Indrasen Naidoo leads ISN Advisory, guiding organisations to reimagine supply chains through human-centred design and digital transformation. A thought leader and innovator behind IBP for MRO at Roy Hill, he blends finance, engineering, and behavioural change to drive results. As a certified Prosci practitioner and leadership coach, Indrasen empowers leaders to turn transformation into lasting advantage: https://youtu.be/WmrDKEd4M0M
Session Overview
Beyond the Blind spot: Why Your MRO Supply Chain Needs A Mindset, Not Just A System, Upgrade!
For decades, Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) has been the supply chain’s “blind spot”. MRO supply chains whilst essential to asset uptime but rarely treated as a strategic capability. We’ve relied on legacy, consumption-based planning and spreadsheets, leading to the costly paradox of carrying excessive stock while still struggling with critical spares availability and machine uptime. The core problem today isn’t a lack of technology; it’s a mindset stuck in reaction mode. In a world of rising asset intensity, sustainability pressure, and digital transformation, that mindset is no longer tenable.
This session challenges the legacy assumptions that keep MRO trapped in reactive cycles. We’ll explore why organisations continue to overstock yet still face shortages, why data mistrust limits planning maturity, and how leadership, not technology, determines supply reliability. Using insights from across industries, we’ll show how reframing MRO from “procurement support” to “asset readiness planning” unlocks new value. We’ll demonstrate that moving to SAP S/4HANA presents an opportunity for a business model reset, not just a technical cutover.
You’ll discover how to move from “run MRP and react” or “set and forget” to “sense, simulate, and optimise continuously” by applying advanced, customer-facing planning maturity to your spare parts inventory. You’ll leave understanding that technology like SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and S/4HANA are not barriers — they are enablers. The true shift lies in how we think, design, and govern MRO processes to sense, simulate, and act with confidence.
We’ll focus on building the foundational data trust and user adoption necessary to make new tools like SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) effective for MRO. This is the time to prepare teams to lead the next decade of supply chain competitiveness by embracing digital tools and analytics.
Join us to learn how to shape a case for change and business case to anchor your MRO transformation in tangible business outcomes: balancing cost, maximizing asset uptime, and cutting the waste of obsolescence.
Three Tangible Learnings
1. Why MRO underperforms — and how mindset, not software, is the root cause.
2. How reframing MRO as an “asset readiness system” changes supply chain design.
3. How to position MRO transformation as a business model reset (not a system upgrade) anchored in balancing asset uptime and inventory cost.
IBP for MRO in Practice: From Spreadsheet Chaos to Integrated Advanced Planning
Having challenged how we think about MRO, this session moves from why to how. The first session challenged the MRO planning mindset; now, this session delivers the practical roadmap. Many organisations are currently trapped in a cycle of high inventory, low service levels, and the “Excel fallback” because their current systems can’t keep pace with the scale, volatility, and complexity of spare parts planning.
We’ll explore how SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) brings structure, visibility, and intelligence to spare parts and maintenance supply chains that have long been driven by gut feel and spreadsheets. This hands-on session focuses on Integrated Business Planning (IBP) for MRO, showing how to effectively extend your planning maturity and detail the pragmatic steps required to transition from consumption-based planning to predictive, simulation-driven optimization.
Through live examples and demo scenarios, we’ll show how IBP for MRO enables planners to balance cost, uptime, and obsolescence — forecasting demand for critical spares, simulating maintenance events, and optimising replenishment parameters dynamically. Attendees will see how IBP connects seamlessly with SAP S/4HANA, Asset Management, and Ariba to deliver an end-to-end view from work order to supplier collaboration.
We’ll also unpack how predictive analytics and scenario planning can be used to anticipate equipment failures and prepare supply responses in advance — transforming the traditional “react and expedite” model into one that senses and adapts continuously.
Whether you’re a maintenance leader, planner, or SAP practitioner, this session will show how to translate IBP’s functionality into real business value — building more resilient, data-driven MRO supply chains that protect uptime, reduce waste, and free working capital. Ultimately improving return on assets.
Three Tangible Learnings
1. How to apply SAP IBP for MRO a reimagined world of integrated planning that improves return on assets.
2. A phased, pragmatic roadmap for implementing IBP for MRO, focusing on sequencing quick wins to secure momentum and adoption.
3. How to achieve end-to-end visibility and improve collaboration between maintenance planning, procurement, and finance.
Alternatively, please email sales@eventfulpeople.com for quote, invoice or any queries and we’ll be glad to assist.
Subscribe to our mailing list
"*" indicates required fields
Download Agenda
Complete the fields below in order to access our Agenda.
Download the agenda
Please fill out the form to view the Conference Agenda pdf
Community Snapshot
Complete the fields below in order to access our community snapshots.
Community Snapshot
Complete the fields below in order to access our community snapshots.
Find out more about
Planner’s School
Find out more about Planner’s School
Indrasen Naidoo leads ISN Advisory, guiding organisations to reimagine supply chains through human-centred design and digital transformation. A thought leader and innovator behind IBP for MRO at Roy Hill, he blends finance, engineering, and behavioural change to drive results. As a certified Prosci practitioner and leadership coach, Indrasen empowers leaders to turn transformation into lasting advantage: https://youtu.be/WmrDKEd4M0M
