• Conduct regular data audits to assess the current stock levels of warehouse materials.
• Identify slow moving or obsolete items during these audits.
• Identify Same Materials stocked in different places with different Material code and descriptions.
• Identify Materials stocked and not used for more than 5 years.
• Consider selling or donating items that are no longer needed.
• Immediately Scrap, if any material no longer be used.

• Improve your demand forecasting processes to better predict the actual need for raw materials, consumable materials and spare parts.
• Use historical data, market trends, and production schedules to refine and redefine forecasts.

• Maintain open relationship with suppliers to adjust orders based on actual production requirements.

• Adopt a just-in-time inventory system for materials to minimize excess stock.

• Constitute minimum and maximum inventory levels for critical parts.
• Implement automated systems to trigger reorders when stock levels reach minimum predetermined thresholds and investigate if it reaches maximum.

• Explore the use of Vendor Managed Inventory where suppliers/vendors monitor and manage predefined stock levels on your behalf.
• This will improve efficiency and reduce the risk of overstocking.

• Implement a centralized inventory management system to review, track and control stock levels.
• Utilize technology to automate inventory tracking and ordering processes in the best possible way.

• Establish a clear returns and exchanges policy for all the direct and Indirect material.
• So that excess stock can be managed by returning of unused items.

• Regular check and audit by MRO experts on the overall data is must.
• Regular Meeting to be conducted and feedback from different department involved in the inventory management process should be discussed and changes must be made if needed.

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• Improved Customer Profiling:
Enriched data facilitates the development of comprehensive customer profiles, empowering companies to better understand their target audience. This understanding enables the customization of offerings to meet specific needs and preferences, leading to more targeted marketing strategies and higher conversion rates.
• Personalized Marketing:
Empowered by enriched data, companies can craft personalized marketing messages and campaigns that resonate with potential customers. This level of personalization is crucial in standing out in today’s crowded marketplace, fostering stronger connections with the audience, and driving higher conversion rates.
• Better Segmentation:
Enriched data allows for more effective audience segmentation, enabling companies to allocate resources efficiently and target high-value prospects. This results in cost-effective marketing campaigns and focused sales efforts, ultimately yielding better return on investment.
• Enhanced Lead Scoring:
Enriched Material Master data contributes to more accurate lead scoring, allowing sales and marketing teams to prioritize efforts on leads with the highest potential. This not only improves overall sales efficiency but also ensures that resources are directed toward opportunities with the highest likelihood of conversion.
• How Data Enrichment Aids Procurement:
For asset-intensive companies utilizing ERP/CMMS systems to support their operational capacity, Material Master data is instrumental in the procurement cycle. Data enrichment plays a crucial role in achieving various procurement goals:
• Reduced Purchasing Errors:
Accurate Vendor and Manufacturer part number maintenance, aided by enriched data, provides clarity on MRO materials. Standardized codes like UNSPSC, e-class, NMC, HSR enable a universal outlook, reducing errors in procurement and facilitating effective communication between vendors and the company.
• Duplication Management:
Data enrichment assists in stock consolidation by eliminating multiple SKUs for the same item. This supports cross-plant stock consolidations and enhances supplier negotiations, providing a clearer demand picture.
• Improved Production Uptime:
Standardized data prevents delays in the procurement cycle, minimizing the issuance of wrong parts or incorrect specifications. This, in turn, enhances maintenance job schedule compliance and overall plant reliability, reducing downtime and potential profit loss.

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The MRO Data Excellence Framework is a set of best practices and guidelines for managing in an organization. It is designed to help all functions ensure that their data is accurate, complete, and up-to-date across ERP / CMMS / EAM systems.

