Storeroom Management Best Practices
A well-organized and functioning storeroom is a critical component of a reliability program. Having the right spare part at the right time in the right condition and in the right quantity enables maintenance organizations to accurately plan, schedule, and execute work. Unfortunately, getting all the “right” elements together into a single storeroom can be a challenge. This article will name some techniques for building a world-class storeroom and how a Machine Health program, like Augury’s, can help that effort.
What Is a Storeroom?
The storeroom manages the Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) inventory consumed within the site. The plant storeroom operation should balance spare part investment (inventory level) to protect/ensure against lost production. The storeroom team should provide efficient/effective (exact) delivery of parts; on-time, and as-needed within the plant and the spare parts network.
Storeroom Roles
The storeroom should have roles that align with the main functions of ordering, receiving, and issuing parts. While various organizations have different structures, these main functions must be covered to enable the smooth functioning of the storeroom. There should be guidance to ensure integrity in the ordering and receiving of parts.
Storeroom Organization
There are six criteria to consider when organizing your store room:
- Space
- Be sure the storeroom gives you enough room to avoid congestion.
- Access to the store must be limited to authorized persons.
- The ability to find parts should be easy with a defined catalog and storage process.
- Employ a regular process to support the 5S conditions in the storeroom. - Environment
- Establish an area that can help spare parts avoid degradation and maintain like-new condition, i.e., bearings stored to prevent damage, belts stored to prevent damage due to UV lights or from physical storage, reduced humidity to prevent rust on metal components.
- The area is well lit and working areas are provided that enable the storeroom team to effectively execute their work tasks. - Storage equipment
- Cabinets and racks should be rated for their contents, properly anchored to prevent falls, and identified for ease of locating parts.
- Label hazardous cabinets designated for flammable items. - Parts maintenance
- Regularly rotate the shafts on motors and gearboxes.
- Implement a rebuild program for internal and/or external vendors.
- Regularly review vendors for work performance and adequate part lifecycles (e.g.,: MTBF or performance measures).
- Be sure special tools and equipment are inventoried, controlled, and available, and regularly inspect and replace them as needed. - Financial controls
- Inventory levels must be reviewed regularly to ensure they are accurate, and in compliance. No hidden stashes of parts in remote locations or technician tool boxes/lockers.
- Establish inventory management practices such as cycle counts, obsolete part removal, non-moving-part level reviews.
- Implement a process for creating, updating, and maintaining BOMs for new equipment, new parts, and obsolete parts. New parts have a controlled process to be added to the BOM and into inventory.
- Put practices in place to maintain the integrity of the parts and bill-of materials (BOM) lists.
- Document receiving practices with inspection to verify parts match specs.
- Create an automatic reordering processes, after-hours support, and ordering for emergency work.
- Set up an easy-to-use system to search for and locate parts.
- Establish a process to identify and track warranty parts and tools for return to suppliers for potential credits.
- Ensure you have a system in place to track the status of critical spares (e.g.., rolls, motors, rotating units) and their usage history.
- Use machine health data to supplement usage and stocking levels. - Planned work staging
- Create a process to kit spare parts for planned work and pre-stage part kits and tools for planned work.
- Create a process to return unused parts to stores within 24 hours of work completion and a process to dispose or restock parts.
- Use machine health data to plan what work to do and when to do it based on machine and parts condition.
The storeroom in any manufacturing site is a critical and often underappreciated part of the business. By having the right structure and management practices in place, the storeroom can help ensure the reliability performance for the site. Implementing some of the techniques listed above can help achieve those ends and make the storeroom a trusted component in the journey to production excellence.