2006 Release of Teamcenter for MRO Extends Existing Capabilities and Adds Materials Management
Lean MRO operations are the goal of many service organizations. With the July 2006 release of the Teamcenter® Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul product suite, UGS continues to fulfill its vision to deliver a knowledge- and configuration-driven set of applications to enable enterprises to achieve that objective.
The July release extends the capabilities of the presently available products, In-Service and Maintenance Planning & Execution, and adds a new product, Materials Management, to the Teamcenter for MRO suite. Teamcenter for MRO is now available for any industry tasked with supporting complex, long operational life assets. The suite is targeted at the objectives of:
- Reducing MRO cycle time and cost
- Improving organizational and individual productivity
- Improving the use of working capital
- Enabling support for condition-based maintenance for MRO operations
- Streamlining and providing greater accuracy in asset management and configuration control
- Providing a feedback loop joining Engineering, Manufacturing, Logistics, and Service to promote design-for-service and best practice capture
- Enabling service and performance-based contracts
Teamcenter for MRO enables the achievement of these objectives while improving asset availability and reliability without compromising safety or compliance through a single source of knowledge about assets and resources that centers on the configuration of those assets. All Teamcenter applications work from a common understanding of the asset and its maintenance requirements for resources, maintenance planning and execution, and materials management. An additional capability for reporting and analytics to support decision making is also now available.
The full Teamcenter for MRO suite now contains In-Service, Maintenance Planning and Execution, Materials Management, and Reporting and Analytics.
In-Service solution offers enhanced asset management capabilities to improve understanding and management of operational configurations
The newest release of In-Service offers enhanced asset management capabilities to provide logistics and maintenance organizations with real-time access to accurate and up-to-date product information. In-Service provides the asset knowledge framework to define life characteristics and limits for parts to support maintenance planning and component utilization. Additionally components can be tracked by position in the configuration so that "fine grain" requirements can later be defined based on usage as well as component. The use of the asset definition framework supports the validation of asset configuration before it is returned to service to ensure that compliance with safety and regulatory issues as well as document approved deviations.
New Maintenance Planning and Execution release introduces service event management capability
Maintenance Planning and Execution has been enhanced with additional capabilities to define maintenance requirements at the level of the class of asset as well as at the individual end item asset. This feature ensures that components are maintained not only based on generic requirements, but requirements that might be derived from the particular usage of the component based on its location in the asset or the environment in which the asset is operated.
Additionally, in support of lean initiatives in MRO organizations, Maintenance Planning and Execution supports the definition of the frequencies of requirements and the definition of work cards (work instructions) for executing maintenance, repair, and overhaul operations. Teamcenter provides a means to capture work standards and best practices within the work card library to ensure the application of lessons learned for future operations.
New to the Maintenance Planning and Execution module is the capability to support MRO work that might be outsourced, and the requirement to package that work as well as report the results of the work, back to a services integrator or the manufacturer. Service Event Management provides the ability to package work and to capture the activities and asset information changes resulting from the work such as inspections, component replacement, and component life utilization. As organizations optimize their MRO cost structures, outsourcing is becoming a large part of the service value chain.
Also new to Maintenance Planning and Execution is the integration with Teamcenter Project to allow the scheduling of maintenance tasks and resources within an MRO project. The integration features two-way communication between Teamcenter applications to create tasks, assign resources (persons) to tasks, scheduling, and the close out and updating of status of task in both Project and Maintenance Planning and Execution. This new capability combined with Teamcenter Project support of templates for work processes greatly enhances management of MRO work.
New module, Materials Management, helps improve use of working capital
A new module available with this release is Materials Management. It provides organizations with the ability to:
- Manage vendors and quotes for parts and services
- Control inventory of resources (parts, equipment, materials)
- Manage parts and related processes (request, order, receipt, stock, issuance, returns, exchanges, and repair)
Combined with the rest of the Teamcenter for MRO suite, Materials Management supports the improved use of the working capital committed to inventory to ensure the necessary parts are on hand in appropriate quantities, avoidance of miss-orders, and optimized use of remaining part life through complete knowledge of parts, tools, and equipment in inventory.
For more information about Teamcenter for MRO solutions, contact your UGS account representative or visit the Teamcenter for MRO site
