Cylinder control saves money

#1/2009
Text: Karin Rehn

It is said that quality costs money. But that maxim was proved wrong when a store coordinator at Banverket Produktion took control of gas cylinders. Using ACCURA® cylinder services, chaos was turned into order and costs were halved.

“If there is something that is basic when it comes to stores, it is orderliness,” says Mats Antonius.

He is material controller at Banverket Produktion, which means he is responsible for coordination of all the stores between Nässjö and Malmö.

Banverket Produktion builds and rebuilds railway lines, tramways and undergrounds and handles their maintenance and operation. It uses cylinder gases to weld or cut rails. In addition propellant is used in lubricant equipment, and tracer gas is used in the event of a cable fault.

Antonius remembers the state the stores were in at the beginning of the 1990s.

“It was complete chaos,” he says. “Gas cylinders weren’t even barcoded. If a cylinder was stolen, we couldn’t write it off.”

To rectify the situation, in 2000 Antonius made a huge effort to get the gas cylinders in order. He turned to ACCURA® cylinder services, a webbased service for administration and statistics related to gas cylinder usage, and in the process managed to halve district costs.

“Previously every store held ‘what was needed and a bit more,’” says Antonius.

It was impossible to guess actual consumption. Now, he says, shelf sitters are exposed through a report that draws attention to cylinders that are not being used and are costing unnecessary storage rent.

“A few kronor every day doesn’t sound like much,” Antonius says. “But when I have it in black and white that there are a large number of cylinders that haven’t moved for months, everyone understands that costs can escalate.”

Antonius talks about a review he helped another district carry out.

“The purchasing manager sank further and further in his chair,” he recalls. “The review finished up at 1 million kronor, thrown away on something that wasn’t really needed.

“I see ACCURA® as a very simple way of becoming more efficient,” he continues. “It is easy to keep track of the economy. You have to have order at the start, but after that you only need to log in for a moment each day and check that nothing looks strange. These days I don’t spend more than an hour a week on this. And I avoid having to rush out and do spot checks in places where it would have soon become just as disorderly again.”

Banverket Produktion now requires that its subcontractors have an administrative service similar to ACCURA®.