CMMS and inventory management software : How to manage my spare parts ?
Spare parts, stock and warehouse management is often associated with a company’s performance as well as with its maintenance department. It is strategic to the management of daily maintenance tasks and to the scheduling of future preventive work. Many companies experience drops in efficiency as a result of maintenance issues, especially when their engineers do not know where to find a spare part in the warehouse or when a component required for restarting a production line is out of stock.
Two solutions are available to help you overcome these problems and make the work of your warehouse managers and maintenance engineers as easy as possible: you can either track your orders, together with the locations and quantities of your replacement parts from your ERP software, or choose to manage your replacement parts directly from your CMMS. The optimal solution normally depends on how a company manages its cash flows: for accounting purposes, some industrial groups prefer to keep all activities relating to cash flows in their ERP systems. In this scenario, maintenance managers usually need to link the information between their CMMS and their ERP software to optimise their decision-making.
Mobility Work gives you the option to use either of these solutions:
- Connect your inventory management software to your ERP software and transfer the data you require to your Mobility Work system (locations, quantities or any other data from your ERP). To find out more, take a look at our tutorial.
- Manage your stock in your Mobility Work CMMS.
How do I create a replacement part in my inventory management software?
There are four ways to create a spare part:
- Duplicate a replacement part from an item of equipment available in the community or from a supplier’s replacement parts catalogue. Why create a spare part in your inventory management software when someone has already created it for you? Duplicating a replacement part will enable you to retrieve a whole range of information, such as a description of the equipment and its official characteristics.
- To create a new replacement part in your CMMS, simply enter the following information:
- The name of the replacement part
- The description
- A photo
- The cost centre (representing a financial or geographical breakdown of the spare part)
- The number of parts in stock
- The location
- The unit price
- The minimum stock level
- The maximum stock level
- Import all of your replacement parts together from an Excel file into your inventory management software at no additional cost.
- Import your replacement parts along with any other data from your ERP software via Mobility Work’s PLCs or from a flat .CSV or .TXT file.
How do I remove a replacement part from stock for a maintenance task in my Mobility Work ?
When performing a maintenance operation, an engineer will need to remove replacement parts from the available stock. With the Mobility Work CMMS, this can be done when the maintenance report is produced in the software.
For example, when replacing a Leroy Somer LS72 motor on a shot blasting machine, the engineer will be able to view the amount of replacement parts in stock and their location in the warehouse. It is then simply a matter of entering the amount of replacement parts used, a comment on the work completed, and details of the time spent. All of this information will then be accessible to any Mobility Work CMMS user in the factory.
How can I create parts lists in the Mobility Work ?
Parts lists are often very difficult to create in a inventory management software. This is a process that requires time, resources and a thorough knowledge of each and every item, including its exact location on each machine.
Mobility Work application makes it easier for you to manage these parts lists when carrying out maintenance on a piece of equipment.
When spare parts are removed from stock in your CMMS, they will appear on the relevant equipment form, enabling you to create parts lists for your machines automatically. All items of equipment for which a spare part has been taken will also be displayed on the replacement part form.
How do I add replacement parts to my stock?
When your warehouse manager receives a delivery of new spare parts, you will want to update the stock quantity in your maintenance software. To do this, it is simply a matter of viewing the relevant spare part form and clicking on the ‘Add a replacement part‘ button. All you will then need to do is enter the delivery date and the number of parts received, and your stock information will be updated automatically in your inventory management software.
The table of received stock on the replacement part form will display all stock movements, the users concerned, the date and the quantity received. The table of removed stock will show similar information.
How can I filter my replacement parts ?
The equipment search function will allow you to apply various filters in your inventory management software, enabling you to select particular replacement parts based on pre-defined criteria. The following filters can be used for spare parts:
- Warehouse location
- Minimum stock level
- Maximum stock level
- Minimum unit price
- Maximum unit price
- It is also possible to filter any replacement parts with stock levels lower than the minimum quantity stated on the spare part form.
You can then download the automatically generated replacement parts list from your inventory management software in Excel (.CSV, .XLS) or PDF format. You can also save your searches and filters to save time if you think you might need to use them again in the future.
How can I analyse my data on replacement parts removed from stock?
Mobility Work’s spare parts analysis module allows you to view the following data for a given period:
- The total cost of the removed replacement parts
- The number of removed replacement parts
- The cost of the replacement parts used by month
- The cost of the replacement parts used by keyword (preventive, electrical, mechanical, etc.)
- The cost of the replacement parts used by machine
- The most frequently used replacement parts
- The replacement parts used with the highest total cost
- A summary of removed replacement parts by maintenance task and by engineer
You are interested in maintenance management and would like to learn more about this subject in order to increase your productivity and save costs? Let’s plan a free online training with our team!