MRO Optimization for Process Manufacturing

Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) is an area of challenge for most process manufacturers. But Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) is a powerful strategic option to drive reliability, operational effectiveness, and asset planning and scheduling functions that are critical to day-to-day operations.

If you struggle with MRO today, you’re not alone, according to an Infor EAM webinar on MRO optimization—the second segment of a seven-part webinar series on EAM for Process Manufacturing. That’s just one reason enterprise asset management is expected to drive a $4.23-billion global market this year.

5 Cs Show Room for Improvement

There is serious room for improvement along the road to MRO optimization. The webinar cites cross-industry statistics indicating that:

• 30% of stocked parts in the average company will never be used

• 50% of open work orders are waiting on parts

• 25% of technician time is spent looking for parts

• 81% of order quantities are wrong

• 8% of SKUs in legacy MRO systems are duplicates

The basic issues in MRO optimization can be categorized into five Cs: Accurately assessing the criticality of equipment and parts, clarity in identifying and managing stranded parts and under-stocked items, consolidation and standardization across departments, divisions, stores, and geographies, calculating demand across variables for seasons, stock variety, and utilization curves, and collaboration to serve the varying needs of all functions across the business.

Beyond Manual Systems

The first webinar in the series highlighted an astonishing statistic from a 2014 survey of 385 business software users: nearly half of them were still using manual systems or rudimentary spreadsheets to manage their maintenance schedules, and nearly one in five had no management system at all. The survey result pointed to the huge boost in revenue and profitability those companies could achieve, just by focusing on asset performance as a key cornerstone of a successful enterprise.

The need is that much more urgent when you think about the cluster of asset management challenges facing many process manufacturers.

As critical assets age, they’re beginning to fail more frequently.

Asset management is emerging as a key factor in meeting increasingly complex regulatory requirements.

Keeping assets in good repair is one of the best ways to get more results out of limited capital dollars.

Improved energy management cuts costs and boosts profitability.

And a more sophisticated approach to EAM helps businesses juggle a plethora of contracts and warranties, while giving management greater visibility into the data they need to drive decision-making and continuous improvement.

EAM Software to the Rescue

The right EAM system also helps asset managers tap into some of the biggest trends and megatrends reshaping software design.

Cloud computing is an opportunity for process manufacturers to reduce the cost of software and system support, upgrade critical systems more efficient and timely, and make mission-critical data more easily available across the enterprise.

Infor EAM Enterprise also takes full advantage of mobility as a huge productivity enabler. It ensures that every employee has access to the data and documentation they need, when and where they need it, whether they’re in the field or within the four walls of the business.

An Immediate Need

Participants in the 2014 software survey listed a series of reasons to replace their software, with nearly one in five complaining about missing features and about one in four admitting their systems were simply out of date. But by far the biggest focus was on getting more value out of in-house software systems, with nearly 40% citing the need to improve efficiency.

EAM is where that issue goes straight to the bottom line, since a process manufacturer can only make money when equipment is available to produce product. That’s why Infor EAM helps customers progress along a standard maintenance maturity curve—from a system that only gets repairs done when something breaks, to a more sophisticated approach to preventive or predictive maintenance, to a condition-based system that uses constant data-gathering to set asset management priorities.