BOEING's new Integrated Materials Management (IMM) Asia Regional Centre has opened in Singapore.

The facility is based at Schenker Singapore's Megahub in the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore (ALPS), where Boeing currently maintains a regional distribution centre through its lead logistics service provider.

The new IMM Asia Regional Centre is designed to help maintain and manage an airline's spare parts inventory, providing items to the airline mechanic as needed. The IMM team manages supplier-owned inventory at airline maintenance locations, resulting in reduced inventory holding and lower supply-chain management costs at the airline.

The opening of the regional centre is intended to bolster the current level of support provided by on-site teams worldwide, and improve communications and visibility of inventory within the IMM network. The centre will provide around-the-clock support to all IMM customers and network suppliers, a statement from the US aircraft manufacturer said.

"We are very excited to enlarge our footprint in the Asia region," said Joe Brummitt, director of Integrated Materials Management for Boeing. "We have a strong base of customers in the region and our centre in Singapore positions us well to better support this important customer base. It's also the next logical step in our strategy to efficiently connect all suppliers and customers in our network."

The IMM Asia Regional Centre was developed using new principles to standardise processes and reduce the variation in inventory planning. Utilising these within the centre's operation is expected to increase productivity, improve communications and enhance demand visibility. This will enable suppliers to better support IMM supply-chain requirements.