Making maintenance procurement transparent
Complete connection for maintenance procurement
The procurement of machine spare parts is ordered directly by the maintenance engineer - and therefore regularly bypasses the purchasing department. With extended interfaces for maintenance software such as ispro-NG, DIG creates full transparency as the basis for strategic purchasing optimization! With a consistent ordering interface for the user and automatic master data maintenance.
Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) or Maintenance Planning and Control Systems (IPS) support maintenance processes by, among other things, processing orders for spare parts (MRO Purchasing). However, these platforms generally operate outside the ERP system, so that the invoices are not ultimately referenced to the purchase order and the approval processes offer potential for standardization.
Central order processing and release
The order entered via the IPS (e.g. ispro-NG) is passed on to the DIG e-procurement platform via an interface. Here, a search is made for an existing supplier catalog for the respective article. If such a catalog does not (yet) exist, a free-text order is created. The shopping cart created then passes through the uniformly defined approval process - and is then transferred to the ERP system. At the same time, the approval of the order is transmitted to the IPS/CMMS - together with the order number issued by the ERP system, so that all systems have the same information status.
Incoming goods inspection by maintenance staff
The technical check of the correctness of the goods receipt remains with the maintenance staff. Therefore, the goods receipt also remains in the IPS, where it is posted as usual. This incoming message is then communicated to the DIG e-procurement platform, from where it is passed on to the relevant ERP system. This efficient transfer of information is made possible by the existing interfaces of the procurement platform, which save creation and maintenance costs compared to a direct connection of the IPS with the ERP system.
Improved description in the IPS/CMMS or for MRO purchasing
As an information hub, DIG also ensures the ongoing improvement of data quality in the maintenance system: The exact catalog data is transmitted to the IPS and automatically transferred by it. In this way, the master data is continuously updated to reflect the latest status of the supplier catalog. For this purpose, for example, a separate interface was developed together with ispro-NG to enable this flow of information.
How Spitz integrates maintenance into eProcurement
The connection of ispro-NG ensures full transparency of the procurement of three divisions with a wide variety of machines, whereby each division has its own technicians, maintenance staff and warehouse staff.
