Brisbane-based RPMGlobal has acquired Canadian inventory optimisation management software firm IMAFS.

The companies have entered a share purchase agreement for the takeover of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud-delivered provider, though no financial details were released.

The IMAFS inventory management and forecasting software solution connects to an organisation’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It uses its own artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to improve inventory management.

“The product has been designed and built for the sole purpose of optimising the inventory holdings of large asset intensive companies,” RPMGlobal said of the new addition.

“In the mining industry, management and optimisation, specifically the maintenance, repair and operational (MRO) inventory, is critical to ensuring operational continuity and attainment of production targets.”

RPMGlobal CEO and managing director Richard Mathews said that, for mining-specific applications, the proper management of MRO inventory is vital, and a poor inventory optimisation process can result in reactive activity instead of predictive. 

“If the plant, or key pieces of equipment stop operating because spare parts are not available, a costly operational problem develops. IMAFS has developed a hosted subscription service that allows inventory data to be extracted from a company’s ERP product or computer maintenance management (CMM) system and analysed programmatically.”

The acquisition is expected to close 25 November (Canadian Eastern Time) subject to various conditions.

Source: www.rpmglobal.com