Major components of MRO Data Excellence Framework

• Accurate and complete data: This means having a comprehensive and reliable set of data that is as per ISO 8000 data quality standard and free from any errors.
• Data Standards and Industry specific Taxonomy: a well-defined data taxonomy can ensure to cover a wide range of data parameters including data formatting, naming conventions, classification, category and many more.
• Robust data governance: Defining Policies, procedures, and controls to ensure data integrity, security, and availability.
• Data quality management: This involves implementing processes and tools to regularly assess, monitor, and improve the quality of the data.
• Data integration and interoperability: Integrating data from multiple sources and systems and ensuring that the data can be easily shared and accessed by different stakeholders.
• Data analytics and reporting: using advanced analytics and visualization tools to extract insights and trends from the data, and to provide meaningful and actionable reports to supply chain, procurement and maintenance activities.

Role of Data Governance in Data Excellence Framework

One key component of the MRO Data Excellence Framework is data governance. This involves establishing clear policies and procedures for managing MRO data, including how it is collected, stored, and used.

A robust data governance system ensures:

• Defining roles and responsibilities for data management within the organization
• Designing Implementing an industry specific data taxonomy
• Establishing processes to meet the ISO 8000 data quality standard
• Setting standards for data formatting and naming conventions
• Establishing clear policies and procedures for managing MRO data
• Developing a system for tracking and documenting data changes and updates
• Assuring appropriate permissions and safeguards are in place to control and secure data edit privileges

It is important to note that while data governance is a crucial component of the Framework, it is not the only one. Other components, such as data quality, integration, and reporting, are also essential for ensuring that MRO data is being used effectively to drive business value. However, if the data itself is of poor quality or is not properly integrated with other systems and processes, it will not be able to provide the insights and value that the MRO team is seeking. Similarly, robust reporting and analytics capabilities are necessary to extract meaningful insights from MRO data. Without the ability to analyze and interpret the data, it will be difficult for MRO teams to make informed decisions and optimize their operations.

Talk to one of our MDM specialists today to learn how you can implement MRO Data Excellence Framework at your organization and drive business value.

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Suppliers like vendors, service providers, contractors, and systems integrators contribute vital input to each organization. Suppliers, on the opposite hand, can provide an advert risk. The business discipline of supply chain risk management (SCRM) strives to grasp and minimize supplier risk.

Life cycle of SCRM

• Risk Identification – The only way to deal with risk is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. The risk management lifecycle begins with the creation of a risk profile, which is subsequently updated through active monitoring.
• Risk Assessment – Recognize the possible effect of a risk event on your business. Keep a watch out for partners that can significantly affect your sales, margins, or profit.
• Risk Mitigation – There is a need to define both preventive and reactive action plans. These are the foundations to address risk and implement necessary measures to ensure supply and trademark protection.
• Supply Chain Risks in the supply chain can be classified as “known” or “unknown.”

The “Known risks” include:

• critical equipment failure within a single-source supplier,
• unpredictable weather disrupting delivery schedules,
• unpredictable price increase of critical raw materials,
• receipt of defective components,
• labor shortages, government tax increases, legislative changes, and so on.

The “Unknown risks” has two components:

• The first stage is to map out the supply chain using a process flow diagram, choose process steps,
• The second is to calculate the impact of losing that step in the process flow without understanding what caused the risk.

Where does managing supply chain risk starts?

• Raw Materials: Raw materials such as raw materials, ingredients, packaging materials, chemicals, or other components utilized to make your products, can present many risks to a facility.
• Storage and Handling: Several risks in storage and handling include allergy management, temperature control, foreign material control, correct segregation, and product flow.
• Processing: The presence of Proper sanitation, cross-contamination/contact potential, foreign material contamination, critical control point deviations, pre-requisite program failures, and mislabeling are some of these issues.
• Shipping and Transport: Finally, after the product has left your plant, you must secure your shipping and transportation protocols to account for any potential danger. Temperature management, truck and storage unit condition and cleanliness, loading/unloading methods, security/tampering possibilities, accident/emergency recovery, and traceability are all factors to consider during your risk assessment.

