Findings from a Case Study for a global food and beverage organisation

1. 1
Case Study
MRO Spares Data Quality Audit
Major Food & Drink Manufacturer

2. 2
Background
The company (a plant within a global food and drink company)
realised they had issues with the quality of their inventory
descriptive data in their SAP CMMS.
To clean up the data, they awarded the contract to a specialist
consultancy company.
Ramsoft (UK) conducted an audit of the cleansed Spares Data
file. This audit confirmed what we have found many times, when
a specialist company is awarded a contract, the quality of the
work is dependant on the people assigned to do the job.
In our opinion, the quality of the cleansed data received back
from the consultant was extremely poor and therefore not fit for
purpose

3. 3
Audit Approach
The received data was imported to Ramsoft (UK)’s MS Access
based Analysis Tool
The scope of the audit was to:
Focus on Ball Bearings
Highlight any other issues that were apparent
Spend approx. 2 days analysing the full database looking for
inconsistencies
Present a report of the findings

4. 4
Main Findings
Key audit findings were:
Total number of line items was 9,582, (only 40% were
assigned both a noun and a qualifier)
Excessive use of GENERAL as the Modifier (approx. 60%)
Short Description format did not conform to best practice
Because of inconsistent population of the Mfg’s P/N format;
not all duplicate line items were identified by the contractor
Duplicate Mfg’s company names were populated
Mix of OEM & OPM companies and p/ns were found for
common items, e.g. Ball Bearings
Attribute data populated inconsistent
This presentation shows examples of only a few of the issues
found

5. 5
Short Descriptions Format
The format used for ALL line items is the format used for
machine specific spares. E.g.
NOUN,MODIFIER, MFG P/N, MFG NAME
The format for common spares such as BEARINGS is:
NOUN,MODIFIER, ATTRIBUTE 1, ATTRIBUTE 2

6. 6
Short Descriptions Use of OEM & OPM
The manufacture for common items by default should be the
OPM (Original Part Manufacturer) and not the OEM (Original
Equipment Manufacturer)

7. 7
Finding Duplicates
The manufacture’s Part Nos are entered inconsistently i.e.
Use of Seal Information 2Z or ZZ
Use of a (-) as a separator while others have no (-)
This inconsistency in entering manufacture’s Part Nos will result
in duplicated line items.
We have a stripping utility to remove all non-alphanumeric
characters
This allowed Ramsoft to identify additional duplicates over and
above what the Consultant company found

8. 8
Duplicate Company Names
The following screen shot shows duplicate company names, e.g.
INA & INA International
SKF & SKF Industries Inc and perhaps SKA (a typo)

9. 3
Audit Approach
The received data was imported to Ramsoft (UK)’s MS Access
based Analysis Tool
The scope of the audit was to:
Focus on Ball Bearings
Highlight any other issues that were apparent
Spend approx. 2 days analysing the full database looking for
inconsistencies
Present a report of the findings

10. 3
Audit Approach
The received data was imported to Ramsoft (UK)’s MS Access
based Analysis Tool
The scope of the audit was to:
Focus on Ball Bearings
Highlight any other issues that were apparent
Spend approx. 2 days analysing the full database looking for
inconsistencies
Present a report of the findings

11. 11
Short Descriptions Should be Unique
A cataloguing rule is that short descriptions are unique
The following contravenes that rule because the format is
NOUN,MODIFIER,Mfg P/N, Vendor and there is no Mfg P/N
This broken rule could have been avoided if the correct short
description format had been used, as attribute data 2 provides
dimensions:

12. 12
Attribute Data
The previous slide highlighted issues with inconsistent attribute
data
Further analysis showed that the attributes for this material have
been populated inconsistently, i.e.
Attribute 1 and 2 hold size data
Attribute 2 and 3 holds material of construction info
Also the highlighted line items may be the same

13. 13
3 Day Workshop 15-17th March
If you would to know more on good cataloguing and effective
spares management from cradle to grave
Go to www.ramsoftuk.com/courses.html for the brochure and
booking form
For more information contact:
David Thompson
Freelance Reliability, Maintenance & Spares Consultant/Trainer
Tel 0044 1706 825162 or Martyn on 0044 783 346 0403
www.ramsoftuk.com
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/davidthompsonreliability
External Distant Learning Tutor in Reliability for the RGU Aberdeen,
Scotland and Final Year Project Supervisor
Ramsoft (UK) are available to conduct similar audits plus a audit
of inventory parameter data

14. 14
MRO Consultancy
Ramsoft (UK) can:
Conduct similar MRO audits
Widen the scope to an audit the inventory control parameter
data using our TAMS software (Technical Analysis of MRO
spares
Carry out data cleansing projects using out DAT software
(data cleansing tool)
Develop guides and procedures
A 4 day course is available that incudes auditing of MRO
management practices
In addition we can conduct workshops on site with can be
financially more effective