the necessary design changes to give us the most effective solution."
The completed scheme consists of wide aisle pallet racking and carton live shelving to store the diverse range of car components required to feed the lineside units in the nearby assembly factory.
All of the pallet racking is timber decked to accommodate up to six levels of different sized pallets. Smaller components are held on carton live shelving which transports the boxes of parts on gravity tracks to automatically replenish the pick face.
"LINPAC completed the project from start to finish in just six weeks," concludes Egan. "As a result we have an efficient in-house logistics operation - previously we stored our car parts externally and they had to be driven to our assembly plant. Now all our movements are internal and we have been able to cut down on handling time too."