| | January 20228After-sales service of industrial products and com-ponents is a complex yet profitable driver for cus-tomer delight and loyalty. Due to the unique nature of spare parts and the dynamic environment in which af-ter-sales service operates, inventory management of spare parts is relatively challenging and distinct from that of other material. High spares availability accompanied by low spares inventory are necessary to ensure maximum uptime of equipment at minimum costs.HOW SPARE PARTS ARE DIFFERENT?The following factors differentiate spare parts from other types of material:· Shortage Impact: Shortage of spare parts impacts equipment uptime and may have a cascading impact on production schedule and cycle time.· Product Life Cycle: Inventory of spare parts for new products and discontinued products needs to be planned based on non-traditional approaches, industry expertise and technical projections.· Spare Parts Peculiarities & Life Cycle: Tracking of sub-stitutes, stocking of maintenance-only (i.e., nonproduc-tion) material and managing obsolescence are important for effective inventory management of spare parts.· Demand & Supply: Deviation of actual maintenance material requirement from the maintenance Bill of Ma-terial (BOM), lower predictability of demand, unavail-ability of market research & forecasts and the menace of spurious parts can impact the accuracy of demand-supply calculations for spare parts.INVENTORY MANAGEMENT OF SPARE PARTS: A CLASSIFICATION-BASED APPROACHA variety of criteria need to be considered for inventory planning and control of spare parts. Given below are a few:· Origin: Based on their origin or source, spare parts are classified as manufactured and purchased. Original Equip-ment Manufacturers (OEMs) usually have better control over parts that are manufactured inhouse as compared to those that are procured from external sources.· Criticality: From the perspective of their criticality for safe and effective functioning of equipment, spare parts are classified as vital, essential, and desirable necessitat-ing high, medium, and low inventory levels, respectively.· Lead Time: Based on the lead time required for making them available, parts are classified as long, medium, and EFFECTIVE SPARE PARTS MANAGEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTSBy Niranjan Ajgaonkar, Global Head - Enterprise Asset Management & Supply Chain Management, Ramco SystemsVANTAGE POINTHigh spares availability accompanied by low spares inventory are necessary to ensure maximum uptime of equipment at minimum costs
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