A Risk Based Methodology for Spare Parts Inventory Optimisation

Author(s):  
Ujjwal R. Bharadwaj ◽  
Vadim V. Silberschmidt ◽  
John B. Wintle ◽  
Julian B. Speck

Spare parts inventories assist maintenance staff to keep equipment in operating condition. Thus the inventory level of spares has a direct bearing on machine availability, a factor that is increasingly important in capital-intensive industries. This paper presents a risk based approach for spare parts inventory optimization. At the outset, the paper highlights the unique features of maintenance inventories, such as spare parts inventories, compared to other inventories such as work-in-progress or finished product inventories. After a brief mention of the principles on which many of the current inventory management models are based and their limitations, the paper presents a risk-based methodology to spares inventory management. ‘Risk’ in the current context is the risk in monetary terms that arises when a component (spare) is not available on demand. It is the expected value of loss, i.e., the product of the likelihood of unavailability of the spare from the inventory and an estimate of the consequence(s) of that unavailability. Given a budgetary constraint and the risk profile of a number of spares, the model gives an optimal inventory of spares. By basing the inventory on the risk profile of spares, the model includes factors that are not normally considered in various other models. The ultimate aim of the methodology is to have an optimal level of spares inventory such that machine availability, to the extent it is dependent on the level of spares inventory, is maximized subject to constraints. The methodology is expected to benefit both, operational and financial managers.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Cai ◽  
Yibing Yin ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Xi Chen

Under the background of the wide application of condition-based maintenance (CBM) in maintenance practice, the joint optimization of maintenance and spare parts inventory is becoming a hot research to take full advantage of CBM and reduce the operational cost. In order to avoid both the high inventory level and the shortage of spare parts, an appointment policy of spare parts is first proposed based on the prediction of remaining useful lifetime, and then a corresponding joint optimization model of preventive maintenance and spare parts inventory is established. Due to the complexity of the model, the combination method of genetic algorithm and Monte Carlo is presented to get the optimal maximum inventory level, safety inventory level, potential failure threshold, and appointment threshold to minimize the cost rate. Finally, the proposed model is studied through a case study and compared with both the separate optimization and the joint optimization without appointment policy, and the results show that the proposed model is more effective. In addition, the sensitivity analysis shows that the proposed model is consistent with the actual situation of maintenance practices and inventory management.


2013 ◽  
Vol 315 ◽  
pp. 733-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noor Ajian Mohd-Lair ◽  
Chuan Kian Pang ◽  
Willey Y.H. Liew ◽  
Hardy Semui ◽  
Loh Zhia Yew

Spare parts inventory management is very important to ensure smooth operation of maintenance department. The main objectives of inventory management of spare parts are to ensure the availability of spares and materials for the maintenance tasks and increase the productivity of the maintenance department. This research centred on the development of the Computerised Inventory Management System (CIMS) for the maintenance team at Weida Integrated Industries Sdn. Bhd. The inventory management technique used to control the spare parts inventory in this research was the basic Economic Order Quantity models (EOQ). However, the CIMS developed is unique as it has the ability in handling inventories in multiple-storage locations. The CIMS was written using the Visual Basic 2010 software. This CIMS has the abilities to keep records and process the spare parts information effectively and faster besides helping the user to perform spare parts ordering tasks compared to the current manual recording. In addition, the ordering quantity and frequency for the CIMS is determined through the EOQ technique. However, observation indicates that the overall average inventory level currently at the factory is lower than the expected overall average inventory level produced by the CIMS. This is due to the fact that the CIMS was unable to consider the opening stock in ordering the inventories. Therefore, further improvements are needed to optimize the performance of the system such as using the EOQ with the reorder point technique, the periodic or continuous review system.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro Reis Muniz ◽  
Samuel Vieira Conceição ◽  
Lásara Fabrícia Rodrigues ◽  
João Flávio de Freitas Almeida ◽  
Tãssia Bolotari Affonso

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a new hybrid approach based on criticality analysis and optimisation to deal with spare parts inventory management in the initial provisioning phase in the mining industry. Spare parts represent a significant part of mining companies' expenditures, so it is important to develop new approaches to reduce the total inventory value of these items.Design/methodology/approachThis hybrid approach combines qualitative and quantitative methods based on VED (vital, essential and desirable) analysis, analytical hierarchical process (AHP), and e-constraint optimisation method to obtain the spare parts to be stocked. The study was applied to a large mining company. The mineral sector was chosen due to the great importance to the emerging Brazilian economy and the lack of researches in this sector. In addition, the spare parts have a relevant weight on the total inventory cost.FindingsPresent a novel approach combining multi-objective optimisation and multi-criteria evaluation approaches to tackle the inventory decision in spare parts management. This work also defines and classifies relevant criteria for spare parts management in the mineral sector validated by specialists. The proposed approach achieves an average increase of 20.2% in the criticality and 16.6% in the number of items to be stocked compared to the historical data of the surveyed company.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper applies the proposed approach to a mining company in Brazil. Future research in other companies or regions should analyse the adequacy of the criticality criteria, hierarchy and weights adopted in this paper.Practical implicationsThe proposed approach is useful for mining industries that deal with a large variety of resource constraints as it helps in formulating appropriate spare part strategies to rationalise financial resources at both tactical and strategic levels.Originality/valueThe paper presents a new hybrid method combining the AHP a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach coupled with e-constraint optimisation to deal with spare parts inventory management allowing for a better spare parts inventory analysis in the initial provisioning phase and providing managers with a systematic tool to analyse the trade-off between spare parts criticality and total inventory value.


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