| Creating an internal MRO virtual warehouse (or | | | | nomenclature was established. |
| Corporate MRO Catalog) allows a multi-site | | | | A corporate item numbering schema was |
| corporation to leverage its assets across the | | | | introduced to act as an alias to each site's current |
| entire organization and deliver value for inventory | | | | item numbers. That way maintenance |
| parts. | | | | tradespeople could continue to use item numbers |
| With a Corporate Catalog, a company is able to | | | | that were familiar, but at the same time |
| have a single view of all corporate data. | | | | corporate supply chain people could consolidate |
| Consolidating parts across the company into a | | | | item information across sites. |
| "virtual" warehouse becomes a powerful tool for | | | | The results speak for themselves. The company |
| the organization. Total inventory can be viewed to | | | | now has a corporate catalog of MRO items; |
| determine volume usage, part equivalences, | | | | duplicate items were removed from each site's |
| common suppliers, price variations, etc. | | | | internal Stores inventory; excess active inventory |
| To further increase volume purchases and reduce | | | | was identified for use through attrition and/or for |
| pricing, product lines can be selected and | | | | return to the vendor for credit; both Suppliers and |
| mandated, the supplier base can be consolidated, | | | | product lines were consolidated for further |
| and Preferred Supplier programs can be put in | | | | volume-based savings and; sites located in close |
| place. | | | | proximity to each other now share common |
| Let me illustrate with a case study example. A | | | | critical spare parts. |
| multi-site pulp & paper manufacturer with | | | | These initiatives generated real cash savings and |
| eleven locations had envisioned creating a | | | | they were only achievable through the creation of |
| corporate catalog for several years. But they | | | | the Corporate Catalog. Now all eleven sites can |
| never got beyond the just talking stage. It | | | | begin to operate as a single entity; they have a |
| sounded fine in theory, but whenever they tried | | | | virtual warehouse as far as MRO inventory is |
| planning the implementation, without a single | | | | concerned. |
| system in place, it seemed to be an impossible | | | | To date, six of the eleven sites have been |
| task. | | | | completed and included into the Corporate |
| Then, at a trade show, they were introduced to a | | | | Catalog. Each has realized approximately one-half |
| data cleansing company and the path became | | | | million in savings, proving that the endeavour |
| clear. The foundation for any corporate catalog is | | | | more than justifies itself. |
| a standard data layout and a single numbering | | | | To maintain the data integrity of the MRO |
| schema. | | | | corporate catalog (and each site's catalog), the |
| Through data scrubbing, standardization and | | | | company has decided to out-source its on-going |
| enhancement, data from each plant was | | | | Catalog Management needs to the data cleanser. |
| normalized, independent of the system in which it | | | | It's a true partnership relationship. |
| resided. Within the normalized data, a company | | | | |