Parts · Tools · PPE, one queue
Ask for a part. See when it is coming. Know who fitted it.
An engineer raises it from the machine with a photo. Stores puts a price and a date on it. Everyone on site watches the same queue until somebody fits the part and their name goes on the record.
Every user included. £399 a site, a month.
286
part requests raised
238
of them fitted, with a name against them
100
tool orders and PPE requests in the same queue
2
stores people serving 21 engineers
“Excel sheets, post-its, WhatsApp groups, and occasionally someone yelling across the workshop.”
A maintenance manager, describing how parts got ordered before. Every site we have shown this to has recognised it.
Also heard
“‘Fix pump’ isn’t a work order. It’s a riddle.”
“If it’s slower than texting someone, it won’t get used.”
Three ways in
Three intake types. One queue. One set of habits.
Most sites run parts through email, tools through a paper book, and PPE through whoever has the key to the cupboard. Here all three arrive in the same place and are worked the same way.
Parts
Raise it and stores works it
No approval gate in the way. Planned, breakdown or consumable is recorded on every one, so you can see later which kind of buying you are actually doing.
Tools
Broken or lost, and it says which
A tool order carries a reason. If it is lost, the person asking signs a short declaration. That is the whole tool book, and nobody has to find the pen.
PPE
Sizes, and a manager says yes
Boots, gloves, clothing and head sizes are held against the request. PPE carries a manager approval step, because that is how sites already run it.
How it works
Four steps, and the last one is a fitted part.
01
An engineer raises it at the machine
Photo of the failed part, the line it came off, and when it is needed by. If nobody knows what the part is, there is a button on the photo that looks it up.
New request
02
Stores quotes it, orders it and sets an ETA
Supplier, quote reference, price ex VAT, PO number and the date it will land. All on the request, so nobody has to ask twice.
Stores · PR-1184
03
Everyone on site sees the same queue
The engineer who raised it, the shift that comes on at six, and the manager all read one screen. If something has gone quiet, anyone can poke it, and the poke is recorded.
04
Someone fits it, and that is recorded against their name
The request does not close when the part arrives. It closes when the part is on the machine. Who fitted it and when is kept, along with every other change anyone made.
Audit log
The two dates
One date is set by the person who needs the part. The other is set by stores.
The gap between them is the only number on the screen anybody argues about, and it is the number that tells you whether the line runs on Tuesday. A free requester account on the big CMMS platforms doesn't show an ETA at all.
Needed by
25 Aug
Set by the engineer
−1 day
ETA
24 Aug
Set by stores
When the ETA slips past the needed-by date, the request goes on the overdue count and everybody can see it. Nothing has to be chased by text message.
Alongside, not instead of
Keep the maintenance system you already have.
A request can carry the job number from your CMMS, so the part and the job stay tied together without anybody moving off the system they already use. We are not asking you to rip anything out. Most of the managers we speak to have done that once already.
“Once people stop trusting the CMMS, they start keeping their own notes.” That is the failure we are trying to avoid, not repeat.
Request PR-1184
Floor Overview
The screen a manager can read in ten seconds.
Open, overdue and critical, with the trend behind each one. The trend lines are real history, taken from counts recorded every day, not a drawing.
Open
48
On order
30
Overdue
6
Critical
2
Spend
What you bought, and whether you planned it or chased a breakdown.
Every request is marked planned, breakdown or consumable when it is raised, and each one can carry its cost centre, project code and supplier. On the reference site the split came out like this. Moving spend out of the breakdown column is where the money is, and the whole lot exports to Excel or CSV when finance asks.
Planned
159
bought ahead of need
Breakdown
102
bought because a line stopped
Consumable
25
day-to-day stock
Reference site, 286 requests. A snapshot, not a live figure.
Next to MaintainX
A good product. A different way of charging.
MaintainX holds 4.8 from more than 1,262 reviews and the support is genuinely excellent. The disagreement is about who has to pay to see the queue, and how far the request goes before it is finished.
Where we are different
| Seats | Every user included |
| ETA on a request | Yes, set by stores |
| Request ends at | Fitted, with a name |
| Tools and PPE | Same queue |
| Your existing CMMS | Stays where it is |
Where they are better
| Full CMMS | Theirs, not ours |
| Planned maintenance schedules | Theirs |
| Asset registers and meters | Theirs |
| Support organisation | Larger than ours |
| Multi-site roll-up | Theirs today |
The full pricing comparison, with their published figures and links, is on the pricing page.
Chris, Zylair Ltd
Who built this
Built by an engineer who has seen what good and bad look like.
Before this I spent twelve years in the military, where a process that is not followed gets someone hurt, so they are built to be followed. Then over ten years in FMCG and manufacturing, seeing the good up close and, more often, the bad: systems that ask an engineer to fill in nine fields while a line is stopped.
I wrote Parts Requester because I was the person chasing the part at half past five on a Friday. If it is slower than texting someone, it will not get used. That is the standard the app is held to, and it is why the request form is short and the photo does most of the work.
You can email me directly and you will get me, not a queue. chris@zylair.com
£399 a site, a month. Every user included.
No seat maths, no quote to request, no call to book. Thirty days free, no card, and your first paid month is money-back if the team isn't using it.