Introducing Urethane solutions for the logistics industry
October 14th 2008

As UK market leader for the Industrial tyre market, Watts Tyre Services have built a considerable presence over the past 50 years.

But like all leaders the company has to keep moving and keep expanding its offering to the market be that new products or new services. This year has already seen Watts bring out a new range of premium press on band tyres – the Premia POB and later this year the Sherpa industrial pneumatic will be launched.

In addition to its range of industrial tyres and wheels, Watts have long been involved in the supply of Polyurethane through the major OEM dealers. Now in response to needs from the major logistics organisations Watts have created a new service aimed at rapidly supplying urethane products direct into the high end logistics market.

By implementing a “Kanban” style system customers are able to keep stock on site without being charged for it until the point of usage; as stock levels deplete they are automatically replenished by a Watts mobile fitting service vehicle. This means that customers are able to minimize downtime of their warehouse fleet and do not have to either have cash tied up in inventory or be held hostage to product lead times and 3rd party supplier processes.

The system is alarmingly simple – Watts perform an audit of site applications and record all possible information into the service database, including usage, truck type and model, wheel size and service history. The customer is then provided with the base stock for their operation and as products are used and fitted the system automatically generates a replacement order.

Kanban was developed by Japanese manufacturing as a method of implementing Just in Time delivery, today’s Kanban systems no longer rely on coloured cards to generate orders, using a CRM system and active account management instead to predict demand forecasts.

The benefit to the customer is very clear – operations can continue without fear of interruption and customers do not have cash tied up in large stockholding. Watts are able to offer a rapid service and supply operation via its 22 depots and 100 strong vehicle fleet; for the high end logistics industry that never sleeps this nationwide support is invaluable.

Watts Tyre Services Managing Director Ed Woolley commented “We are delighted to be able to offer this service to the market. We have worked with high end logistics organisations over a number of years and have developed our Rapid Urethane Replacement service with them in mind. We know how vital it is for them to keep warehouse machines running and our commitment as UK market leader is to do just that.”