09/19/2008 14h53
White line manufacturers invest in storage
Gazeta Mercantil - 09/19/2008
The 20% growth in the last two years forced the manufacturers of white line products, such as refrigerators and washing machines, to seek a logistics structure that meets the need of the unexpected increase in demand. Besides the investments to eliminate production bottle necks and increase volumes, the storage area also came into the focus of the major manufacturers such as North American Whirlpool, owner of the brands Brastemp and Consul, and BSH Continental, subsidiary of the German BSH group in Brazil. "The biggest bottleneck of such growth we registered in recent years has been logistics and infrastructure", said Sergio Helm, commercial director of the Whirlpool. According to the Officer, the company, with plants in Manaus (AM), Rio Claro (SP) and Joinville (SC), besides a distribution center in Jaboatão dos Guararapes, in the State of Ceará, started seeking help from third parties this year in order to be able to store the equipment which is already produced. "We got to rent ten warehouses this year", said the Officer. Currently, the company has the help of four warehouses rented in the surroundings of the plants in order to meet the distribution demand. On its turn, BSH decided for a new distribution center and invested R$ 40 million (US$ 24.5 million) to set up the operation in an area of 40 thousand square meters close to the plants in Hortolândia, in the interior of São Paulo. Previously, the manufacturer stored the goods in a distribution center in Jundiaí (SP) in an area of 33 thousand square meters. The strategy aims at unifying the whole process of production and distribution in the same place. Lourival Kiçula, president of the National Association of Manufacturers of Electro-electronic Products (Electros), affirmed this storage problem is not restricted only to the white line industries, but also to industries of the brown line (television sets, sound systems) and portable devices. Despite not having a final figure regarding the increase in the use of rented warehouses, Kiçula affirmed it is possible to notice an increase in the search of this type of alternative.
