August 2005 - Library

36
The Case For
Integrated Service
Requirement Planning
Has Already Been
Made - Why Wait?
T
Brian dunks
Global Industry Director EAM, Intentia,
www.intentia.com
he year is 2010. The CEO of a large organization is summing up the findings from a recent strategic review of its operations
for his senior management team. The outcome shows that in hindsight the company could have gained substantially incre a s e d
revenue through areas such as real improvements in operational output, reductions in inventory and increased purchasing power.
So what did our hypothetical CEO find that could have had such a dramatic impact on the business’s operations?
He was considering the impact of integrating maintenance schedule planning into the hub of operational plans. At the heart of such
capabilities are advanced service re q u i rements planning (SRP) engines and the seamless connectivity of these tools to other
organizational business systems.
Some experts maintain that traditional enterprise asset management (EAM) or computerized maintenance management systems
(CMMS) have changed little over the last two decades in the way they calculate maintenance schedules. Even today, many systems
offer little more than a simple calculator that determines when the next scheduled service is due.
SRP engines provide more valuable and accurate information on maintenance demands to all parts of a business - and from a much
l o n g e r- t e rm perspective. Managers (whether in production, finance or warehousing, for example) can forecast depart m e n t a l
maintenance needs many years in advance.
Our futuristic management team considers the potential gains to their business areas:
P roduction - What might have been the case had production planning coordinated operational plans with the preventive maintenance
requirements of the assets? For one, a manager would know far in advance how often and for how long the equipment would need
to operate to complete the production forecast. That information could then have been used to schedule the correct amount of
maintenance re q u i red over the long term. Even if the forecast was not entirely accurate, any maintenance schedules could still
have been automatically updated after the actual production run. This would have increased asset re l i a b i l i t y, and enabled an incre a s e
in production output and lower unit costs.
Warehousing - Similar benefits apply to areas such as inventory control. The business could have used maintenance forecasts to
show planned spare parts demands for one or two years ahead. That information would have been invaluable in optimizing inventory
and reducing overall stockholding. The increase in asset reliability would also mean that spare parts would last longer and there f o re
replenishment costs would also be reduced. Cro s s - re f e rencing in real time between equipment and the inventory would have helped
identify critical parts and ensure that the stocking policy was correct.
Purchasing - Such detailed future planning of spare parts requirements would also have impacted purchasing requirements, such
as supporting renegotiation of supplier agreements that might have helped to achieve greater discounts or establish better terms
such as vendor managed inventory. Moving to a more efficient planned approach for maintenance would also have meant that the
business would face fewer emergency purchase orders and therefore a reduction in the higher charges that they often bring.