Manufacturing may be heading toward reshoring, but a lot of companies are still outsourcing jobs that used to be covered in-house. Sales, tech support, and everything from cleaning the facility to feeding the workers is very likely to be taken care of by independent contractors now. The savings can be significant.
MRO companies are part of this trend. MRO: Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul. For servo motors and motion control, these companies get needed parts for repair of machinery and facilitate repair.
When it comes to Rexroth motion control, there can be real problems with MROs. What’s their motivation? To keep costs down in the short term. They figure your plant isn’t going to wait and credit them with cost reductions over a decade. Instead, a fast money-saving move like getting used parts from eBay or a rebuild from a third party shop can make them look good to the C suite. Once that happens, they’ll be excused from further scrutiny.
We’re not saying that MROs are unreliable or that they shouldn’t be trusted. We’re just saying that we really understand why MROs might be tempted to take shortcuts.
Rexroth doesn’t sell parts to MROs or to third party repair shops. They don’t provide schematics, issue certification, or offer training to third parties, either. For like-new results, there is no substitute for Rexroth factory repair.
If your facility uses MROs, make sure that they understand that factory repair is essential for Rexroth motion control.