Benefits of SCRM

An effective Supply Chain Risk Management promotes supply chain flexibility and responsiveness. The more adaptable a supply base, the faster it can respond to changing demand, and hence the smaller the inherent risks.

• The practice of detecting vulnerabilities along a supply chain encourages open communication flows. Thus, resulting in improved knowledge of supply chain difficulties, which may result in better partnerships.
• Sub-suppliers, for example, with inadequate equipment maintenance regimens pose a danger to the integrity of the whole supply chain. As a result, there is a heavy emphasis on developing rules across the supply chain, with advantages flowing to all parties involved.

Do you want to learn how to mitigate supply chain risks? Talk to one of our Supply Chain specialists today!

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Obviously manufacturer has producing product across from customer defined design, process, materials, machine, man, method, environment, location (Plant) manufacturer agree to adhere to the same while developing a new component. Manufacture does not have any authority to change customer-defined processes without customer approval. In this case, manufacturer has to be deviated from getting customer approval and changing the defined processes without customer knowledge for those consequences will be producing NG parts to supply.

Where the supposed to require changes on customer approved processes while production, which is may be temporary or permanent changes can propose to customer 3 to 6 Months prior to implementation of changes.

When the supplier change request is required?

Changes can be categorized into Minor, Major and Forced.

Where the manufacturer would like to change on Product design, Process flow, Testing, Material, Color, Machine/Equipment, Inspection method, Factory location, Supplier change, End of Life (Product), Modification of Jig/Fixture, Plant Layout, these are the factors to manufacturer has to consider for SCR.

Supplier change request will be in the form of Product/Process Change Notification (PCN) to customer.

Product/Process Change Notification (PCN)

PCN document has contained all the details of changes as below:

• Description of Change
• Reason for change
• Method to identify
• Pre/Post change summary
• Change Impact
• Change Implementation date
• First Sample shipment date

When the customer approves on proposed changes to supplier then shall work for the changes. All supporting data’s (Level 4 ) with product sample should be submitted to customer when manufacturer done with changes. Those submitted supporting data’s and samples has to be validated by the customer result either an approval or disapproval of the proposed changes.

If the propose change would be agree, the customer will give an approval in writing to the supplier. The manufacturer will continue with propose change and will indicate the first delivery of the changed Product.

Disapproval: The supplier will be able to decide how to proceed if the change is disapproved. In such a case, the customer will be informed on priority.

Intention of Supplier Change Request

In IATF 16949:2016 QMS standard addressed about supplier change request/change control management is important clauses such below:

• 1.5.3.2.2 – Engineering Specifications.
• 8.5.6.1 – Control of change supplemental
• 8.5.6.1.1 – Temporary change of process controls

These three clauses are related to change control management to all organization shall follow effectively for avoid producing the NG-parts and continuous improvement on process/product for better quality, performance.

Are you looking for ways to optimize you supply chain process? Talk to one of our supply chain specialists today!

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Though the process seems simple, it’s not. Industry specific taxonomy, best data classification practice, specialized data workflows, and data cleansing experts are required to cleanse mass MRO data across . The idea behind material master cleansing is to keep data files in order. The files should be accessible across the organization without any errors. This is why, MRO data cleansing companies recommend timely data audits, accurate classifications and the best data cleansing processes to enrich the master data management strategies of their clients.

The need for MRO data cleansing

It’s critical to maintain reliable data quality for the smooth functioning and success (or failure) of an organization. This is specifically true for manufacturing, processing and asset-intensive organizations looking for optimum value generation.

• As firms scale up, an increase in the complexity of digital and inventory data throws up new challenges that require adept handling of the material master.
• Inferior data quality may result in unusable and unreliable data, lack of spend visibility, ownership issues and junk accumulation.

MRO data cleansing specialists help you identify gaps created by sub-standard processes, obsolete technology, major organizational changes and manual MRO data handling processes to ensure more effective Master MRO data management. For instance, a robust taxonomy system in a can help segregate spare parts that are food grade and nonfood grade to reduce risks and streamline asset performance.

