Top 3 MRO KPIs That Impact Business Units

We get a lot of questions here at MROConnection. One that pops up quite often is “how can I improve my company’s financial performance?” There are a large variety of answers to this question, but our answer is that focusing on MRO – maintenance, repair, and operations – can yield huge and unexpected tangible results. World class organizations are rapidly realizing that corporate strategies are moving into the MRO arena […]

The Total Cost of Ownership: Options and Measures

In the manufacturing industry there are many costs that are analyzed, scrutinized, and minimized. However, the most important cost often goes neglected. The Total Cost of Ownership represents the total of all costs related to a product, from purchase to usage to disposal. While managing this cost is a robust task, failing to account for the total costs of ownership can lead to poor business decision that will ultimately increase […]

Change Management in Organizations

Innovate. Leverage. Agile. Synergy. Optimize. Tactical. Best practice. What do all these words have in common? They are all on lists of “overused buzzwords.” The problem with these buzzwords is they start to lose meaning and they come and go, getting replaced with new and current words and ideas. However, every once in a while the concept behind the buzzword is actually a key business idea that should not be […]

Hoarders: MRO Edition

We’ve all been there. At the end of a long day, you’re flipping through the TV channels and you stumble upon a show about a 60 year old lady whose house is busting at the seams with junk: Her doll collection, her children’s art from grade 2, all those trinkets from weekly kid’s meals back in the 1980s. You watch it for a second. It makes you feel a little […]

Taming the MRO Beast: The link between MRO and … Greek Mythology?

I know, I know – this seems like a stretch – but bear with me. In the Greek mythology, the hero and demigod Heracles was assigned twelve labors by King Eurystheus, the second of which was to defeat the Lernaean Hydra. The Hydra is – was! – a mythological serpent-like water monster which possessed many heads, who had the capacity to regenerate two more when one was cut off. Heracles […]

Master Data Management: Why should you care?

When it comes to MRO data, most organizations are immature at best when it comes to master data management. One of the main problems being the complexity of linking good data to savings. Yet, when thought about logically it seems to be a no brainer. Procurement can easily perform spend analysis, leverage their purchasing power, and ultimately lower the cash being burned on MRO inventory across the enterprise. Supply chain […]

The Importance of Cross-Functional Teams

A cross-functional team is defined as: “a team composed of at least three members from diverse functional entities working together towards a common goal.” A cross-functional team “will have members with different functional experiences and abilities, and who will likely come from different departments within the organization.”(Source) Now, when it comes to MRO and the processes linked to these indirect materials, can you honestly say that your organization has a […]

A New Year = A New Strategy for Your Spare Parts

2015 is upon us! You, just like many others, have set goals and made plans for the new year ahead. So, with your personal goals set, why not turn your attention to your company’s? Your spare parts and MRO inventory are an often undernoticed and underappreciated place to start when searching for areas that can add tangible value for your organization. The start of a new year is one of […]

Keith Sheardown: You Might Be Training Them – But Are They Really Learning?

We are all conditioned to believe that our people will learn all that they need to know if they simply attend more training classes. We track our training budget. We measure classroom attendance and those “Smiley Sheets” that indicate that everyone thought the training class was a “5 out of 5”. And if the numbers increase we all feel good that our people are developing their skills – problem solved. […]