Better parts visibility keeps the machinery of manufacturing running.

Considering how maintenance and parts inventories have evolved in recent years, and the increasingly strategic approach to Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), it is apparent that visibility is one of the most important drivers at every step in the manufacturing and plant engineering process. There was a time when the process for maintaining mission-critical equipment and replacing failing components was deceptively simple. That time has long since given way to intricate systems requiring infinitely more intricate management solutions.

“In the past, the unit failed, or it began to perform so far outside expected parameters that it clearly needed attention. A maintenance team checked it and got it back in working order,” advises Barry Diedericks, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Subject Matter Expert at Softworx, Infor’s Master Partner in Africa. “If they needed a part, they took it out of inventory. If there was no inventory in stock, they ordered it, and the repair was eventually done, whenever the part arrived.”

For some companies, that is still the way things are done, but these companies most likely do not enjoy the fact that their maintenance systems cost them more than they should, in more ways than they realise. It is far more expensive to rush in a part on an urgent basis than to post a routine order.

“If an essential piece of equipment has failed, it can bring a whole line to a sudden, screeching halt until it is back up and running,” adds Diedericks. “If your first inkling of a failing part is that a machine has stopped working, it probably means the unit has been sub-optimal for some time, slowing down or complicating the business process that depends on it. The final failure might even damage the equipment much more than if the initial problem had been caught sooner.”

There was a time when a purely reactive approach to maintenance management was the only choice companies had. Those days are gone; and this is great news for anyone who wants to run an efficient business, manufacturing enterprise or public sector organisation. Today, new integrated EAM systems pay companies back by optimising the efficiency and reliability of the core equipment and processes that managers depend on daily.