Benefits of MRO data cleansing

The consequences of removing the inefficiencies of low data quality are many:

• Structured and unified MRO data will curb the high costs of impulse purchases/spot buys
• Reduced equipment downtime and stock-out of critical parts
• More informed preventive maintenance decisions and intelligence sharing of maintenance operations
• Effective procurement of inventory, materials handling operations and Inventory optimization
• Successful part searches and MRO item identification
• Efficient sourcing strategies and enterprise risk mitigation
• Better maintenance systems performance, MRO supply chain optimization, and process compliance

Tasks performed during MRO data cleansing

• Rationalization/ Normalization of descriptions with noun-modifier pairs
• Determination and removal of MRO data duplicity
• Use of correct data dictionaries for product description
• Accurate extraction and filing of attributes
• Application of reliable information for data management, enhancement and validations

Cleansing MRO Master Data with ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½!

Are you worried about duplicate entries, missing information of MRO parts, inconsistent classification and a difficult EAM system? Get rid of bad master data and ineffective coding structures. Upgrade your materials master via smart data cleansing initiatives. Connect with ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ to get the best results from your MRO data, today.

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• Identifying poor performing suppliers and replacing them better alternates
• Initiating a regular cost-benefit analysis practice
• Identifying poor performing suppliers and replacing them better alternates
• Initiating a regular cost-benefit analysis practice

Best practices to Improve with Scorecarding

Supply Chain Management is a two-way street. It is very difficult for a larger organization to effectively manage the supply chain process without high-performing suppliers. Great performance of the suppliers will be achieved only if procurement professionals work as a partner and coach their respective suppliers.

• Build Scorecards around Business Goals: Developing a detailed scorecard is the base for supplier evaluation. Supplier Scorecards help the organization to define KPIs towards quality and monitor performance from time to time. Purchasing teams should understand the business purposes before developing scorecards to:
  • Uncover hidden cost drivers and risks
  • Find opportunities in performance improvement
  • Reduce risks and supplier costs
  • Discover additional value from suppliers
• Establish Processes to Evaluate Performance: The measurable metrics in the supplier scorecard have to be with the specific business objectives such as lead time, cost, availability of products, or any other crucial aspect. The purchasing department stakeholders have to decide on how to recognize and reward the suppliers for good performance. Rewarding a supplier includes allocating additional/new contracts based on business requirements.
• Communicate with Suppliers and perform Proactive Upgrades: It is also important to communicate to vendors that scorecards were built for them and share KPIs and let them know their performances are calculated from time to time. And scorecards results are to be shared with suppliers based on their performance and quality of goods supplied in a stipulated time. Based on this, make suppliers understand where they stand in offering services and improve themselves in the areas where they are performing low. With such insights, it is easier to decide what type of contracts can go to specified suppliers and help organize supplier development programs.
• Collaborate Supplier Insights with Internal Stakeholders: The performance metrics collected through supplier scorecards help stakeholders to decide the next course of action in managing further purchases. Further, this also measures the technical capabilities of the suppliers before making new additions to the current contracts.

Are you struggling to measure you supplier performance and incurring higher purchasing costs? Talk to one of our procurement experts today!

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Most important factors for Software:

