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Those who have not yet applied the concept to their operations will ask themselves a fundamental question: What is MRO? Maintenance, repair and operations, or MRO, is a powerful term that encompasses a range of steps and activities carried out in an industrial environment.
For the system most plants use to manage this.
It is powerful because, when carried out correctly, it can lead to incredible improvements, better productivity and quality of output, greater efficiency and less costly downtime. Despite all of these benefits, many in the industry still do not understand or manage MRO effectively.
Hence, it’s essential to discover MRO’s meaning in manufacturing, its importance, types and ways to improve it. In this article, that’s exactly what we cover. Let’s explore this topic in more detail together.
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See it liveIn order to define MRO, we have to look at the answer to the question: What does MRO stand for in manufacturing? In short, MRO stands for maintenance, repair & operations. This is a group of activities that’s critical to any manufacturing operation in an industrial environment.
It encompasses costs, tools, equipment, facilities, spare parts and inventory, management, warehousing and vendor management. In addition to other factors that together constitute the entire MRO process, these help organisations achieve their business objectives.
What is MRO in manufacturing? To answer this, it’s essential to consider the term as an overarching concept that deals with separate activities within a manufacturing plant that, when combined and implemented optimally, can enhance production efficiency.
Thus, an MRO definition includes all the elements of a manufacturing or industrial facility, ranging from the infrastructure to the tools, equipment and spare parts, which, when managed optimally, will boost organisational capacity and performance for the maximum benefit of the business.
This can fall within the food and beverage, retail, furniture manufacturing, glass manufacturing, and other industries that use equipment and machines to create products for sale in a business-to-business or business-to-consumer setting.
MRO—maintenance, repair and operations—and proper MRO management are vitally important for any manufacturing facility, factory or plant. Below, we explore just some of the reasons why this is the case.
Downtime can be scheduled or unscheduled. The former is preferred because it means that machine interruptions are planned. However, unscheduled downtime occurs when a machine breaks down unexpectedly.
When not anticipated, these emergency repairs require maintenance managers to pull teams together from other tasks and departments to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. This can put the entire production process into disarray and put it at risk of not operating smoothly, affecting maintenance and repair activities.
When unscheduled downtime occurs, this also has unintentional cost implications, resulting in additional and unnecessary expenses as well as a suboptimal use of human and physical resources, which can broadly affect the business’ bottom line.
When it comes to MRO in manufacturing, it plays an essential role in ensuring enhanced manufacturing line productivity. Manufacturing lines rely on machines to operate. When these machines work well, production output is efficient and smooth.
The role of maintenance, repair and operations is crucial in this regard.
For starters, corrective maintenance and predictive maintenance ensure that machines do not experience downtime. Repair work is carried out on schedule and as planned so as not to cause interruptions, helping to boost the business’ productivity and efficiency.
When productivity is high, there’s higher output at greater quality with minimal disruptions.
High productivity leads to greater customer satisfaction and a stronger brand that’s known for being a reliable and trustworthy source of products. Consequently, MRO plays a fundamental role in ensuring optimal manufacturing line productivity.
With MRO, equipment, tool and inventory control and utilisation are optimised. Whether it’s at a large warehouse or in smaller physical spaces near technicians and maintenance crews, most manufacturing plants and facilities have storage space for inventory and spare parts.
However, spare parts management can be a challenging task, especially since they are constantly depleted through use and require continuous topping up. In such cases, efficiency is key.
Organisations should not hoard multiple spare parts or even office supplies that gather dust. Instead, they should have an inventory management system to indicate when inventory levels are running low and when they need to be replenished.
Once such a system is in place, it’s easier to manage the available resources, as spare parts and inventory are some of the biggest ongoing expenses that an organisation makes in order to thrive.
With optimised parts inventory management and organisation, a maintenance manager knows exactly how much inventory is available, how quickly it is running out and which MRO materials and supplies need to be restocked. Such knowledge allows for smooth availability and seamless running of the maintenance, repair and operations departments. When it is easier to track inventory, MRO inventory management best practices begin to be implemented for greater organisational success.
Linked to the topic above of optimised inventory management and organisation is the further benefit of minimising resource waste. It is pertinent to remember that some spare parts or inventory have a short shelf life.
As such, having multiple quantities of these in stock is actually not optimal for the business and its operations. Unused spare parts or inventory with a short shelf life expire quickly and cannot be used later on, leading to waste.
This is an important financial leakage that maintenance managers and financial departments have to deal with. That’s why MRO is so good at introducing efficiencies that minimise resource waste.
With the right software at your fingertips, inventory management becomes a streamlined process that is smooth to handle and manage on an ongoing basis.
Human resources are one of the most important aspects of your organisation. They need to be utilised optimally to achieve the maximum amount of efficiency in your manufacturing facility.
When a machine breaks down and requires emergency maintenance or reactive maintenance, team resources are often diverted from another critical task in order to fix the problem at hand. This results in team inefficiency.
However, with MRO being planned and scheduled timeously, reactive maintenance is minimised. This means that team members’ skills are used optimally within limited time frames for maximum output. Improved employee efficiency can also see maintenance teams operating at full capacity without any leaks, waste of time or resources and costly financial implications.
That’s because when teams are assigned work orders that they follow through on schedule and as planned, there is no need to work overtime or stop production processes for maintenance and repair work to be carried out.
