Know where everything is
• Know what is being used and what is not being used
• Keep track of quantities
• Protect parts from spoilage, theft, and damage
• Report facts to management
PARTS ARE THE POINTER TO THE MAINTENANCE PROBLEMS
Parts consume 40% to 70% of every maintenance dollar. Because most maintenance jobs require some parts, reducing part usage will automatically reduce labor.
Analysis of part use is fundamental to maintenance control. Track your expenditures for part usage to uncover areas where your time would be well invested. Continuous improvement will follow from this investment. Balance the following:
| Minimize the dollar value of stores inventory | = | Provide all materials required to keep a facility running |
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE IN THE STORES ORGANIZATION
You can rethink how you organize the storeroom when changing an existing storeroom operation or establishing a new storeroom for a new factory or facility. It is essential that normal stores operations continue while the reorganization takes place.
Any major change in the warehouse will concern the major stakeholders. These stakeholders include:
Primary stakeholders
• Existing stores manager
• Storeroom team members
Outside stakeholders
• Operations team and managers
• Maintenance manager
• Individual maintenance worker
• Maintenance planner / scheduler
• Finance comptroller / CFO
• Purchasing agent / buyer
• Auditor
The start of any storeroom improvement effort begins with these questions:
• What is the effort’s mission and what we are trying to change?
• Is there an aspect of the operation that is “broken”?
• What investment is needed for fixed assets, furniture and fixtures, picking systems, mobile equipment, maintenance inventory, other machinery, and tools?
• What return on investment is required?
• Who will manage the reorganization?
• Are there physical changes needed and will the storeroom be relocated?
• How long will the improvement take?
The second component of storeroom improvement is establishing a change team. Members can include the existing stores personnel, the maintenance manager, engineering, purchasing, and finance.
ADKAR®
Prosci® is a business management consultant that helps organizations manage change. Their change management model, ADKAR®, incorporates five steps to successfully manage any corporate change: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement.
A: Awareness The first step is to make everyone aware of the change. This communication should come from an officer of the organization. That officer should outline the scope of the change, the reason for the change, and the benefit of the change for everyone.
D: Desire Within the various change management groups, local supervisors have to build a desire to change. To build desire, the local supervisor might appeal to some motivators such as pride, job satisfaction, or challenge. The change might include elements that provide a better service, a more interesting job, work simplification, better competition, or some way of creating more opportunities.
K: Knowledge People won’t change if they don’t understand what to do. This phase provides training, including some hands-on activities. Your goal is to raise competence in both skills and knowledge, along with a shift in attitude.
A: Ability Your employees need the ability to make the changes they need to. This phase insures the employees have that ability.
R: Reinforcement Energy for change will often decrease over time. For the changes to be fully embedded, you must ensure substantial reinforcement — probably more than you think you will need.
In maintenance inventory control, we want to deliver a certain service level and minimize the cost to do so. In other situations, we might fix the stocking level and see what service level that generates or we might allow the service level to float. The former is the most common; the latter is more common for commodities or job lot style products (e.g., live Christmas trees).
SERVICE AGREEMENT FROM THE WAREHOUSE TO THE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT OR “WHAT MAINTENANCE EXPECTS FROM MATERIAL CONTROL”
Provisioning
• Part check out is easy, quick, and simple
• Delivery if needed (and agreed)
• Kit by work order if required (or agreed)
• Staffing storeroom as needed (increase staffing during shutdowns)
• Easy and quick to return surplus parts, incorrect parts, and parts for rebuild
Information Management
• Make stock parts easy to identify and look up
• Make it easy and intuitive to research unknown parts
• Parts people are knowledgeable about parts stocked and parts in general
• Maintain access to spare parts lists for all critical equipment
• Manage parts interchange
• Procedures are easy to follow, understand, and find (the SOP or Standard Operating Procedure)
Storage
• Prompt requisitioning and subsequent replenishment of parts that hit the ROP (Reorder Point)
• Make sure that the computer records reflect accurately the actual stock on the shelf
• Protect parts from mechanical damage, electrical damage, and pilferage
• Maintain parts in good condition (rotation of motors, etc., also air conditioning, heat, humidity, etc.)
Accounting
• Either all parts are charged to assets or parts are issued
