Our Company Ausburg Interlift´99 Branch Offices International Shows News

Our company

OUR PRESIDENT

Dear Friends,   The continuing technological evolution in our business is leading lift companies to choose between two directions: installation-maintenance or design-manufacture (MP's current direction).   This specialisation means that we will need to maintain a close rapport with installers so we can work together in complex installations (for example, the Patents and Trademarks building done together with Montes Tallón in Alicante, and so many others). We must also not overlook the shared responsibilities, such as optimising shaft productivity, creating new designs, training for product maintenance and installation, etc.   MP wishes to create a streamlined, two-way communication system with our more than 1000 lift customers throughout the world, which will guarantee that we will always stay up to date in competitiveness, service and quality.   I want to encourage all of you to work along these lines so that we can make this rapport with our customers and suppliers a common objective that will guarantee our constant improvement.   Cordially yours,   Gonzalo de Madariaga Parias President of MACPUARSA

LOGISTICS AT MP

MP logistics is not just about transport management. By logistics we mean the entire process that an order follows from the time it is received in the factory until shipment is made. Throughout this entire order-flow process, it is handled by many people in different sections, somewhat like a restaurant kitchen.   The kitchen simile is a good way to define our work. When we go to a restaurant, the waiter takes our order and sends it to the kitchen to be made up. The kitchen is where the logistics are. If we are not satisfied with the food we are served, we will most likely complain, but if the food is excellent, rarely do we take the trouble to compliment the cook. That is our job: to remain unnoticed while doing our job the best we can.   The machinery that goes into motion each time an order comes in involves many people, which is why co-ordination and management ability are fundamental. We often say that in this business every day is like the end of a financial year, which means that anything left undone is added to tomorrow's work. The concept of order flow is simple but complicated when it comes to putting it into practice because of the number of internal and external factors that may slow down the process. An erroneous date, a wrong number or a measurement error will cause the order to be delayed, which will become aggravated as we come closer to the delivery date.

The recent sharp increase in orders has served to make us aware that we are outgrowing our present organisational structures (there are now 30 of us), and we have begun a process of change that will soon start to show results. Our basic logistical structure consists of three major departments: Orders, Delivery and Suppliers, and Shipping.   Perhaps the main structure has not changed greatly, but important changes have taken place within these departments. In the Order Department we have reinforced and enhanced our resources in lift design. We now have a single person in charge of technical co-ordination for shaft development and we have created a sales service to handle everything involving internal and external customers. We have created the Delivery and Suppliers Department to unify the work of scheduling, sending orders to the factory and handling goods coming out, for the basic purpose of meeting delivery dates. Finally, the Shipping Department has considerably increased its loads/day ratio thanks to our new facilities, in addition to greatly improving transport management. But above all, we have a team of very young people with enormous potential.   MP's expansion means that we now have several manufacturing plants in different cities hundreds of kilometres apart. This is not a problem since we work as though the factory were just another supplier, and we generate and send orders that are later received in the warehouse; when the goods are ready, we then ship. We manage lift components.   Every day we have better control over an order and its current stage, even though the number of incoming orders is constantly growing. By way of example, at the end of June we had already processed nearly 80% of all orders received in 1998, and the daily tonnage moved in our warehouse is more than that of this city's largest transport companies. If we lined up all the lorries we have filled from the beginning of the year until June, the caravan would be over 25 kilometres long.   A couple of years ago a customer told us that what they most liked about MP was its agility in providing solutions and answers; this customer is still buying from MP because we work every day to provide the same service.   Miguel Rosique Chief of Logistics