SAP MRO


What Is MRO

MRO (Maintenance, repair and operations) supplies are items used in the production process but are not part of the final product produced. MRO supplies range from office supplies to safety equipment to spare parts for production equipment.

Why Is MRO Critical to Companies?

On the surface, MRO supplies may seem inconsequential to the daily operations of a manufacturer. But nothing could be further from the truth. Consider a production line that suddenly stops working because of a broken belt. Without this part available in inventory, an entire line of production comes to a halt, resulting in costly downtime until the equipment is repaired.

Procurement is most often responsible for maintaining the inventory of MRO supplies. With a diverse range of products, it’s imperative to keep the proper stock on hand. MRO is supported by SAP and third parties by establishing a tighter integration between planning and operations. This ultimately leads to greater asset utilization and prevents excess inventory. Integration of MRO with normal business processes also improves data accuracy for customers across the enterprise. 

What Is MRO

MRO (Maintenance, repair and operations) supplies are items used in the production process but are not part of the final product produced. MRO supplies range from office supplies to safety equipment to spare parts for production equipment.

Why Is MRO Critical to Companies?

On the surface, MRO supplies may seem inconsequential to the daily operations of a manufacturer. But nothing could be further from the truth. Consider a production line that suddenly stops working because of a broken belt. Without this part available in inventory, an entire line of production comes to a halt, resulting in costly downtime until the equipment is repaired.

Procurement is most often responsible for maintaining the inventory of MRO supplies. With a diverse range of products, it’s imperative to keep the proper stock on hand. MRO is supported by SAP and third parties by establishing a tighter integration between planning and operations. This ultimately leads to greater asset utilization and prevents excess inventory. Integration of MRO with normal business processes also improves data accuracy for customers across the enterprise. 

Key Considerations for SAPinsiders

  • Keys to Building an Intelligent MRO Organization. In this article, learn how companies in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry can leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, and other intelligent technologies for a more intelligent MRO enterprise. Frank Klipphahn, Industry Solution Manager at SAP, says a focus on experience management (XM) is key to an intelligent MRO organization. By gaining a better understanding of the customer and feedback on product maintenance, that data can be used for a more efficient and intelligent MRO process. “The idea is that you can use both experience and operational data to guide business decisions and allow you to collect insights from customers, employees, and the product itself because we are dealing with smart IoT-enabled products.”
  • Data Integrity and Transformation Go Hand in Hand.

Read how data integrity around spare parts and heavy assets in manufacturing is the foundation for transformation. Prospecta CEO and co-founder Ranjan Bakshi says today, most companies are still managing their MRO spare parts without any standard procedure and lack data quality in the absence of a proper governance framework. This is a big hindrance in inventory optimization and management of spare parts. Leveraging a data quality enhancement tool has helped organizations improve their inventory optimization initiatives significantly, resulting in cost and process efficiency.

Other vendors in the transportation management space include: Consultare America and Wurth USA.

520 results

  1. From SNP Transformation World 2025 – Richard & Daniela Bühler

    Richard Bühler, Head of Global IT at Cerdia, and Daniela Bühler, Head of IT Applications at Cerdia, sat down with Robert Holland of ERP Today to talk about their move to SAP S/4HANA. Having a long history with SAP, beginning with SAP R/2 and SAP R/3, and following a launch as a standalone company in…

  2. System decommissioning vs. active archiving: A practical guide for SAP teams

    Reading time: 6 mins

    Running legacy systems just to keep old data accessible is costly and risky. This guide will help you understand how system decommissioning and active archiving work together to simplify data management, strengthen compliance, and prepare your business for the future.

  3. SAPinsider Magazine July 2022 Issue

    Published: 19/July/2022

    Reading time: 1 mins

    SAPinsider magazine has been the go-to, independent choice for executives, managers, consultants, and most importantly, implementation and development teams running SAP software. SAPinsider magazine showcases research gleaned from the SAP Community, case studies of successful customer projects, and insights from experts on how SAP software works and strategies and best practices using SAP solutions to…

  4. Customer experience is king in B2B ecommerce

    Published: 24/June/2024

    Reading time: 3 mins

    Business transformation has placed the chief marketing officer (CMO) and chief experience officer (CXO) in the driver’s seat of business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce portals as customer experience becomes a differentiator for organisations, according to DXC Digital Practice Manager Erik Burton.  “Business-to-consumer (B2C) online digital channels have traditionally been driven by business, whereas B2B ecommerce portals are…

  5. The Ocean Cleanup Modernises Global Operations with SAP S/4HANA Cloud

    Published: 05/December/2025

    Reading time: 2 mins

    The Ocean Cleanup is adopting SAP S/4HANA Public Edition to enhance global operations in its mission to significantly reduce plastic pollution in oceans and rivers, having already removed over 40 million kilograms of waste and aiming for comprehensive scalability to meet its 2040 goals.

  6. Ask the FI/CO Expert: “Do I Need to Create Rules Concerning Address Printing on Accounts Payable Checks?”

    Published: 15/April/2002

    Reading time: 19 mins

    This month’s FI/CO expert answers a question from Paula Gennari, an Accounts Payable manager for a $100 million/year plastics manufacturer in Massachusetts. Her question concerns annoying mystery her department has experienced with their recently installed SAP R/3 system in regard to check printing-the Automatic Payment Program for their non-U.S. vendors does not print the name...…

  7. 5 Steps to Optimize Your mySAP CRM Implementation with SAP Best Practices

    Published: 15/May/2006

    Reading time: 8 mins

    Find out about the five steps involved with evaluating and implementing SAP Best Practices via a sample scenario involving Activity Management. SAP Best Practices are preconfigured, tested, and documented scenarios you can use during the implementation process. Key Concept SAP Best Practices are preconfigured business scenarios to simplify and speed up your implementation project. The...…

  8. SAP NetWeaver Portal: Initiate and Track the Planning Process with Collaboration Rooms

    Published: 15/March/2006

    Reading time: 15 mins

    The Business Unit Analyst role shipped in mySAP ERP 2005 replaces the spreadsheets and distribution lists that used to organize the process of gathering and monitoring the submission of budget data with a collaboration room. Learn how it is designed specifically to select the managers who need to plan, send out workflow tasks to these...…

  9. Set Up Preference Processing in SAP ECC and SAP Global Trade Services

    Published: 15/December/2009

    Reading time: 14 mins

    See how to set up and perform preference processing within your global customs practices through your supply chain in both SAP ERP Central Component and SAP GRC Global Trade Services. Preference processing allows you to capture and determine the duty preference, drawback, and allowance based on the country of origin and tariff for the product....…

  10. Add Custom Text to Your Applicant Correspondence

    Published: 15/November/2004

    Reading time: 12 mins

    You can personalize letters you send out to applicants. The author explains how to do this using the example of adding the initials of the person writing the letter. Key Concept The functionality described here exists within the R/3 HR Recruitment module since release 3.0D. Recruitment will be part of the mySAP ERP core. It...…