Analogs in the "Nomenclature". Another way to save wisely. Part 2

How we automated keeping analogs, and how much
it cost the customer

If you still do not know what analogs in the "Nomenclature" are and why they are worth keeping, then read here.
In the same article I will talk about the experience of automating the maintenance of analogs at one of the largest enterprises in Russia. Here you are waited by the description of the concrete realized mechanism of automatic selection of analogs, advantage and benefit from which - in concrete figures.

The essence of the project and customer problems

So, our Customer has long been faced with several major problems of maintaining analogs for spare parts used in maintenance and repair:

1. The analogues available in the warehouses were not taken into account in the procurement process, because there was no information on the fact that they were analogues in the enterprise.
2. Replacing the original with an analogue during the purchase each time was agreed upon by the company's technical specialists, since the information about the analogs was usually not stored in the System.
3. Accounting for purchased analogs led to numerous additional approvals for adding a new part or equipment to the Nomenclature reference book.

Not surprisingly, this brought enormous losses to production. There was an accumulation of unclaimed stocks in warehouses, qualified specialists carried out the same work several times, the process of coordinating the new items of the directory was delayed, slowing down the procurement campaign.

For example, only a simple unit of key equipment due to the impossibility of a quick replacement of a part or the selection of an analogue in the company's warehouses resulted in losses of 2-3 million rubles per day!

Project Objectives

Based on the problems of the Customer, we set ourselves three important tasks:

1. Make it so that the Customer knows about the analogues stored in his warehouses or available for purchase.
2. Reduce the time to select the nomenclature analogues, which means automate the process of their selection.
3. Eliminate unnecessary approval procedures for the selection of analogues.

Of course, for this it was necessary to study and systematize the existing practices of maintaining analogues , as well as the specifics of the Customer’s nomenclature and business processes.

As a result, at this stage, we have developed our approach to automating the maintenance of direct analogs of links of catalog numbers and tested it on 10% of the Customer’s nomenclature data to assess the possibility of applying this approach in the remaining part of the Nomenclature.

How do we automate the maintenance of direct analogs?

For automatic maintenance of direct analogues, we have created special technical reference books - a knowledge base, direct analogues for which are selected without the participation of technical specialists.

• The first of these is the “replacement matrix”

This is a table in which the catalog numbers of originals and possible analogs are stored in pairs:



Actualization of the “original-direct analogue” relationship in the Nomenclature reference book automatically takes place according to the routine task like this:



If during the routine task the reference number is found in the replacement matrix the original position, which is absent in the “Nomenclature” reference book, an application is automatically created in the Master Data System for creating a new record for an original part with reference to an analogue.

Information about the analogue in the directory "Replacement Matrix" is updated by responsible specialists and is downloaded only from official sources.

• The second of them - "Technical Catalog"

This is a knowledge base for storing information about all catalog numbers of spare parts included in a specific equipment with decoding. It is based on data from official sources.



Such a reference book is needed to automatically check the correctness of the catalog number of the position, the manufacturer, linking the catalog number to a specific equipment and a possible update of the “Replacement matrix”.

How does the selection of analogues now look like?

After the introduction of the “Substitution Matrix” and the “Technical Catalog”, the company started the process of selecting taxes.

Now the search and selection of direct analogues using these directories occur automatically when you make each application for the purchase of parts or equipment like this:



This procedure for the selection of analogues allows you to:

• to completely exclude the possibility of purchasing similar goods in the company's warehouses, even at the stage of filing an application for purchase;
• save the Customer’s money on the purchase of parts or equipment due to the availability of up-to-date official information on less expensive counterparts;
• improve the process of procurement of spare parts due to:
  - storing information about the analogue in the description of the spare part;
  - automating the creation of current positions - analogues in the “Nomenclature” reference book

Thus, the benefit in managing analogs is in saving an enterprise’s money with:

• centralized purchasing companies;
• one-time purchases in the conditions of emergency repairs at the expense of the stocks of analogues available in warehouses.

What specific benefits did the customer get?

According to the Customer’s estimates, the effect only on the automatic selection of direct analogues, based on the stored communication of catalog numbers, accounted for more than 50% of the total balance in the company's warehouses.

And this is what made up the income and expenses of the Customer:

The customer spent X rubles for:

• contractor services;
• completion of existing information systems;
• content of your own project office.

The customer received just such a profit (from applying the approach to 10% of the pilot spare parts list):



In the company's warehouses, until the start of the project, the remnants of the original equipment and spare parts were kept in the amount of 3X rubles. According to the results of the application of this approach, the total in the company's warehouses were found analogues, which were previously unknown, in the amount of 5X rubles. It is not difficult to calculate that in the next purchasing company the Customer will save already 2X rubles.

In general, the Customer is happy, and we are not less, because, as it turned out, the benefit received from the correct use of analogues, far exceeds the costs. And this is only from automating the maintenance of direct analogs with links to catalog numbers!

So what's next with us (and, I hope, with you!) Is still a wide field for action. There is no limit to perfection - and the field of reference is not an exception. Solve production problems, use different approaches, and I hope our experience will be useful for you in this.