Clearview Midlands December 2013 - Issue 145 | Page 62
MACHINERY
Raising the standard
Chris Gordon, Buck & Hickman, explains to Clearview the role of MRO
product standardisation in operational and commercial success.
The process of purchasing and managing
tools, maintenance, repair & overhaul
(MRO) and health & safety products for
manufacturing and process facilities can be
a complicated one, requiring hundreds or
even thousands of stock-keeping units to be
available whenever and wherever they are
needed on-site.
This means that significant amounts of
cash can be tied up in slow-moving products,
while there may be little thought given to
whether these products are delivering optimal
performance and value, with the same product
simply reordered whenever stocks run low.
In a bid to simplify the process and reduce
working capital, many companies have in
recent years been taking a long, hard look at
the process to see how it can be improved.
One of the areas where the greatest impact
is consistently achieved is in ‘standardisation’
– minimising as far as possible the number
of different brands and models of product
used for the same task, while ensuring there
is no compromise on performance, quality or
safety.
‘Standardisation can rapidly
deliver a measurable
commercial return’
Typically undertaken as part of an overall
improvement initiative, standardisation can
rapidly deliver a measurable commercial
return.
In the area of abrasive discs and belts, for
example, it is not uncommon for companies
to source and stock multiple grades of product
to cope with all stages of the process from
weld and burr removal to finer cosmetic
finishing. Yet innovation in recent years has
created abrasive products that not only reduce
the number of process stages required (and
therefore the number of different belts or discs
needed) but last longer too.
‘The true value they
can offer will only be
appreciated through study
of whole life costs and, of
course, trails under real
operating conditions’
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