How visible is the supply chain for indirect MRO goods?
Within asset-intensive industries, transactions for indirect goods purchased to maintain operations are dominant. MRO e-procurement is more complex than the frequently automated white-collar MRO, or even direct commodity purchasing. C-commerce will reduce outages and minimize inventory holding value. Enterprises should rise through the following levels of collaboration: • Low: Collaboration occurs only between the asset managers and materials procurers (e.g., “every part in the catalog is stocked in a warehouse” vs. “buy as needed” is resolved through internal collaboration). • Medium: This involves the automatic electronic procurement of required parts. A schedule is based on operational characteristics, and latency is removed from the system by linking suppliers. • High: This level includes two-way visibility of parts requirements and availability. Suppliers collaborate by seeing what the expected requirements are directly, rather than waiting for an order, and they may use vendor-he
