Changing competitive landscapes and customer preferences, the emergence of advanced digital technologies, and the threat of price wars are compelling manufacturers to enhance their asset lifecycle to remain viable. Maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) companies will gain a valuable competitive advantage by leveraging IIoT-based technologies such as Big Data & Analytics, cloud infrastructure, and mobility.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, IIoT Predictive Maintenance—Redesigning the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Approach, 2018 (http://frost.ly/2jd), identifies the key end-user requirements, unmet needs, and the role of IIoT technologies in redefining the value proposition of MRO distributors.

"Digitisation of the manufacturing process has heightened demand for MRO distributors with the engineering expertise to support plant owners' transition from preventive to predictive maintenance,” said Kiravani Emani, Research Analyst for Industrial Automation & Process Control at Frost & Sullivan. "This is changing the business model of MRO, as the distributors position themselves as end-to-end service providers that have embraced digital-based technologies."

The company says that to optimally tap the market demand, MRO distributors need to simplify the supply chain by leveraging the online platform and embedding a track and trace feature to decrease the number of channels needed to procure the product. 

Other key growth strategies to attract a wider pool of service customers include:

• Building strong supplier relationship;
• Establishing a robust e-commerce platform to enter emerging markets and serve small- and medium-sized businesses;
• Integrating inventories with automation software to control the company's spend on inventory management;
• Developing a mobile application that enables effective management of plant inventories;
• Providing support services round the clock