The requirement

As far back as 2009, Amplicon approached the Selex test engineering team with a concept that could potentially save them time and money. Amplicon had been dealing with Selex for many years, selling industrial PCs and measurement and control PCI data acquisition cards for their test systems. It had been identified that whilst a test rig was going into production Selex would generate a large number of purchase orders, ranging from cards to cables, computers to connectors. Amplicon's sales team began speaking to the procurement specialists at Selex and it soon became evident that the purchasing function was reliant on an automated ordering process, designed for the continuous manufacturing of medium/large volumes. The problem being test systems did not fit this type of procurement model.

The solution

Amplicon needed to prove to Selex that sufficient savings could be made by outsourcing the entire engineering process, and during the next 12 months the concept and deliverables for this project were explored in depth.

The procurement team at Selex needed to be confident that the process would run more smoothly than the existing system, and the test engineering team needed to be confident that the engineering capability at Amplicon was of the highest standard.

In September 2010 Selex placed their first order with Amplicon for a complete test rig. The rig was relatively simple in build, but the bill of materials was long and complex. Amplicon's engineering team worked from the Selex bill of materials and their existing configuration diagrams to deliver against a specification raised by the test engineering team.

The procurement team at Selex are targeted to deliver value back against projects and this process achieved that goal by reducing the administration and delivery costs associated with raising multiple orders. The value add was enhanced further by the reduction of work required in other business areas; such as multiple movements through stores, multiple payment processes and of course the cost of engineering configuration time, now all drastically reduced with the use of Amplicon Engineering Services. The easily demonstrable benefit of ordering what had become a single line item on one purchase order from one supplier made financial, logistical and engineering sense.

Initially my procurement team were unsure about the benefit presented by the Amplicon proposal. However, it soon became evident that they were committed to providing Selex with a simple but effective process that would save my team valuable resource and cost.

Cath Lawlor - SELEX Galileo - A Finmeccanica company

Why Amplicon?

Amplicon were chosen by Selex as they had been able to prove the benefits of adopting the concept, that outsourcing build-to-print manufacturing jobs would not only save money within the design engineering team but also in other areas previously requiring costly administrative and logistical collateral.

The commercial benefits of the venture were fully understood and applied by an innovative and effective purchasing/engineering team at Selex. The good working relationship between the two companies made this project a success and today Amplicon engineering services are delivering configured test systems into Selex Galileo on a regular basis.