The benefits of a more strategic approach to MRO for buildings and facilities in the aerospace and defence sector
According to the latest annual figures from ADS, the trade association for the UK aerospace, defence, security and space industries, the sector had a turnover of £82 billion and added £37 billion in value to the country’s economy. It employs 417,000 people directly and supports more than 20,000 apprentices.
At the same time, the sector faces significant challenges from an increasingly volatile and uncertain geopolitical context. This is on top of pressures that affect the whole economy, such as inflation and rising costs as well as increased risk and disruption in the supply chain.
Finding ways to mitigate these pressures is difficult when direct procurement is dominated by large long-term commitments such as orders for aircraft or even aircraft carriers. One area where organisations can exert greater control over costs and efficiency, however, is in the procurement of supplies for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) – including building maintenance.
Consider building maintenance
“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,” says Helen Alder, Head of Knowledge and Learning Development at the Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply (CIPS). “Many organisations have numerous large buildings and over the course of a year spend significant amounts on maintaining these.
“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, whether that’s lighting, plumbing or air conditioning etc, that might affect your overall operations can be serviced in a timely manner. This comes down to working with suppliers to identify key MRO products and ensuring you have a list of key suppliers that will be able to provide parts as and when you need them.”
In addition to these regularly purchased items, there are also a significant number of one-off purchases, points out Greg Sharp, Industry Sector Manager at RS. “Typically, we find that the overwhelming majority – maybe as high as 80% – of the items companies in this sector buy are one-off purchases,” he says. “As such, it’s crucial to look at the actual MRO process to ensure that it’s as streamlined and efficient as possible, otherwise hidden costs like the time it takes an employee to order each individual item really mount up.”
Choose the right suppliers
As Sharp explains, it’s important to choose suppliers that understand the industry: “Within the sector there will often be many activities, which means organisations need access to suppliers that can provide a wide range of tools and parts. A drill for use on a building will not be fit for purpose for someone drilling a composite panel on an aeroplane, for example. So, there can be a need for very specialised tools alongside more generic ones. You need to work with a supplier that has expertise and understands the sector; someone who can bring a specialist supplier to the table, if need be.”
