PCA Blog
The Perfect Storeroom
The question is often asked, “What makes the perfect storeroom?” Is it brick and mortar? Is it the correct financial ratio of storeroom inventory to facility asset value? Is it a certain measurement of inventory turns? Is it a certain ratio of personnel to inventory value? While it can be argued that any one of, a combination of several, or all of the above are important, the perfect storeroom consists of a combination of strategies working together to assure the operations have ...
MRO Materials Team
A cross-functional, multi-disciplined team that focuses on MRO issues is a must. MRO inventory management is too often thought of as just a storeroom function. In reality, it is a horizontally, cross-functional activity involving, maintenance, operations, capital projects, procurement, and stores. At PCA we promote what is referred to as an MRO Focus Team. This team consists of personnel from accounting, maintenance, maintenance planning, manufacturing, capital projects, purchasing, reliability, and the storeroom who represent their function’s concerns with parts availability ...
MRO Cycle Counting – An Inventory Trap
Some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be misleading, if you only see part of the picture of inventory health. Inventory reporting as a financial matrix is required by shareholders and, in most cases, by the laws of business operation. But only reporting inventory value (which is an accounting average of overage and underage) can have disastrous consequences. Reporting a benchmark financial value of 98% accuracy is of little concern to operations and maintenance if a critical part is not available when needed ...
Supply Demand Planning
Effective MRO (Maintenance and Repair Parts and Operating Supplies) materials management is simply a derivative of the time-honored function of Supply Demand Planning. Day one in Econ 101, the professor presents a graph explaining the supply demand continuum. That same simple concept applies to MRO parts management. There is certainly the supply aspect; does the storeroom have what is needed when it is needed? But the key to having what is needed, when it is needed, is dependent upon robust demand-side signals ...
Whitepaper: Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) for Mobile Assets
Whitepaper: Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) for Mobile Assets by M. Bruce Gill, Asset Reliability Specialist This whitepaper discusses some of the challenges which present themselves in tracking, managing, and monitoring mobile equipment. Several solutions and requirements for successful EAM implementation and utilization are discussed. Introduction Mobile equipment presents unique challenges to maintenance and operations personnel in utilizing EAM systems to support reliability and cost optimization. Problem Statement There is significant difficulty in tracking repairs, PM’s, and the condition of mobile equipment associated with their transient nature, rotating and sequential “ownership”, and lack of mobile computing support in many organizations. Previous Options Equipment history documentation has frequently been fragmented, incomplete, and underutilized by field personnel. Optimum Solution This white [...]