Boeing

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has opened a new Integrated Materials Management (IMM) Asia Regional Center in Singapore.

Boeing's Integrated Materials Management helps maintain and manage an airline's spare parts inventory, providing items to the airline mechanic as needed. The IMM team manages supplier-owned inventory at airline maintenance locations which results in reduced inventory holding and other supply-chain management costs at the airline.

The opening of the regional center enhances the current support of on-site teams throughout the globe and improves communications and visibility of inventory within the IMM network which directly benefits the customer. The center will provide around-the-clock support to all IMM customers and network suppliers.

"We are very excited to enlarge our footprint in the Asia region," said, Joe Brummitt, director of Integrated Materials Management for Boeing. "We have a strong base of customers in the region and our center in Singapore positions us well to better support this important customer base. It's also the next logical step in our strategy to efficiently connect all suppliers and customers in our network."

The IMM Asia Regional Center was developed using Lean principles to standardize processes and reduce the variation in inventory planning. Utilizing Lean within the center's operation will increase productivity, improve communications and enhance demand visibility. This will enable suppliers to better support the IMM supply-chain requirements. The new regional center also postures IMM to support the 787 Dreamliner and the GoldCare service solutions.

The Asia Regional Center will be based at Schenker Singapore's Megahub facility in the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore (ALPS), where Boeing currently maintains a regional distribution center through its lead logistics service provider. This further leverages Boeing's use of these facilities and continues the expansion of a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship in the country of Singapore.

"We congratulate The Boeing Company on the IMM Asia Regional Center," said Manohar Khiatani, assistant managing director for Industry Development, Singapore Economic Development Board. "We are glad that Boeing continues to grow its activities in Singapore, leveraging on our strengths as the leading aviation and logistics hub in the region. The IMM Asia Regional Centre underlines Singapore's attractiveness as a location for the logistics and supply-chain management activities of global companies."

The IMM Asia Regional Center will also serve as a model as IMM looks at centers in other locations around the globe to support the current and expanding IMM customer base. Current customers for IMM include Air Tran, All Nippon Airways, Delta Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Japan Transocean Air and Singapore Airlines. Network supplier partners include Honeywell, UFC Aerospace, Satair, Hamilton Sundstrand, Avio-Diepen, and the recently acquired Boeing subsidiary, Aviall.