CIMdata highlights the need for modern Service Lifecycle Management solutions coupled with product lifecycle management (PLM) to successfully address the planning, design, production, and operation of long-life assets.
Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO)
What is maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO)?
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) is a strategy that addresses the ongoing service requirements of high-value physical assets once they are deployed and in use. MRO is employed by OEMs and owners/operators of those major assets. The same acronym is also used for maintenance, repair, and operations, which usually refers to a similar strategy as it applies to a facility and its equipment. In either case, MRO activities are supported by service lifecycle management (SLM) software.
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul comprise the full spectrum of service activities, from routine maintenance operations to repairs as needed, to activities that modernize, restore, or rebuild assets – that is, depot-level maintenance. Different approaches to MRO planning, scheduling, and execution have developed over the last half-century. Many of them originated as maintenance strategies developed by the military to maximize the availability and mission readiness of military hardware.
Today’s MRO software leverages digital technologies to optimize the efficiency and efficacy of MRO delivery to OEMs and owners/operators in a broad spectrum of industries – especially those with highly engineered products that have long useful lives. Such physical assets are highly valuable to both the companies that buy them and the companies that service and support them. The purpose of a robust MRO strategy is the get the most from these assets by maximizing their availability and reliability.
MRO software is complemented within a comprehensive SLM solution by software that focuses on other aspects of service lifecycle management: design for service, physical asset management, and software that closes the loop with an ongoing feedback mechanism between design and engineering and service.
Manufacturing engineer inspecting a physical asset to address maintenance, repair, and overhaul criteria.
MRO software functionality
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul software provides service stakeholders with a framework for defining and managing maintenance requirements and also for establishing cost-effective service procedures and work schedules to satisfy those requirements.
Key functions of MRO software include:
- Capture and management of maintenance requirements for each managed asset
- Analysis of each asset in terms of operational hours, maintenance requirements, and utilization data to generate a forecasted maintenance schedule
- Definition of resources needed to perform each service activity
- Visibility of service information, instructions, and task assignments for service execution
- Proactive planning of service visits to eliminate duplicate work tasks and generate bills of materials (BOMs) for upcoming visits
- Development of in-depth overhaul and decommission plans
- Management and creation of schedules and work orders to meet both pre-planned and ad hoc (repair) service requirements
- Roll-up of maintenance requirements for individual assets into an operations-wide plan for the service organization
- Creation and population of service documents
- Reporting and analytics for assessment of trends and monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs)
Benefits of maintenance, repair, and overhaul software
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul software enables service stakeholders to maximize the availability and reliability of managed physical assets.
Additional Benefits:
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Improved first-time fix rate
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Elimination of redundant activities
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Greater assurance that service activities are completed on time and on budget
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Improved overall service productivity and throughput