Five Minute Facts
Excuse Me, This Is Not What I Ordered
Asset-intensive companies rely heavily on BoMs for work orders and maintenance operations. The accuracy of your work order depends on having the correct parts and quickly identifying those parts. Time is money for every organization. Therefore, maintenance personnel do not need to be spending unnecessary extra time trying to locate equipment. Having a BoM is only half the battle. BoMs are often laced with misinformation, missing parts, and errors which hinders maintenance and reliability operations.
Ask yourself this, if your BoMs can’t be trusted, then why do you have them? What use are they if you can’t use them correctly? One of the common problems stemming from low-quality BoMs are delayed or incomplete work orders. Remember that one time at your favorite restaurant when they gave you the wrong order? Or maybe you ordered your steak medium-rare, and it came back well done. You were probably quite frustrated, on top of being hungry. The last thing any asset-intensive company wants to do is order the wrong part. Such problems can create a significant maintenance backlog resulting in more time and money being wasted.
Wasted time is expensive
Identifying the parts you need for a work order quickly, means you always need to have all the necessary tools at your disposal. With the right tools in place, it shouldn’t take much time for maintenance workers to identify the parts they need for a work order.
The problem could be that maintenance staff struggle to quickly identify the correct parts because text descriptions or naming conventions are not simplified. Without adequate and timely information, maintenance staff will be left unsure about which part needs to be ordered. Such scenarios are not a time to engage in guesswork, and this is where visual parts selection comes in very handy. Adding an exploded diagram to a piece of equipment reduces the chances of confusion or miscommunication.
In some cases, maintenance personnel know exactly what part needs to be ordered, but run into problems trying to locate it. This can heighten frustration among employees and add an unnecessary layer of complexity to what should be a straightforward process. Due to not being able to quickly identify parts or not even knowing which part is needed in the first place, work orders are likely to be rushed to meet deadlines. This is where the repercussions are felt. Maintenance personnel are now under a significant amount of stress and may create duplicate parts or incur unnecessary costs.
Without practical spare parts management, your BoMs are unreliable. Multiple delayed or incomplete work orders can cause a maintenance backlog. Once your orders are backed up, they become quite the challenge to get rid of. An effective BoM strategy is the key to preventing such problems from occurring in the first place. The NRX AssetHub solution can help you ensure your BoM data is up to date for increased efficiency, therefore reducing the chances of backlogs or incomplete orders. If you would like to learn more about our solution, please book a demo, and our team would be happy to assist you!
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