After recovering from the initial surprise that THE Tim McLain managed to carve out enough time to author an article on the Top 10 Issues within the MRO Supply Chain, it dawned on me that I need to step up and represent the Maintenance perspective! 

After all, I can’t let a Supply Chain expert steal the spotlight, can I? 

The reality is, I am every bit the Supply Chain aficionado that Tim is. We share a passion for this work, and I have seen firsthand just how accurate his insights are. That said, there is always another side to the story.  

The more I collaborate with different teams to help connect the MRO Supply Chain dots, the more I realize how siloed critical information can be. If you’re curious about Tim’s write-up, you can check out his article here: (insert link to Tim’s Whitepaper). 

Full disclosure—I’m not mechanically inclined, but I love tinkering in my shop and learning how things work.  One bad weld at a time constantly reminds me just how talented AND VALUABLE trades people are.  I guess that’s why I’m so obsessed with Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS).   

Here’s why I think they’re a game changer: 

1. They serve as the information bridge between Maintenance, Operations, and other supporting teams at any asset-intensive organization. When implemented well, they bring order and a level of simplicity to the chaos.   

2. Integrating Supply Chain and Procurement into your Asset Management Strategy uncovers major opportunities for supplier collaboration and cost savings. 

3. CMMS platforms enable Operational Readiness, letting Operations & Maintenance (O&M) organizations balance workloads and pull the right levers to achieve target outcomes. 

4. They promote safety, protect the environment, and uphold both production and reputation by helping prioritize work and ensure the right people, parts, and tools are always on hand. 

Although these are high-level points, I doubt anyone in the industry would dispute them. Almost every organization has a CMMS system, but very few truly harness its full capabilities. It’s even more alarming to see organizations duplicating CMMS functions in spreadsheets – or worse – , bolting on third-party solutions, adding a band aide to the core issue. At moments like these, I recall a valuable lesson from kindergarten: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”  

So here’s my friendly advice: “Put your CMMS to work!” 

Here is how I’d approach it:  

Information Handover (Capital Projects to Operations) 

Work with your organization to develop a hand over process from Capital Construction to Operations.  Nothing burns a technician more than having to walk a facility to gather information that should have been collected during the design and construction phase of a project.  Work with your Organization to include Asset Registry, Maintenance Plan & Task List Creation, and BOM creation as part of the Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) checklist or Management of Change (MOC) Processes BEFORE handing the keys to Operations.  Better yet, involve them in the design phase of the project. NO ONE knows equipment better than the mechanic that is called out at 2AM to fix it. They will prevent more problems before they occur just by selecting the right equipment.   

I call this the “Slow Down to Go Fast” Process and have some pretty solid R&D (Legitimate Rocket Scientists) to back up my claims. Go check out NASA’s Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) Guide and look at this chart.  

Just let it sink in…  

Asset Registry & Equipment Creation 

I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few good mentors in my career.  Every time I speak about Asset Registry, I picture a tall and lanky Canadian preaching about the importance of Master Data.  I’m not sure if it was the simplicity of the message around ISO 14224 or my sub conscience mind remembering the shock of Norm Poynter’s Neon coloured shirts that made the knowledge stick, but I’m so glad I paid attention.   Organizations just don’t understand how to structure Master Data.  Again, this is a “Slow Down to Go Fast” Topic.  If you don’t own a copy of ISO 14224, go get it.  Pay attention to this table and thank me later.   Don’t mix the levels!  Once you get this figured out, stuff starts making sense.  

  OH, if you’re working with a consultant that doesn’t start here, RUN! 

Asset Criticality & the Lack of a Standard Risk Matrix 

Another critically important mentor of mine in the Upstream Oil & Gas industry caught me in the hall one day after a long day of a Plant Maintenance & Materials Management implementation presentation.  I was a little disappointed at the interaction and honestly felt a little vulnerable and overwhelmed with what I was presenting.  Billy Biggers, the Operational Manager for the Gulf Coast at the time, stopped me (mid-sentence) and said, “Justin.  Stop.  Answer this question.  How do you stop an elephant that is running downhill at full speed from running through your house sitting at the bottom?”  Sarcastically and half annoyed, I said, “One bite at a time”.  

He laughed and said, “No you knucklehead,  You run next to it and bump it  over and over again until it choses a different path!  You just gotta change it’s focus!” 

What a profound moment.  We talked for a bit, and he told me to “tie EVERYTHING back to People, Environment, Production and Reputation (IN THAT ORDER).  Get this right, and 95% of your problems will disappear.”   

