TVS Supply Chain Solutions have recently started to work with businesses aligned to the Rail sector and have realised that the UK Rail sector is ready for, and definitely in need of, a different and innovative approach in terms of how it sources its indirect or distributed procurement categories for material and spare parts.

The UK Rail sector is going through a period of unprecedented investment, not only from Network Rail’s CP6 budget, HS2 and Crossrail but also from the major OEM’s who have ambitious plans to develop both new and upgraded manufacturing and maintenance facilities across the UK.

The Supply Chain experts understand that there is a real appetite for key stakeholders in the UK Rail sector to begin to look to outsource, to focus on the management of high level strategic items and suppliers to improve the safety, performance, availability and reliability of the items they supply.

This will enable these businesses to reduce the number of procurement transactions and the associated costs in supporting systems by transferring responsibility to the supply base. This will create a smaller cohort of key suppliers, who could be appropriately incentivised, to utilise their knowledge and expertise in finding better solutions to the planning, production, storing, distribution (to point of use) and the supply of the right product for the right application.

TVS SCS feel that outsourcing will enable the UK Rail sector to improve the customer experience of managing and using items, whilst having an input into the supplier relationships and being able to contribute to finding solutions to problems and issues.

This transformation will allow these businesses to take cost out of all elements of the supply chain e.g. by avoiding expensive duplication of unnecessary resources and to take cost out of products supplied.

The approach of utilising the supply chain where the best expertise exists rather than doing things “in house” or in the “traditional way” should be a clear driver for the UK Rail sector.