Where the centre is the engine

Strategically located in north-eastern Belgium, the Scania Parts Logistics Centre, SPC, is bustling with activity 24/7, all year round.

Here, just outside the small town of Opglabbeek, 850 employees make sure the necessary stocks are shipped to all Scania parts centres and regional warehouses around the world.

In total, they handle about 8 million orders per year. The facility has a ground area as large as 18 football fields (125,000 square metres) and stocks around 130,000 different Scania parts.

“Our clear focus is on guaranteeing maximum uptime of the Scania engines and to constantly shorten the lead times,” says Thijs Jacobs, Warehouse Manager at Opglabbeek.

To secure deliveries with the best possible speed and precision for all customers, Opglabbeek has set up a structure in which it has a 90 percent availability at the Scania dealers. These dealer stocks are replenished from SPC on a daily basis. Furthermore, the distribution set-up guarantees fast delivery of parts, in case they are not available close to the customer. Here the aim is to deliver within 12 hours on 95 percent of the parts that were not available from the beginning.

“So basically we guarantee an immediate availability of 90 percent, which is increased to 99.5 percent by the next day,” Jacobs says. “Next to spare parts we have complete engines stored as well, to provide a complete solution.”