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Turning an Ocean of Data
Into a Stream Of Knowledge

Business has been hit by an explosion of data. It is possible to suffer from a great inundation of facts, figures, numbers and words and be faced with a struggle to make sense of it all.

One place where this is especially true is the whole general area of MRO spend management.

There is not a business person anywhere who isn’t concerned with keeping MRO costs at a minimum and productivity at a maximum. No rational person wants to spend a penny more than is necessary on plant maintenance related costs. At the same time, no rational person wants to put a plant’s productivity – and, consequentially, its profitability – at risk, either.

It is reasonably easy to make good decisions. All you need are two elements: good information and good sense. Sadly, even the greatest amount of good sense won’t help much without the information. And, despite the enormous amount of data available, data is not information.

Information is data that is minding its manners. And despite the environment of today, and the vast increase in the amount of data, information: actionable, rational, intelligent, valid data – may be hard to come by.

IBT’s Integrated Services Group (ISG) has been fully aware of this situation for some time. They have been taking direct and effective steps to solve the equation.

One of the ways that ISG does this is to take steps to turn data into information.

The first step is a simple sounding one: find a place to put all the data you have.

They use a data repository. It is, in simple terms, a place to put the stuff.

Having a place to put presupposes that some original discipline has been brought to bear, so that the data is captured or organized or entered in some consistent and coherent way.

That is sometimes easier to say than to do. In any given ISG assignment, data about MRO parts especially can come from at least three different origins: the plant, the original manufacturer of the part, any corporate owner of the inventory or even from a distributor.

And, if you throw in file formats, computer platforms, character sets, field restrictions, and similar complications, you can begin to realize that just setting up a data repository can be a challenging task.

After the data is finally in one place, the real work can begin: data scrubbing. Getting all of the information consistent, so that the items in question are correctly and consistently identified is also hard work. But, getting it done pays big dividends. That’s because data that has been scrubbed is data that can be managed.

The next step ISG calls data rationalization. It is a process that enables them to realize that items with different identifying numbers are actually the same thing. This allows for reductions in inventory to reduce redundant parts, and also enables the system to recognize all the various identifiers that a part must have.

Finally, the records are further processed to allow the IBT central computer, an IBM AS/400, to manage the inventory correctly and efficiently.

With these steps, ISG is able to create smooth sailing for client companies. They can see what they purchased, understand how much they are spending, monitor usage, assign cost allocations, control expenses – and keep their plants running at high productivity.

They also can use highly efficient order entry methods, including MAXIMO software and the internet. And they can also make good decisions with good data.

And, finally, they can fully see and understand the benefits that they receive by working with IBT’s Integrated Services Group, ISG. For more information, contact ISG.
  
To learn more about ISG services from IBT, contact us today!