So that’s what we did.  5 years later, I was working alongside him strategically implementing programs to drive down cost and increase production on a global scale.  What an absolute blessing this lesson was to me.  Thanks again, Billy! 

If you don’t know where your company’s risk matrix is located, go find it.  If you don’t have one, create one.  You can thank me for this too!  Here’s a good example for you to consider:  

This chart will be constantly referenced and should drive: 

• Work Prioritization 

• Inventory Decisions 

• Asset Criticality 

Lack of Maintenance Plans (Life of Physical Asset Plan) 

Now that you have an equipment record created, you need to assess your Maintenance Strategy.  I could go on and on about the importance of preventive maintenance and what it does for organizations, but I’ll save that for another time.    

Here’s the key take away: If you don’t use a tool to manage your Maintenance Plans and systematically schedule them, it WILL manage you.  Spreadsheets, Big Chief Tablets, and Good Intentions are not an effective tool.  One missed PM that causes a major event will have you begging for a tool that helps you manage it. 

When you create an equipment record, start thinking about how we should maintain it.  Both time based and Conditioned Based PMs are important considerations.   Make it part of your MOC or PSSR checklist to ensure it’s done properly!  

Lack of Job Plans (People, Parts and Tools) 

This is where the rubber meets the road, or as Gary Brown (our North American SCaaS Director) says, “where the metal hits the meat”. 

Setting up a Maintenance Plan without adding a Job Plan is like making a cake without a recipe.  You may have a few recipes memorized, but eventually you’re going to miss the mark and pay dearly for the part you have to hotshot from oversees to avoid costly stand by time from the crew you brought it to perform the work.  Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.

The icing on the top is that most ERP tools will allow you to forecast your planned resources and materials years in advance if these are done right!  If your Maintenance Plans don’t have Job plans (Task Lists in SAP), get this done NOW!  Your O&M teams will hang your picture on the wall if you do this well!  It sets you up for all sorts of savings and visibility on the procurement side & connects Supply Chain to your Defect Elimination. 

Not Prioritizing Work 

If everything is an emergency, then nothing is an emergency. 

Aesop’s The Boy Who Cried Wolf fable still rings true today and Supply Chains across the globe are fed up.  I’ve attended  20+ meetings this year where a buyer & warehouse clerk told me the reservation that operations created is not critical and the date doesn’t matter.  My pleading with them to expedite a purchase fell on deaf ears due to the fact that O&M simply incorrectly prioritized the work order.  In other scenarios, I’ve seen 2 work orders needing the same part in the warehouse that only had one available.  When asked who gets priority, the response was, “First Come, First Served”.  YIKES! 

Here are a few suggestions: 

• Tie Work Order Priority to the Criticality of the Equipment. 

• Tie the Criticality of the Equipment to your Company’s Risk Matrix that looks at the likelihood & consequence of an event occurring if we don’t do the PM or action the CM fast enough. 

• Tie Downtime and Safety measure to your work order priorities and PUBLISH these for EVERYONE to see. 

• Train your Maintenance Managers to review each notification/work order and assign the appropriate priority before passing to the Maintenance Planner.  

Maverick Free Text Spending

Now THIS is a topic I can agree on with Tim!  In the infamous and paraphrased word’s of Bobby Boucher’s mother, Helen, “Free Text is the Devil, Bobby!”  OK, maybe she didn’t say that, but after a week of trying to run a procurement program, she sure would!   

In my experience, this is usually a symptom of 3 things: 

1. Bad Material Master Descriptions 

2. Complicated Procurement Processes 

3. Poor Planning and Scheduling 

This is not that hard, and you can fix this! 

Here’s the game plan: 

• Plan and Schedule Work after confirming Material Availability 

• Reserve Parts from inventory.  (Use it up and replenish it when you’re running low!) 

• Let MRP create the Requisition if we need to buy it.  (This will enable auto sourcing and auto contract compliance) 

• Auto PO everything we can to eliminate tedious procurement practices.  (Buyers hate cutting routine PO’s just as bad as you hate calling vendors and hand coding invoices) 

• Once you get the daily administrative burden under control, change your focus to strategic procurement.   