• Compatibility with business: While comparing various SCM software, identify one that will work with their current supply chain system. It is unlikely that the organization will be able to get out completely unscathed when it comes to data migration and other necessary tweaks in the current system. The goal is to find software that is the least disruptive to the current system.
• Integration with ERP systems: As businesses grow and develop, they adopt various solutions to manage their operations, and these tools, such as , become ingrained into their processes over time. It is crucial for asset intensive organizations to select a supply chain software that can integrate quickly and seamlessly with existing ERP systems.
• Supplier Data and Logistics: One should also consider how well the SCM works with their suppliers and shippers’ systems. The goal is to find a product that is harmonious with all the other systems that their group works with.
• Highly Customizable: The ability to have high customization options built-in for a particular industry. Some of the industries may need a unique supply chain set of features to describe or classify and differentiate their inventory. For example, if the industry is in perishable goods, the software has to be built to take into consideration of the critical time frames that are involved in the storage and warehousing. Other examples include pharmaceutical companies that have to be able to take the supply chain from raw materials to the finished products. Luxury items that require special serialization or commodities that are highly focused on timelines also have special SCM requirements. All these businesses have unique problems that they are trying to overcome in the supply chain, but they are all different problems with a different focus.
• Reliability of the Vendors: The technical history and after sales and becomes the vital aspect while choosing a service provider. Factors such as – how long the vendor has been in the field and it is important to look into the support services provided by the vendor like implementing, upgrading, and maintaining the software to avoid a malfunction that may disturb the Supply Chain process of an organization.
• User-friendly and intuitive interface: Successful digital transformation of your supply chain depends upon a lot of factors, not least degree to which your organization’s need to adopt emerging technologies with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Salient Features like real-time data sharing, interactive dashboards, and a control center to manage the supply chain status in one touch, are worth considering.

If you’re looking to implement or migrate your software as part of your digital transformation, talk to one supply chain optimization experts and learn more how your software can help in Cost Reduction, , and Inventory Optimization.

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• Completeness and quality of data: The product data should be complete. All required mandatory attributes should be available and the accuracy of the data should be 100%. The consistency of the data across vendors and categories is also an important factor to be considered.
• Good product image: It is always better to provide an image of the product with dimensions. The customer can easily identify the product and visualize the size of the product.
• Searchability: Customers should be able to easily search for the product they are looking for and should be able to compare with similar products. If customers can’t find the right product, they might look for alternate retailers.A well classified and enriched product information makes the searchability easier.
• Localised content: Customers prefer to see their product description in their own language. Always translate the product information into the target market’s local language.
• Contextualised content: Enriched content always improves the product experience. A rich content makes the product as realistic as possible.
• Transparency: Transparency on the product details, adherence to the regulatory compliance requirements and country of origin etc. can help build customer confidence in the product.

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• Sourcing: MRO Data classification helps drive clarity, guarantee compliance and increases cost savings with accurate data revealing hidden opportunities. It creates a reduction in inventory and parts price from and re-engineering opportunities. Other than MRO savings, MRO data management helps in sourcing by:
  • Improving response times,
  • Creating better leverage in the market,
  • Enabling secondary market sourcing,
  • Increasing RFQ effectiveness.
• Purchasing: Clean, dependable MRO Data ensures company to negotiate contract pricing and exploit negotiating opportunities. This helps to automate stock purchasing, enable larger enterprise purchases, and ensures invoice accuracy.
• Maintenance: Standardized and enriched MRO Data ensures visibility of current availability of all spare parts across various plant locations and regions, thus reducing amount of time spent searching for parts to procure and delaying the much-needed maintenance activity.
• Inventory: The quality of MRO Data and its inventory creates an impact on optimization, sharing inventory across plants, kitting, planning, and vending and storeroom effectiveness.
• MRO Analytics: Efficient MRO analytics allows to make quick and informed decisions, spot new trends, and evaluate the production for more effective planning, and better efficiency.
• Quality & Asset Management: TQM (Total Quality Management) and lean manufacturing processes are enabled due to clear and accurate MRO data to reduce defects, reduce unplanned shutdowns, reduce down-time during overhauls and other unplanned maintenance.
• BOM Development: Maintaining accurate MRO data of all the equipment and their parts and linking the parts to the correct equipment is a base for any Reliability Program. Previous data can be lost during software upgrades, and parts often lay unnoticed in the storehouses eventually risking to damage, corrosion, and loss. MRO data management allows for material-to-asset tie-in to ensure production line reliability.

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