Maintenance Teams Are Often Their Own Worst Enemy with Supply

Years ago, I went to a site where the relationship between maintenance and supply had completely broken down. I’ve seen tension between these groups many times before, but this site was next level. The maintenance manager had become so frustrated with the warehouse and supply processes that he was effectively creating his own unofficial warehouse in shipping containers outside the main stores system.

At first glance I could understand why. The maintenance team felt like:

• Parts were never available
• Supply didn’t understand urgency
• Supply adjusted stock levels without approval
• There were too many stock outs

But when I looked deeper, I found what I normally find in these situations. The maintenance team was creating most of the problems themselves. There is only one group of people who are worse at running a warehouse than the supply professional team, and that is the maintenance team!

People were physically taking stock out of the warehouse without booking it out properly in the system. Inventory accuracy had collapsed.

Then I found a brand-new component worth around $30,000 sitting in the warehouse. It had been purchased specifically for a planned job but when I checked the work order in the system, the job had already been closed out. So I tracked down the tradesperson who completed the work and asked him:

“How did you do the job without the part?”

He replied:

“I found one in the container out the back and just used that one.” The supply team had no idea why the part was still there, as usual it was “urgent”.

That moment explained everything and I found many more similar examples. The systems weren’t failing because supply didn’t care. The systems were failing because maintenance had lost trust and stopped following any process.

What Often Occurs

When tension develops between maintenance and supply, most maintenance teams blame supply.

They say the things that we always here:

• “The warehouse never has anything when you need it”
• “Supply don’t understand our needs”
• “They change stock levels without approval”
• “They cant even find things in their own warehouse”

But in my experience, most supply teams are actually:

• Highly process driven
• Trying to maintain control
• Very willing to provide reliable service and usually have good KPI’s
• Working within supplier and delivery constraints
• Pushed to control inventory levels but get no support from maintenance

The real issue is often that maintenance teams:

• Raise requests too late
• Bypass systems
• Don’t forecast properly
• Remove stock incorrectly
• Create emergencies through poor quality execution of maintenance activities
• Don’t participate in the supply processes
• Don’t commit to reducing inventory levels themselves, which is good for the business

Then blame supply for the outcome.

What I Have Found Actually Works

The best maintenance leaders I’ve seen go out of their way to build strong relationships with supply and understand their needs first. They also recognise that inventory minimisation is good for the company and actively participate in the supply processes to achieve these outcomes. They understand – Supply can only work properly if maintenance works properly.

That means:

• Planning work earlier (Requires quality execution and a proactive culture)
• Respecting the stores process
• Booking stock correctly
• Helping maintain inventory accuracy
• Understanding supplier lead times
• Listening to the constraints supply teams operate within

Just because maintenance suddenly needs a part in two days does not mean the supplier can physically make that happen. Strong maintenance leaders understand this and work collaboratively instead of emotionally and when maintenance genuinely supports supply, supply teams usually become incredibly helpful and responsive.

The Principle

If maintenance bypasses the system, the system eventually stops working and once inventory accuracy and trust disappear, conflict follows quickly.

Is your supply team genuinely failing your maintenance team… or has your maintenance team created behaviours that make it impossible for supply to succeed?

Action to Implement This Week

Book time with your supply or warehouse leader this week and ask them a simple question:

“What behaviours from maintenance make your job harder than it needs to be?” Then listen without defending.

Pick one behaviour your maintenance team can improve immediately and visibly support the supply team in fixing it. When you go out of your way to help others you will receive the same in return but someone has to take the first step.