SDI Announces Corporate Sponsorship of The University of Tennessee's Reliability & Maintainability Center

BRISTOL, PA., Feb. 4, 2016 -- SDI, the leading provider of Supply Chain as-a-Service for Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO), is delighted to announce a comprehensive research and education partnership with The University of Tennessee (UT) College of Engineering through sponsorship of The Reliability and Maintainability Center (RMC).

Innovations in manufacturing, compressed product life cycles and rapidly changing consumer expectations are driving manufacturers to transform their operations to stay ahead of the curve. Driving reliability in their plants with well-defined MRO business processes is one way manufacturers are staying competitive. The RMC has over sixty member companies and organizations, connecting industry and academia to provide education, research and development, and information exchange in the application of reliability and maintenance engineering tools and concepts.

The sponsorship is part of SDI's ongoing commitment to change perspectives on Maintenance, Repair and Operations and transform it from a supply category into an integrated business process that enables efficient manufacturing, reliable production and agile operations.
 
Chris Moore, CEO at SDI explained, "Traditionally MRO is viewed as a necessary evil – it's very transactional in nature, MRO can have tens of thousands of stock keeping units, thousands of suppliers, but accounts for less than 10% of the total spend. But it's the manner in which we speak about MRO that relegates it to a cost of doing business. Connecting with UT's RMC elevates the conversation about MRO beyond a supply category to a core-enabling, mission-critical business process that impacts reliable, adaptable and intelligent operations."
 
SDI will work with The RMC to explore best practices and workshop approaches to solving some of the common issues facing the industry, aligning the MRO supply chain with broader reliability initiatives to produce the best outcomes.
 
Dr. Klaus Blache, Director of The Reliability and Maintainability Center and Research Professor at the University of Tennessee, said, "We are excited that SDI is bringing the reliability conversation to Maintenance, Repair and Operations. Reliability is the likelihood that processes, product and people will carry out their stated function for a specific time when operated according to the designed conditions. A robust MRO spare parts process is an integral part of any good reliability and maintainability process. MRO inventory and purchasing costs can be over 50% of a company's total maintenance budget. So it makes sense to expand the conversation around MRO processes with a reliability-focus in mind."
 
SDI will continue to connect with leading reliability professionals and academics to discuss business challenges that organizations must address to remain competitive.
 
About SDI

By helping organizations understand how each link in their MRO supply chain impacts the entire enterprise, SDI helps them achieve year-over-year savings, enterprise-wide efficiencies and newfound control. Using a custom suite of products, services and tools, SDI's platform coordinates, aligns and optimizes every step of the MRO business process. Lower costs, smarter inventories and more reliable production are all natural results from a more connected MRO supply chain. To learn more visit: www.sdi.com or contact [email protected]
 
About The RMC at UT

The Reliability and Maintainability Center (RMC) is an industry-supported center within the College of Engineering, drawing support from a diverse range of companies, organizations, and industries. Initiated in 1996 with twelve original companies participating, the RMC continues to grow and now has over sixty member companies and organizations. The RMC bridges between industry and academia to provide education, research and development, and information exchange in the application of reliability and maintenance engineering tools and concepts. To learn more visit: http://rmc.utk.edu

CONTACT: Debra Yorkman
         Vice President of Marketing @ SDI
         215-633-1914
         [email protected]