Located next to the Martorell factory, the SEAT Original Spare Parts Centre (Spanish initials CROS) is a modern 75,000m² site which distributes parts to SEAT, Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda dealers in Spain, to SEAT dealers in Portugal, and also to SEAT importers throughout the world.
Close to eight million orders, ranging from rear-view mirrors to full bodywork, are dispatched every year by the employees of the centre, which has 150,000 product lines in stock. The Original Spare Parts Centre plays a key role in SEAT after-sales and customer service, and deals efficiently with the requirements of the company’s sales and marketing network.
This is made possible by a modern layout and a comprehensive IT system, which checks available stock and also provides real-time order status monitoring, thus enabling an order from the sales and marketing network placed before 6.00 pm to be available before 8.00 am the following day in any part of Spain and Portugal.
The centre’s work requires excellent coordination and flawless storage and distribution logistics in order to quickly and efficiently deal with orders arriving daily from the sales and marketing network and importers throughout the world. The centre’s 200+ employees work three shifts, seamlessly carrying out the exacting task of receiving, classifying, storing and dispatching many thousands of parts of all sizes.
From the reception bay, where dozens of lorries from the various SEAT, Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda suppliers throughout the world arrive daily, until dispatch, when the orders are sent to hundreds of clients from the SEAT sales and marketing network and Volkswagen-Audi Spain, a part is tracked by the complex IT system, the very heart of the site. The system receives orders and deliveries from suppliers, checks the stock of available parts and constantly tracks the processing of different orders, as all the parts are not only referenced, but are also tracked in the internal, unloading and storage vehicles, connected to the IT system by radio link.
This system enables real-time tracking of order management, as each order carries a variable number of referenced items, of different sizes and types. In order to optimise the arrival and dispatch of parts and order preparation, the centre is divided into different areas, which correspond to the different storage systems (on shelves or en bloc, automatic or manual arrivals and dispatches etc.), and which are determined by part size and demand.
Of all the Original Spare Parts Centre areas, the most striking are the high-rise automatic warehouses. In these areas, parts arrive and are sent out by robot stacker cranes which locate, lift out and transport the containers to the workstations, where the operatives take the parts in order to prepare customer orders.
With parts constantly arriving and being dispatched, the warehouse carries the necessary volume of available referenced items, so as to guarantee customers immediate original spare parts and accessories availability, with the Original Spare Parts Centre currently achieving 96% service quality rating. This means that for every 100 parts ordered by customers, 96 can be supplied immediately. The remaining 4% are requested from the company’s suppliers so that orders can be fulfilled in the shortest possible timescale.
Key figures
Surface area: 75,000 m²
Workforce: 205 employees (warehouse operational workforce)
Referenced items in stock: approximately 150,000
Order lines fulfilled: 8 million per year approximately
Customers in Spain and Portugal: 723 Official Service Centres
World-wide customers: 77 importers
