Making building maintenance costs automatic

Better management of building maintenance means improved efficiency for automotive manufacturers

The UK automotive industry turned over £67 billion, invested £3 billion in research and development and added £14.1 billion to the country’s economy, according to the latest annual figures from the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders. However, it also faces the same challenges facing other sectors of the economy, from inflation and rising costs to increased risk and disruption within the supply chain.  

How can automotive manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) navigate these challenges? One solution is to boost resilience by focusing on cost control and efficiency. 

Cutting maintenance costs
A key component within this strategy is procurement of supplies for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) – including building management.  

As Helen Alder, Head of Knowledge and Learning Development at the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) points out, “It’s easier to make the case for keeping tight control on MRO spend for plant and other operationally critical machines, but it’s just as important to look at MRO spend on buildings.” 

Car manufacturing plants are normally big, complex operations – often based out of bespoke buildings – where, in an environment of lean manufacturing processes, heat, light and energy use all need to be closely regulated and maintained. 

While, naturally, a lot of the MRO procurement focus will be on maintaining complex, and increasingly automated, production line processes, becoming “smarter” – more efficient and strategic – in your buildings maintenance MRO procurement can also pay significant dividends. 

“Companies are often completely unaware of the amount of waste and inefficiency when it comes to MRO procurement for their buildings,” says Greg Sharp, Industry Sector Manager at RS. “While direct procurement will be tightly controlled, the sort of smaller, regular purchases for lighting, heating and other building maintenance costs tend to be ignored, but these mount up over the course of a year.” 

Reducing supplier numbers 
Sharp points out that the first step in creating efficiencies is consolidating suppliers. “MRO spend should be kept to a small group of key approved suppliers so that you have a contract based on certain service levels that meet the needs of the company’s engineers,” he says. “Working with a smaller group lets you gather data on spending patterns and identify cost and time savings in the procurement process.” 

Alder agrees: “There’s no excuse in this day and age not to have a centralised list for regular MRO parts, so that employees have an approved source for this sort of purchase. This should reduce the time it takes to order the parts, you know there is no quality risk and the business as a whole can monitor spending more closely. 

“Procurement departments have an important role to play in this, as they need to work with engineers to identify what should be on this central list,” she adds. “Then, once they put contracts with suppliers in place, they need to communicate this throughout the business and get buy-in from users.” 

Keeping the lights working, reducing energy use (electricity, heating and water but also the air used in pneumatic equipment), managing air-conditioning, extraction or filtration systems – in all these areas, streamlining your procurement can be valuable. 

“With buildings maintenance, it’s important to prioritise MRO requirements (either if you have an in-house facilities management team, or it’s outsourced) so that critical areas, such as lighting, plumbing, air conditioning and so on that might affect your overall operations, can be serviced in a timely manner,” says Alder. 

For more MRO insight, click here