UK Industry Wasting Millions as Cost of Poor Maintenance Mounts Up

“The recent recession encouraged industry to look closely at its operations to drive out all unnecessary cost and streamline where possible,” says Andy Silver, Customer Service Director – ERIKS, Integrated Solutions. “Unfortunately, storeroom and inventory were all-too-often overlooked, which means that there is a lot of slack in terms of spares, inventory and wasted time in the system.”

ERIKS has identified four key drivers of poor MRO maintenance which include production downtime resulting from unavailable parts or poor stores management and inventory control; out of control spending on spares; wasted time due to MRO engineers sourcing parts and paperwork, rather than focusing on core activities. 

Mr Silver, says the problems are due to a basic lack of procedures and controls. “Many companies do not have the basic controls and tracking systems that provide visibility of costs in terms of ordering, warehousing, transportation and other expenses."

“My advice to UK industry is to look closely at MRO spend and put key performance indicators in place which can be monitored. For example, stock availability and accuracy should be in excess of 95% with a stock retrieval time of under 60 seconds from point of confirmation. If you can’t hit those standards then your MRO stores operations are not up to scratch. The irony is that good MRO practice can turn maintenance operations into a revenue driver, but only if the correct procedures are put in place.”