Spare parts management (SPM) is an important branch of management which could lead the company to success or bankruptcy. It is also fill of potential improvements that can increase the company profits, productivity, and reliability. Wise inventory management would eliminate all the delay risks of unplanned breakdowns, and reduce process time and cost.

To understand the importance of the spare parts, a fundamental knowledge of maintenance types, spare parts, spare parts management, spare parts classifications, ABC analysis, Economic order quantity, suppliers’ management, purchase management, and management computer program SAP, need to reviewed.

Companies realize the spare parts importance and try to develop the system to increase the benefits. Many ways have been taken to achieve that. Each company has it is own management system that the company has developed in years.

In the past years, the role of after sales services has become increasingly prominent as both revenue and profit driver, especially in the manufacturing industry.

Buying decisions for machines are no longer taken merely based on design and engineering criteria, but rather on the question, ‘How will you as my OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) support my business with the services provided, ensuring performance, efficiency and productivity of my machine?’

Customers today are looking for life-time support and services – and when it comes to latter, spare parts supply plays a crucial role. Among others, factors that count most are obsolescence, availability and average speed of delivery as the break-down of a machine not only creates cost for recovery, but in many cases also entails a loss of revenue and a potential threat to the OEM’s image and trust towards him.

“Among others, factors that count most are obsolescence, availability and average speed of delivery as the break-down of a machine not only creates cost for recovery.”

 

Intelligent Monitoring

Plan for resilience

Traditionally, supply chains have been viewed in a linear way, where planning was paramount in a relatively “simple” world with low uncertainty. However, the past focus on minimizing costs and focusing on the supply chain within organizations is undergoing a paradigm shift: today, end-to-end supply chain risk management (E2E SCRM) spans physical supply chain functions and product risks across all supply chain domains and time horizons from strategic down to operational, taking

spare parts supply chain planning to next level. Nowadays, it is about leaving thestage of creating a forecast and pushing this demand signal upstream. The new paramount is a resilient planning, that uses buffers as decoupling points to separate operational plans from the strategic and tactical plans.

Investing in network visibility inside-out

Immediate focus needs to be on the end-to-end service supply chain visibility. Building a network view to improve visibility of supply chain risks in the own facilities, key tier 1 suppliers and beyond is mandatory.

Only if OEMs are capable of tracing potential parts supply chain problems end-to-end, they can respond in a proper manner. Luckily, advanced technologies are emerging that will allow bringing an end-to end supply chain visibility to a new level at real-time. Technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data analytics, Industry 4.0, track & trace and Additive Manufacturing allow to better tackle the ripple effect and reduce inventory risks more efficiently.