Key Takeaways Every large asset-intensive manufacturer has an MRO supply chain program of some kind. Most of them underperform. The excess inventory accumulates. Stockouts on critical parts occur despite the excess. Emergency purchasing runs at 15-20% of total MRO transactions…

Key Takeaways The purchasing controls are in place. Approval thresholds have been set. PO minimums are enforced. Preferred vendor lists have been published. And tail spend in MRO keeps accumulating, quarter after quarter, across every site in the network –…

Key Takeaways If you have tried applying standard safety stock formulas to MRO spare parts and gotten results that range from zero stock to absurdly high quantities for the same class of item, you are not doing it wrong. The…

Key Takeaways A maintenance manager at a process manufacturing facility once described critical spare parts management as “the business of avoiding the call you never want to make.” The call where a $50,000 critical motor has failed, the replacement isn’t…

Key Takeaways Most MRO sourcing programs optimize the wrong variable. They negotiate unit prices with individual vendors, implement approval workflows to control off-contract purchasing, and measure success by what they saved on the last transaction. Spend stays fragmented across thousands…

Key Takeaways There is a version of your MRO procurement program that looks functional from the outside. Vendors are getting paid. Purchase orders are being processed. The ERP is recording transactions. And somewhere across your 15 or 20 or 40…

Key Takeaways Somewhere in your organization right now, there is working capital tied up in MRO inventory that no one can see. It’s in storerooms across plants that have never compared their parts lists. It’s in SAP or Oracle or…

Introduction Most procurement teams have access to MRO data – but lack the ability to use it effectively to influence inventory outcomes. In enterprise environments with $100M or more in MRO inventory, procurement decisions drive a significant portion of inventory…

Introduction Most organizations treat MRO category management as a procurement exercise – when it is fundamentally an inventory, operations, and data problem. In enterprise environments with $100M or more in MRO inventory, category strategies often focus on supplier consolidation, contract…

Introduction Most enterprise manufacturers rely on ERP systems to manage MRO inventory – and assume those same systems can optimize it. In environments with $100M or more in MRO inventory, ERP platforms such as SAP, Oracle, and Infor provide critical…