Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems must operate over a range of conditions, meet government efficiency regulations, and run reliably over long lifecycles with little downtime for repairs.
While challenging, this is table stakes for many of our customers in the HVAC industry. So, how do engineers do it? By keeping both the design and service departments in the loop on their data governance strategy.
Although working independently between the PLM and PIM environments, having your entire team on the same page can help you save costs in the production process—which is paramount to earning revenue in the long run.
Continue reading to learn the three major signs your HVAC PLM is actually costing you money.
>>> See how we helped this company create a central classification database for 150,000 major parts.
1. Your Data is Not Ready to Support Your PLM System
When your data is not classified before migration, you’ve already created a larger issue for your PLM system. Importing dirty data and duplicate parts is the quickest way to add unwanted costs to your PLM investment.
HVAC companies purchase a lot of parts, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on motors, pumps and compressors alone. The problem is, some companies don’t have specifications for the parts they buy, which makes it difficult to categorize them with existing data. This can put your PLM at a disadvantage due to poor data organization.
Tip: Establish a Classification Taxonomy with Supporting Attributes
It’s important to make sure your taxonomies and part data are shared across all departments of your organization to help eliminate duplicating efforts. By defining your classification taxonomy, your engineers will:
- Have a more organized structure of data.
- Find parts more easily.
- Increase productivity.
>>> See how Convergence Data helped this customer create a product taxonomy with key missing attributes that supports more than 100 parts categories.
2. Your Supplier Classifications Aren’t Helping You Find the Cheapest Parts
HVAC companies are constantly purchasing new parts. However, without the proper specifications and knowing how to categorize similar parts, your supplier classification will start costing you hundreds of millions of dollars.
Think about it: Engineering, purchasing, and supply chain all have the same at stake. When engineers start throwing new parts over the wall to procurement, procurement has no way of determining how similar parts have been sourced in the past unless your PLM is well-organized. When part data isn’t optimized, your organization will overspend on parts.
Tip: Align Taxonomy with Important Attributes for Purchasing and the Supply Chain
Good data gives procurement leverage with their suppliers—that’s why it’s important to align your taxonomy with important attributes of all departments (e.g. purchasing and supply chain).
By implementing a data classification strategy, you’ll be able to capture additional details that drive key business decisions, while also providing greater insights for your engineers.
>>> See how Convergence Data identified over $800,000 in cost savings for fasteners by rationalizing spend between two plants buying the same fastener at high volumes.
3. You Have Too Many Duplicate Parts
Working with dirty, duplicate data is like working in the dark. For example, you’re essentially increasing the direct material costs yourself when your team fills your PLM with multiple versions of the same fasteners—and direct material costs have a much greater impact than indirect spend.
Tip: Establish a Parts Governance Strategy–then Normalize, Validate and Dedupe Data
You can support the long-term success of your parts classification by establishing a governance strategy at the very beginning. This will offer you a framework for how to manage new part creation, reduce duplicate parts and effectively launch a parts reuse initiative.
Follow these steps to get started:
- Normalize – Make sure you’ve reviewed the data in the attributes and normalized them to your standard nomenclature.
- Validate – Review the data quality and ensure it is ready for use by taking a look at the units of measure and field lengths on the attribute fields.
- De-Duplicate – Once the parts are cleaned and attributes are populated, begin identifying duplicate parts and develop an actionable plan for parts reuse.
>>> See how Convergence Data provided missing data for reverse auctions for fasteners for this customer and helped them expose more cost savings.
Get in Touch With a Data Expert to Expose Cost Savings
HVAC companies with messy or incomplete data trust Convergence Data to scrub that information into an organized, efficient PLM system. Want to talk with one of our data experts about your situation? Contact us today.
