Case Study: Coca-Cola builds centralized interface for all parts information with AIC

Like many asset-intensive organizations, Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated was hampered by siloed asset information and related systems. By partnering with Metanoia, CCBCC now compiles information from SAP, parts diagrams, OEM documentation, maintenance notes, PNIDs, and their Material Master into one centralized interface with Asset Information Center (AIC).

The Decentralized Nature of Parts Information

The monolithic ERP systems that businesses employ to manage their resources are able to track nearly all business functions at a high level. Due to this, two problems typically arise for Maintenance, Reliability, Operations and Parts professionals:

1. ERPs lack functionality that world-class businesses need for MROs and related activities.

While ERPs typically store a record for all the parts they need, they offer limited functionality in terms of managing and analyzing information for these parts records. It is difficult or impossible to do the following:
– Find parts required for maintenance tasks
– Update changing parts information with Supersessions
– View which Assets and Components use individual parts
– See stock on hand and warehousing information
– Add and view maintenance notes relating to parts

2. ERPs are difficult to integrate with other systems.

Due to the lack of functionality for ERPs, most asset-intensive businesses integrate them with other systems to create world class maintenance processes. Some of these systems include:
– Scheduling
– Reliability analytics
– Document management systems

With all these disparate systems, information and processes are often lost where one ends and the other begins. If businesses could easily integrate them all together, many of these pains would be avoided, but ERP systems are night impossible to connect with such integrations.

Thankfully for Coca-Cola, they were able to accomplish all of this with AIC.

Building a Centralized Interface for Parts Information with AIC

Coca-Cola integrated AIC with disparate ERP systems to create a centralized interface for all of their parts information.  Technicians and planners leverage AIC to easily find a part and locate information from various warehouses.  If a part is unavailable in a planner’s warehouse, they can easily reference nearby locations to find the stock availability.  In many cases, this drastically reduces the time and costs associated to parts acquisition, as they can transport a part within the company, rather than looking for expensive and timely 3rd party options.

1. AIC is purpose built for Asset Information Management

AIC integrates with ERP/CMMS systems to improve functionality specific to asset information management, making the following tasks easier and more efficient:

– Find parts required for maintenance tasks
– Update changing parts information with Supersessions
– View which Assets and Components use individual parts
– See stock on hand and warehousing information
– Add and view maintenance notes relating to parts

2. AIC facilitates easy integration of ERPs and other systems

AIC has an open-API architecture, which facilitates easy integration of ERPs with 3rd party systems, by using AIC as middleware.  This approach enables integration with systems such as:

– Scheduling
– Reliability analytics
– Document management systems