Manufacturing plants and facilities have a great responsibility to ensure compliance with local and national regulations. This aspect of compliance requires regular maintenance and upkeep of machinery and equipment to the highest mechanical and safety standards.
If any machine is not functioning properly, the risk of causing harm to employees is higher. That’s why they need to be in perfect working order all the time. When team safety is at risk, there’s a danger to their health and well-being.
Any such risks need to be minimised so that accident rates remain at zero for as long as possible. The zero-tolerance approach to health and safety incidents and accidents should be upheld by every organisation to ensure they look after their teams’ well-being and safety when on site.
All of the above benefits, combined, have significant cost implications. When a manufacturing plant is operating inefficiently, it results in major financial leakages and losses. On the other hand, when a plant is characterised by strong efficiency and unnecessary and unplanned expenses are kept as low as possible, it enables the business to thrive financially.
This also means better and stronger returns on investment (ROI) for investors, who need to see their investment work at maximum capacity so that they can reap the rewards.
A healthy business is defined by more funds flowing in instead of out. The greater the turnover and profitability, the better the financial performance and local economic development through job creation and driving economic growth.
Turn downtime into a number your team can actually act on.
Get a demoWith MRO, manufacturing becomes a seamless and streamlined process. However, MRO is quite a broad category that is often applied to different areas of business operations, from maintenance and repair of the plant’s physical infrastructure to tooling and consumables.
In short, four main types of MRO are utilised in various business operations. Each of these will be discussed in more detail below.
When it comes to MRO, maintenance incorporates infrastructure maintenance and repair. Infrastructure refers to the land and buildings that belong to the business.
It can also include aspects such as roofing repairs, HVAC maintenance, repairs to damaged walls, doors or cracks in buildings or warehouses, etc. In addition to this, infrastructure repair and maintenance can include maintaining gardens and landscaping, pathways and footpaths and other related areas that are fixed and immovable in nature but that still require upkeep.
A second type of MRO deals with production equipment repair and maintenance. However, what is MRO equipment?
MRO equipment is the bulk of the mechanical infrastructure on the plant premises, or, in other words, the machinery and equipment that are the foundation of the facility’s production works. In short, these machines can include conveyor belts, large pieces of machinery with wheels and cogs, specialised equipment that facilitates production and others.
Material handling equipment maintenance refers to the maintenance of equipment that handles finished output from primary production processes. This can include forklifts, pallet positioners, bulk containers, jacks, power robotics, and others.
This machinery is often used for a dual purpose. Firstly, it can transport raw materials to production lines for further refinement.
Secondly, it can transport the finished products to trucks, storage facilities and shipping docks for processing and delivery to third parties or to end customers, depending on the organisation's suppliers and supply chain. As such, MRO supply chain management becomes a faster and more efficient process.
Much as the name suggests, this one is a category of MRO types, defined by tools and consumable materials. These are essential in the production process and having the right stock levels is critical.
However, they are not directly involved in the manufacturing of the finished goods. Examples may include powered hand tools, manual hand tools, cutting bits, clamps and joining tools, adhesives and glues, sandpaper, welding or soldering supplies, personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies, office supplies, etc.
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Book a demoHaving looked at the benefits and types of MRO, it becomes clear that MRO efficiencies can be achieved by following a few industry best practices for MRO inventory management. In short, they are:
Any type of procurement process has financial implications. That’s why you need your MRO and MRO items to be as efficient as possible to ensure that there are no costly financial leaks in your organisation.
It’s critical to use procurement software such as a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) to help you streamline your procurement efforts and keep your inventory in check. What is more, a CMMS can help manage work orders and work flows, schedule preventive maintenance and repair tasks and run overall operations as smoothly as possible.
Optimising MRO workflows is the goal that you constantly need to strive for. Often, this will require you to make decisions driven by data for your production operations to be as seamless as possible.
With this in mind, a CMMS is a highly useful and powerful tool that can yield reports and analytics, in addition to creating seamless work flows that ensure preventive maintenance operations are highly efficient to your organisation’s advantage.
Lastly, choosing the right software and tools is a must. However, how does one make such a decision?
Often, organisations believe that the most cost-effective alternative is the best route to take. On the contrary, price should only be one deciding factor in choosing your CMMS software. Other criteria include choosing a CMMS that offers crucial features, such as:
Using an MRO system requires a deeper understanding of the question: What is industrial MRO? Industrial MRO is specific to industrial facilities where production at a manufacturing plant is the primary part of business operations.
In order to achieve optimal MRO efficiency, it’s essential to pair this with a CMMS.
When choosing the right inventory management software, it’s essential to choose the right tool. In this regard, Fabrico’s CMMS is an outstanding and powerful solution that can help you manage MRO inventory, improve maintenance, handle emergency repairs, assign work orders, and track inventory as well as offer you data and analytics to make data-driven decisions.
It’s time to put Fabrico’s CMMS to use at your organisation for greater efficiency and streamlined production processes. Try the free plan by clicking here.
In this article, we’ve attempted to answer the questions: What is an MRO and what does MRO mean in manufacturing? We’ve also highlighted some of the key benefits, types of MRO and best practices you can follow to ensure your production facility thrives.
Understanding MRO for these types of plants is essential. However, these practices and activities are best paired when done in conjunction with CMMS software. Remember to create an MRO strategy specific to your business needs and engage in continuous monitoring for cost-effectiveness.
We encourage you to explore the different MRO solutions on the market and we are here to help address any questions you may have. Simply get in touch with us today!
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