Trending Forecasted Spend

Early in my career, working as an auditor, accountant, and procurement leader, I dreaded the days the Analyst called me to talk about accruals.  It always felt like I was “licking my finger and pointing it in the air to determine the direction of the wind.”  Some organizations spend DAYS looking at unaccrued invoices that were received after month end and year end close cycles.   What an absolute soul crushing exercise, ESPECIALLY for the maintenance team that busted their tail to find a better and cheaper way to operate!   

Most companies I work with or have worked for base some component of their compensation on operating expenses and staying within budget.  In my experience there is NO BETTER WAY to move this needle than properly prioritizing & planning work. 

Here’s why: 

• We stop expediting lower priority work at a higher cost. This allows us to focus on completing our scheduled PM’s and higher priority CM’s while we wait on materials for Medium to Low priority work. This not only keeps Materials Costs down, it optimizes the wrench time of our internal and contract Labor crews!  It’s a Win-Win.  

• We negotiate Labor and Parts at a much larger economy of scale. Working with a MRO Supplier to buy a year’s worth of PM Parts rather than by each individual job is going to be cheaper. I’ve seen numbers as high as 15-20% without much negotiation.  For you finance guys- THIS IS WHERE THE ROI IS!  

• Planned Work is Safe Work. Statistically, Planned Work is MUCH safer than Unplanned Work. Accounting Team!  If your operations team is planning work and using the warehouse to receive and issues materials for upcoming work, PLEASE stop and think before just trending an accrual and “smoothing out the curve.” Your procurement, O&M and Planning Teams deserve this! 

Localized “Squirrel Store” Stock 

All organizations have squirrel stores, and I honestly don’t blame them.  It’s a real pain in the neck not to have essentials spare parts on hand to keep guys on their tools. I get it. TRUST ME. Where my “This Ain’t Right Meter” goes off, however, is when I see work orders with extra stuff ordered to keep on their shelves for “emergencies”.   

Here’s the rub: 

• No one is going to take care of your inventory better than dedicated inventory team.  With proper tools and KPI’s, I promise your inventory is better off in a controlled space that is counted and preserved based on its criticality. 

• This over inflates the true cost of maintenance. Remember the “Information Handover” Topic above?  If we duplicate costs on a work order we are likely to drive bad decisions due to bad data.   

Look, I get the need to keep some stuff on hand, but let’s be smart about it and work WITH procurement not against them! 

Reporting & KPI’s

What we don’t measure, we cannot understand.  What we don’t understand, we cannot improve. 

Some of the best advice I ever received was that “KPI’s are tools to drive us in a certain direction”. That really stuck with me, and I do everything I can to help clients understand this.   

Too many times, I see companies measuring the funniest things because this leader wanted that and that leader wanted this.  Most of the time these leaders aren’t even around, and people end up discounting all KPI’s because of a few bad ones. I believe in the K.I.S.S. methodology with KPIs.  “Keep It Simple Stupid”.  Focus on driving good behaviours that connect O&M and Supply Chain.  Our goal should be a safe and productive environment that drives shareholder value.  Here are a few suggestions: 

Planned Demand % 

How far in advance do we know we need materials to perform work.  If you are trying to reduce inventory, THIS IS YOUR KPI!  The more you plan, the less inventory you need.   

Maintenance Plan Compliance 

Measure how well you comply with your scheduled maintenance program.  Show me an organization that skips PMs and I’ll show you a really stressed out crew.  It’s like I tell my 17 year old son,  “It’s a lot cheaper to do an oil change than replace an engine.”   Leaders, if you start measuring this and find out that your guys are skipping PMs, simply ask why.  This is the data you need to justify staffing or changes to the Maintenance Program!  Data is king and removes excuses. 

Weekly Schedule Compliance 

Measure what you said you going to do vs what you actually did weekly.  Break ins happen, people get sick and machines fail. Understanding why they happen will help drive inventory levels, strategic supplier relationships, and future Capital Project planning.  Good leaders also use this as an opportunity to review prioritization of work.  If we confirm time to a corrective maintenance work order instead of completing a PM, it should follow the priority matrix we established in Step 6. 

Maintenance Plan Cost Variances 

Measuring the Planned vs. Actual Costs on your Maintenance Plans weekly will quickly identify when you’re: Adding corrective maintenance parts to preventive maintenance work orders (This kills our Reliability Engineers!) Missing key parts on your job plans that could have been part of a strategic category management plan. 

Identifying missed Time confirmations Identifying missed field tickets for contract labor.  

If you’re just starting, a good rule of thumb is to compare planned vs actual and set a threshold of acceptable variance. 

Start at 20% and work down from there!