The maintenance repair and overhaul services refer to a group of service industries known as MRO. The MRO services bring a malfunctioning product back to the service level or its original specifications.
The initial products may come in different statuses. Respectively they go through different fixes. Yet the outcome of MRO is a similar functioning product regardless of the initial status.
For example, a bicycle repair shop receives bicycles with all sorts of problems. Flat tire, broken chain, twisted wheel, and so on. Yet all bicycles after repair will perform as a bicycle as per definition or expectation.
Unpredictable Workflow
The maintenance, repair, and overhaul services have an unpredictable scope of work. Maintenance service is specific tasks or activities as per the maintenance schedule. Fewer surprises arise if maintenance services are followed according to the manufacturer’s recommendation.
Overhaul services are prone to surprise and change in the scope of work which was not accounted for. Repair service is full of surprises and unknown scope of work. The scope of repair work defines as work progresses and deficiencies become visible.
As per the nature of work, repair services are the most unpredictable type of service. Then overhaul services fall in the middle with a better chance of predicting. The least surprising service task would be the maintenance services.
Q.Shop for unpredictable workflow
Q.Shop covers the complexities around the maintenance, repair, and overhaul service industries. Q.Shop with native support for MRO shops makes your daily operation a breeze.
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul services are called in short as MRO services. MRO industries inherit and share certain characteristics in their nature of business.
The most dominant is the unpredictability of the scope of work. The surprises are unique to MRO services and distinguished by MRO business.
Comparing MRO to manufacturing, there is always a big deal of unknown on the actual scope of work. While manufacturing businesses and production lines do not have such problems.
Q.Shop provides you with the ability to define new tasks on the fly and to modify the work scope just like a product configurator. Q.Shop supports out-of-sequence or any long lead time operation which is unique to your shop.
Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Industry
Overhaul service is the extended version of a maintenance task. Overhaul services define a wider scope of tasks over a longer time span. Maintenance and overhaul services have a pre-set of tasks as per service agreement.
While performing overhaul services some surprise deficiencies may come up that change the scope of work. Overhaul services should conform to the product as per manufacturer specifications or customer requirements.
Yet the extra deficiencies need approval from the customer for the cost and specification. Q.Shop supports you through all changes that come your way during the repair process. Q.Shop natively supports the fact that each repair job is unique by itself.
Difference Between Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul services are a group of industries called MRO. The main goal of the MRO industry is to keep the unit in service or in compliance.
Top 3 Characteristics of MRO Businesses
The very basic difference between maintenance, repair, and overhaul services is about the time and the reason to perform the service and it can be simplified as follows:
- Maintenance is a preventive task: A good example is the oil change of the engine every few months. The oil change maintenance task is on schedule as per the manufacturer’s recommendation. The oil change as a maintenance task is to prevent engine failure, which is why named preventive maintenance.
- Repair is a reactive task: Replacing a cracked windshield is a good example. Windshields are not replaced as per schedule, they are fixed only when broken. Always the repair task deals in reaction to a failed component or undesirable condition that is why called a reactive task.
- Overhaul is a proactive task: Overhaul is the extended version of maintenance tasks. It incurs some unnecessary costs out of precaution for the sake of safety. It also deals with some long-shot maintenance tasks and reacts to worn-out and end-of-life components as well, performing a combination of both Maintenance and Repair tasks.
Overhaul services are more toward complex and expensive items such as aircraft, trains, and mining machinery.
An Example
To put it in context, an example is the task of replacing the timing belt of your engine. Perhaps during the life of a car, a change of the timing belt is not necessary. Yet if for any reason the timing belt fails, the result is catastrophic and the whole engine is lost.
So the timing belt is changed. And at the same time, the water pump, spark plugs, gaskets, and some other parts are changed.
Apart from the timing belt and gaskets, no other replacement was necessary. Hence, the big job is to open the engine, so other parts are replaced to give the engine a fresh new start.
The reconditioning of the engine to the OEM specification is an overhaul task.
The Unexpected Scope of Work
MRO Services all share certain characteristics and their difference is in the degree of the same. The surprising level and unexpected scope of work is their common dilemma.
The difference between maintenance, repair, and overhaul services is the severity of the unexpected scope of work which is their common dilemma as well.
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul services all face surprises that change the scope of work. The degree of the problem varies between maintenance jobs to repair shops and overhaul industries.
Q.Shop for Unexpected Scope of Work
Q.Shop supports all these services so you can focus on your job while Q.Shop takes off the load of administrative work from your daily operation. Here are a few ways that Q.Shop can reduce the administration cost from your repair and overhaul manufacturing shop:
- Maintenance services are less prone to this problem as they have a very targeted task to finish. Maintenance tasks are distinct tasks. In and out without attention or questioning anything else. In some cases, the opportunity of finding a surprise is not even provided as the task is very specific and limited.
- Overhaul services are maintenance services for many components with a wider scope of tasks. More components are maintained, so there is a bigger exposure to the work and the possibility of finding other deficiencies that need to fix.
- Repair services have the highest degree of unexpected scope of work. The unit already has a non-conforming status. It comes with the immediate cause and effect which requires repair. Yet the secondary causes or consequence effects could be hidden. Better scope of work is identified upon inspection or through root cause analyses. In some cases, surprises are not visible till much further into the task. Some surprises could change the scope of work altogether or make the repair uneconomical.
Repair and Overhaul Shops
The repair and overhaul service usually starts with a defined task or goal. An initial scope of work becomes available upon inspection. A more detailed work scope was attained through failure root cause analysis. As the work progress, other deficiencies may arise.
Yet aside from immediate cause and effect, there are always possibilities for secondary causes and consequence effects that extend the degree of required work. In repair and overhaul shops there are many scenarios that require sequence operation.
Awaiting customer approval, lack of technical specification for certain repairs, long lead time, shortage of tools and jigs, limitation of space and work area, and unavailability of technical experts are a few examples.
Q.Shop supports all such scenarios and helps to increase productivity for your job shop. Q.Shop native support of repair and overhaul shops is the game changer for your daily operation.