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Hi Friend,
Last month I was in Qatar helping a large LNG processor develop a new policy for managing their spare parts refurbishment program when I noticed something that wasn’t happening on the previous occasion that I worked with this company.
During this project we developed guidelines, a decision tree, and documentation that is comprehensive and robust and, more importantly, agreed to by many members of the team involved in actually executing the process. There is nothing remarkable about this, we all know the importance of involving the team, and I do this type of work all the time. However, the really interesting thing was their use of mobile technology to access information in the workplace, not just email. And this is what I noticed during the meetings for this project.
A number of their team routinely use an iPad in their work because it gives them access to the internet without them having to go back to a desk with an internet enabled PC (and isn’t that why these products were developed?). This freedom enables them to look up what they need, when they need it, rather than having to look something up later and then get back to everyone at the next meeting. Imagine the time that this saves with discussions that can be easily resolved and the acceleration of our development process as it reduces or eliminates delays in development.
They even use the iPad to access their subscriptions at SparePartsKnowHow.com. For those that are Premium Members it means having, literally at their fingertips, access to our full catalog in the meeting or during the discussion. Better yet, they can also access the SparePartsKnowHow.com online calculator so that they can make informed decisions on inventory holding levels quickly and easily, on the spot. And that is the power of mobile. Reliable, practical, and credible information at your finger tips.
For those of you with an iPad (or iPhone) you can add a direct link to SparePartsKnowHow.com to your home screen in three easy steps:
1. Navigate to SparePartsKnowHow.com using your favorite browser.
2. Click on the ‘arrow’ button in the browser (see photo)
3. Click on ‘Add to Home Screen’
And, easy as that, you can have all the information and resources at SparePartsKnowHow.com at your fingertips. With a 3G device it (almost) doesn’t even matter where you are!
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Benchmarking Circles – Getting Ready to Launch
A few weeks ago we announced a new service we call Benchmarking Circles. This is a way for companies to access the spare parts related benchmarking information that is important to them. The circles work by having a group of participants share non-competitive information and discuss their approach to various aspects of spare parts management. We have developed a 10 step approach that guides all participants through the process so that everyone in each circle starts and finishes the program at the same time. And because the approach involves video conferencing we believe that it is best that participants in any particular circle come from similar time zones.
A number of US based companies have expressed interest in setting up a benchmarking circle but we need a few more to get this circle up and running. If you are interested in benchmarking as a means of improving your spare parts inventory management performance and outcomes then this might just be the process you need. If you would like to join this North American circle then please contact me directly by replying to this email.
Keep on improving!
Phillip Slater
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