Case Study: How we helped PG&E dramatically reduce part counts and increase data consistency
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is one of the largest gas and electric utilities in the United States. They employ approximately 20,000 employees and provide service to approximately 15 million people throughout California.
Challenge
PG&E needed to implement a new system to manage its large and diverse fleet with an extremely broad inventory of parts. The biggest hurdle they faced was in identifying, cleansing and classifying all parts before the new system went live.
Analysis
PartsRiver's initial analysis found that PG&E's parts database contained a large number of bad, obsolete and superseded part numbers. We also found they had no process in place to maintain accuracy and compliance.
Solution
PartsRiver completed an initial cleanse of the existing parts data for all 70 locations, including 34,000 primary parts and 185,000 credit card parts. This process:
- Identified and eliminated duplicate, superseded and obsolete parts
- Established business rules (e.g., preferred suppliers and parts)
- Built a cross-reference based on component manufacturer
- Added VMRS classification
- Provided descriptions for each part to provide consistency in searching and classification
- Used company specific vendor conversion mapping for vendor part data
Results
The PartsRiver data services reduced part counts by over 90% and enabled PG&E's new system to go live on time – and on budget.