The benefits of maintenance repair and operations

Besides the equipment and raw materials you need for production, it’s worth noting that there are many things that go into your company to keep things running efficiently. Transportation and production equipment need regular maintenance, facilities need to be in good condition, you need to stock personal protective equipment inventory, and many more.

These activities and supplies can be considered to be a small part of a company’s operations, but they can have a significant impact if you fail to manage them properly. If a component of your equipment upkeep runs out of stock and there is no production for a day, then manufacturers can lose lots of money. Worse still, if personal protective equipment runs out, there is a risk for the employees. This post discusses the benefits of maintenance, repair, and operations.

Maintenance repair and operations (MRO)

When many businesses try to consider supply chain costs, they usually don’t include MRO because these costs don’t contribute that much to end products. MRO expenses may not contribute a lot to new expenses, but managing MRO costs effectively can be quite important to the long-term well-being of a business.

This is because by controlling MRO expenses, you can reduce production costs, though it usually only accounts for between 6 percent and 10 percent of your company’s total spend. This happens by reducing costly equipment downtime, improving the company’s efficiency of operations, and ensuring there is safety in the workplace.

For example, a food packaging company that manages well its MRO costs and practices can experience fewer breakdowns of its equipment. In case there is equipment breakdown, there are good chances that the company can have the proper replacement parts available and may have streamlined processes to get the equipment up and running quickly.

Keep in mind that MRO can involve supplies and equipment as well as internal team members and even external contractors who are responsible for keeping your company running effectively. The maintenance department that usually has maintenance technicians, managers, and supervisors is mainly responsible for MRO procedures, processes, and expenditures.

This team usually manages corrective, preventive, and predictive maintenance plans, that can include gathering and assigning work tasks, scheduling maintenance activities based on usage or time, and managing programs, such as reliability-centered maintenance.

Companies can also utilize third-party contractors to handle other MRO activities like landscaping and janitorial needs. The expenses related to these services are included in MRO. In most cases, the supply chain teams that are responsible for procurement can create an MRO purchasing strategy and even negotiate long-term contracts to save some costs.

Remember that any equipment that you use to keep offices, buildings, and machines running efficiently can fall under MRO. Some of the MRO supplies and equipment include safety equipment, lubricant, batteries, office supplies, fuel for vehicles, replacement parts, tools like hammers and screwdrivers, and maintenance management software.

Having the proper inventory in your company is key to MRO management. If you realize that you have the wrong parts in stock, it means the maintenance processes can be less effective, leading to longer downtime when you need repairs.

Top benefits of maintenance repair and operations

When you attempt to improve efficiency in manufacturing, many people usually turn to key departments like design, development, supply chain, staffing, and many more. Unfortunately, the maintenance, repair, and operations storeroom doesn’t make the list of projects that need improvement. Instead, many companies just place it in plant maintenance services.

However, when you don’t prioritize the storeroom, the impact can be bigger than you would imagine. A poorly handled MRO storeroom can cause your company to lose some control of parts inventory as well as spending. There is also a chance that your MRO team may fail to work efficiently.

But with the right MRO best practices, changes in storeroom management processes may transform a department that was costing your company into an asset management system that offers a competitive edge to the entire operation. Maintaining good MRO processes can be great to your business in many ways.

As explained earlier, MRO sourcing allows you to have a program that can assist to keep your machines and systems to run smoothly and dependably. You can schedule maintenance between shifts or even at the end of each production run, reducing breakdowns, and unexpected downtime. As a result, this can lead to higher production rates and improved profits.

Employees safety is also there when there are good MRO processes. When you maintain the assets and work areas are well-organized, you are addressing and eliminating safety hazards. In this way, accidents, injuries, and many other safety incidents decrease.

When tools, spare parts, and other supplies are organized and available, the amount of time a repair or maintenance task takes can drop. In most cases, you can sometimes find services that offer solutions to help companies plan the schedule of maintenance tasks. So you can decrease travel between locations or assets, increasing efficiency more.

Projects that focus on maximizing the MRO inventory may quickly have MRO benefits when it comes to cost savings and ROI. An MRO asset management system offers a big-picture view for all inventory and can even enable sharing across plants. This allows you to decrease storage space needs and cut time required for parts management, all leading to huge savings.

There can also be reduction in parts consumption and spending. A well-designed storeroom management system that follows good MRO inventory best practices may cut consumption and spending in several ways like managing repairable parts efficiently and utilizing more strategic purchasing methods. Modern approaches to industrial maintenance may also assist you to manage warranties effectively. Even better, component repair management may reduce equipment failures and decrease replacement costs through MRO optimization.

Lastly, improving your team’s use of energy and time can be another benefit you can get from good MRO storeroom management. If you have controls in place to handle storeroom activities and access, redefined responsibilities and roles, and many more, then your team member can spend less time working in the storeroom and spend more time on the plant floor doing predictive or corrective maintenance.