| | August 20218A fter-sales service of industrial products and compo-nents is a complex yet profitable driver for customer delight and loyalty. Due to the unique nature of spare parts and the dynamic environment in which after-sales ser-vice operates, inventory management of spare parts is relative-ly 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 mini-mum costs.HOW SPARE PARTS ARE DIFFERENT?The following factors differentiate spare parts from other types of material:· Shortage Impact: Shortage of spare parts impacts equip-ment uptime and may have a cascading impact on produc-tion 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 ma-terial requirement from the maintenance Bill of Material (BOM), lower predictability of demand, unavailability of market research & forecasts and the menace of spurious parts can impact the accuracy of demand-supply calcula-tions 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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