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Articles: MRO - Spares Management

Taming Your MRO Spend While Unlocking the Hidden Savings in Your MRO Spares Inventory

By Will Templeton and Niels Martin

Organizations spend over $500 billion annually on spare parts and supplies to support maintenance, repair and operations (MRO). So why do MRO and other “indirect materials” remain the ugly stepchildren when it comes to inventory and cost reduction initiatives? In short, it is because these initiatives can be both complex and risky. How do you keep enough material on the shelf to maintain equipment availability, uptime and service management while not breaking the bank? Read on…

The Importance of Organizing MRO Inventory & Purchasing

By Terry Wireman, CPMM, CMRP

MRO inventory and purchasing organizations are the single biggest maintenance support functions that contribute to low maintenance productivity. MRO inventory and purchasing, in this article, stands for maintenance, repair, and overhaul inventory and purchasing. Many maintenance labor delays are related to issues concerning materials and spare parts. Because the purchasing function typically procures the materials for the MRO storerooms, it also has a big impact on maintenance productivity.

The Maintenance Storeroom: Keys to Efficient Maintenance Operation

By Jeff Zeiler

Besides being the central hub for maintenance, the storeroom also provides functions that are absolutely critical to the maintenance operation. These functions are so important that when the storeroom is operating in a best practices mode, the rest of the maintenance operation can excel. In other words, the storeroom is the enabler.

The Missing Link in Reliability

Many Equipment Failures Could Be Linked To Materials Management

by Art Posey and Phillip Slater

Oh no, not again! Is this the perennial cry of the maintenance and reliability professional? We all know this situation: a recent failure was repaired and has now failed again shortly after.

What’s the Real Cost of Spare Parts Inventory?

It's always disappointing, but no longer surprising, to find people who actually believe that once you pay for material and put it on the shelf in the storeroom, it no longer costs anything to keep it there. The fact is, there are significant costs associated with holding spare parts on the books.