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Articles: MRO - Spares Management

Beyond Vending…. More than Tracking Inventory and Purchasing Parts

Die castings are among the highest volume, mass-produced items manufactured by the metalworking industry. J. L. French, headquartered in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, is a global supplier of quality aluminum die castings specializing in powertrain and automotive components having three manufacturing plants in the United States and one in Spain. It’s not uncommon for large manufacturers such as J. L. French to spend millions of dollars every year on the MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) side of manufacturing. In 2005, J. L. French realized that controlling these types of costs on MRO, spare parts, tooling, and other indirect material used in the secondary machining operations should be a priority according to Warren Hacker, Manager of North American MRO Purchasing. Being naturally analytical, Hacker had numerous questions regarding asset management and inventory control. Questions such as…Where is all this material going? Why do we have so much of this and not enough of that? Why are so many of our invoices not matching our purchase orders? Bottom line…How much is it really costing us to manufacture these parts?

Inventory Management Strategies

By Randy Walker

1) Introduction to Inventory Management

For Facilities Maintenance Organizations, the quickest and most substantial "hard dollar" returns are achieved through the Inventory and Purchasing modules. Even in Equipment-centric Organizations, where the emphasis is on uptime and asset efficiency, the savings from improved materials management can be sufficiently large to cover the cost of purchasing and implementing a CMMS project.