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With a finished item as complex as a railcar , individual components demand differing approaches and treatments . “ Standard parts go on many dozens of different types of railcar ,” says Hegedus . “ Every railcar has , for example , eight wheels , four axles , brakes – basically the under part of the car is fairly consistent . That is a supply chain where we can and do set up vendor managed inventory ( VMI ) programs so those parts flow in .” Specialty parts , those specific to different car types , prove trickier . “ A hopper car , for instance , will have
hatches to load on the top and then gates to discharge in the bottom , totally different to a rail car that carries automobiles , which has its own specialty items . All those are very car specific and those I can ’ t put on VMI . I just have to really monitor the lead times . Our overall supply chain lead times are defined by those specialty items .” Outside of these considerations are raw materials such as steel , and the aforementioned outsourced sub-assemblies , which he describes as “ probably the fastest growing segment of our sourcing supply chain .”
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