Looking to make your supply process more efficient, agile, and in sync with business needs? Fastenal can help. Drawing on decades of experience with thousands of industrial, construction, and government clients, our Lean Solutions team specializes in crafting and implementing systems to drive improvements in working capital, productivity, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
- 230+ Lean Solutions personnel dedicated to project management and implementation
- 40+ University of Villanova-trained Lean Six Sigma Black Belts
- 90+ internally-trained ‘Blue Belts’ focused on process mapping and TCO consultation
- 70+ formally trained in project management
- 400+ large-scale implementations completed annually
Taking a 360-degree approach to reduce expenditures through vendor consolidation, consumption controls, SKU rationalization, product substitutions, and reductions in inventory, labor, freight, and purchase orders.
Using strategies like just-in-time inventory, vendor-managed inventory (VMI), point-of-use delivery, parts kitting, and supply automation (e.g., vending or automated bins) to keep employees focused on value-adding activities.
Implementing systems to confidently reduce on-hand inventory while identifying and drawing down obsolete/redundant assets. Options include an onsite/integrated model, providing Fastenal-owned inventory and dedicated experts to shoulder the burden of inventory ownership and management.
Leveraging Fastenal’s point-of-use solutions to provide relevant reporting aligned with your business goals. Utilize the FAST 360° reporting dashboard to analyze purchasing/usage trends and visualize your Fastenal-managed inventory on hand (down to the specific vending or bin location).
Our approach, based on Lean principles, begins with a site assessment or TCO Analysis consultation. We collaborate with your key supply chain stakeholders to understand the nuances of your operation, identify sources of waste in your current process, and craft a solution to achieve your desired future state. In addition to providing initial consultation and solution design, our experts will physically implement the program on site and periodically audit the site to drive continuous improvement.
- Map the Value Stream: Trace the steps and activities required to bring a product to the point where it’s needed.
- Determine Value: Identify which activities bring value to the customer and which do not (value-add vs. non-value-add, or NVA). Our focus: solutions to eliminate or reduce NVAs.
- Create Flow: After eliminating NVA “touches” (which impacts TCO), make the value-added steps flow together seamlessly, with minimal travel or stoppages. Vendor managed point-of-use supply is a key concept here.
- Push for ‘Pull’: Implement systems to pull inventory into use only as needed (e.g., supermarkets and Kanbans, including electronic signaling devices).
- Pursue Perfection - 6S: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain, and Safety.
The DMAIC process brings visibility to eight sources of waste that could be impacting your productivity.
Excessive product movement throughout a facility
Non-essential employee movement related to inventory
Downtime caused by a lack of access to needed parts or tools
Supplying more than demand
Surplus, obsolete, or unnecessary parts in the supply chain
Non-value-added steps to complete a function
Product that doesn’t meet requirements
Time and talent spent on non-value-added activities
You know your business better than anyone, which is why our process is 100% collaborative. Our job is to listen to your supply chain stakeholders, understand their unique challenges and priorities, and keep our assessment and solutions focused on best-in-class results YOU hope to achieve.
Discover your future state.
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