Introduction to Spare Parts
Effective spare parts programs can help an organization save money by avoiding unplanned downtime and preventing an obsolete or overstocked inventory. On the other hand, poorly managed Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) can be a primary contributor to poor availability and a huge drain on an organization’s finances.
Let’s take a look at what spare parts is, why it’s important, what its limitations are, and what the future of spare parts warehousing looks like.
What Is a Spare Parts Program?
A spare parts program stocks and maintains an inventory of critical parts, materials, consumables, and tools required to keep a manufacturing or processing facility operational. A clear spare parts stocking strategy is required to make sure you are not over stocking spares (and wasting money) or understocking spares and risk delayed repair times for critical assets.
Spare parts are often referred to as Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) because it not only involves the maintenance and repair of production assets but also includes inventory management of tools and consumables needed to run the process.
Challenges with Spare Parts Warehousing
Many facilities are challenged with striking the proper balance of spare parts to be held in inventory. On one hand, downtime can be significantly reduced if all spares needed for a repair are immediately available. However, this practice is costly. On the other hand, if spares are not readily available, the wait time can cause production loss and may even jeopardize your facility’s regulatory compliance.
Challenges associated with spare parts warehousing generally include:
What Does the Future of Spare Parts Look Like?
Major advancements in data acquisition, warehousing, modeling, and analytics, are now creating the opportunity to take the next leap in reliability analysis—and these capabilities can now be applied to optimizing spare parts. This leap is being made possible through Quantitative Reliability Optimization (QRO).
QRO’s data-driven approach to reliability modeling connects every relevant reliability data point at a complex facility to one integrated model, allowing for near real time complex decision making that will directly improve spare parts management by allowing users to:
- More accurately determine the demand requirements for parts. Instead of relying on demand rates that are often determined from historical failure data or projected potential work, QRO’s data-driven approach uses the condition data of the asset to calculate its probability of failure. In turn, the demand rate for parts can then be quantifiably calculated and reevaluated as conditions of the asset change.
- Evaluate and update min/max levels, safety stock levels, and reorder points based on the needs of the assets rather than a stagnant system based on historical events or recommendations. This ability will eliminate excess inventory carrying costs while ensuring sufficient stocking levels at the right time.
- Determine which parts to stock through statistical analysis rather than a vendor recommended spare parts list.
- Tie spare parts usage to the failure modes and mechanisms to further advance your reliability analytics.
Learn more about Quantitative Reliability Optimization (QRO).