Tim Conrad of EDI and Jonathan Juarez of Salt Lake City discuss the critical role of inventory management in mitigating risk and reducing equipment downtime. They focus on the challenges of tracking bench stock—low-cost consumables like screws, nuts, and lubricants that are typically expensed directly to a department rather than tracked to specific work orders. By leaving these materials untracked, organizations fail to capture the true total cost of ownership for their assets. To solve this, Conrad and Juarez outline a "Crawl, Walk, Run" transition strategy. The "Crawl" phase introduces a method within Maximo where technicians record bench stock as a material with a description and an estimated cost, keeping the ERP transaction neutral while properly attributing the expense to the work order. The presentation also explores advanced inventory solutions, such as establishing self-issued satellite storerooms, tracking mobile inventory in service vehicles, and leveraging barcode technology to improve accuracy.
