Northern Industrial promotes Lee

Northern Industrial has promoted Lee Birch from sales account manager to business development manager.

Lee’s new role will include promoting the international spare parts and repairs exporter’s new SparesVault™ service to customers across the world. It will also see him working with clients to help them develop obsolescence strategies to keep legacy equipment up-and-running with maximised productivity and lowered downtime risks.

Lee said: “Obsolescence can be a major global problem for manufacturers unless handled with a robust, forward-thinking strategy. SparesVault™ offers guaranteed access to a bespoke automation spare parts inventory with the intention of balancing the cost of holding obsolete and end-of-life spares against the threat of machine downtime.

“The subscription-based service starts with a comprehensive review of system-critical assets to create a detailed obsolescence report with recommendations for automation parts to be included in the bespoke SparesVault™ inventory.

“The agreed SparesVault™ inventory is then sourced by Northern Industrial, with all parts serviced, tested and checked before being held in a secure bonded warehouse facility. Back-ups of relevant parameters and programs are also securely stored on cloud-based servers. Parts considered most likely to be needed are provided for storage at the customer’s site for immediate access in the case of a breakdown.

“Any further parts required, covered by the SparesVault™ inventory, are delivered to the customer’s site within a contractual response time. Inventory levels are reviewed at least annually with adjustments proposed where necessary.

“While its estimated that downtime costs UK manufacturers £180 billion per year, we believe SparesVault™ will be a gamechanger in helping businesses minimise the impact of potential breakdowns.”

Blackburn-based Northern Industrial is a multi-award-winning provider of new, reconditioned and obsolete parts and repair services, exporting to 146 countries. Sourcing from over 1,350 manufacturers, the company covers over 200,000 part numbers and holds approximately £10m in stock.

For more information go to https://nicontrols.com/uk/ or call 0800 234 3747.