The Basics of Lean and Reliability-Based Spare Parts Management
Christer Idhammar, Founder, IDCON INC
One of the first areas to tackle when an organization wants to become lean is the materials and spare parts areas.
Who should the storeroom report to?
In our experience, we have observed that organizations tend to handle spare parts and materials/the storeroom in one of two ways:
At IDCON, we think stores should stick with the maintenance department. Here’s why...
Reducing the value of spare parts and material kept in storage reduces costs. However, this can become very expensive if not done correctly.
A common mistake is to discard parts that haven’t been used in, let’s say, five years or more. Discarding these parts because they have not been used for a long time is too simplified and risky.
Watch this video to learn a quick way to determine if a spare part is obsolete:
These incorrect and expensive cutbacks happen because the storeroom personnel are often tasked with reducing the store value without a focus on production reliability. Not having the right part when it is needed is a huge problem for the operations and maintenance team. Most stores, especially in plants that are ten or more years old, can reduce their value by 10 to 20% without negatively affecting production reliability.
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Focus on what can be done to drive down cost, not just on reducing store value—and set up a measurable goal for this effort.
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Example goal: To reduce the value of storeroom inventory while maintaining a service factor of 97%. (The service factor is the percentage of occasions the right parts/materials were available when needed for a maintenance job.)
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Because most materials transactions involve maintenance materials, storeroom managers and reliability managers should report to the same department – preferably maintenance.
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If materials management reports to other functions (such as purchasing), there is a higher chance that their goals may not fully align with maintenance and operations.
Find out which spare parts and materials you have in your stores.
Do a quick evaluation of the inventory list accuracy. Randomly choose 300 to 500 items and assess the accuracy of the balance, location, etc. of the list.
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We have often seen that the inventory catalogue is only 70% accurate. A good score would be 98%+. Even if accuracy is 100%, it does not necessarily mean that the stores are cost effective. Do we have the right parts? Do we have too many?
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Find out how many spare parts exist in undocumented stores.
If the inventory catalogue and/or the plant register, including component records and spare parts documented for each piece of equipment, are not accurate and reliable, the users won’t trust that the parts they need are going to be available when they need them.
This one of the reasons why people start building up their own stores. These stores can become extensive and very expensive to maintain, but the costs are invisible. More articles are purchased before they are needed, and often in greater quantities than necessary.
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Moreover, the spare parts are often stored in a poorly selected environment and subjected to damage by corrosion, dirt, vibrations, etc. It is imperative to clean up, sort, organize, and document all spares in these personal stores, but the storeroom manager probably won’t want to take all these items back to central stores because it would increase value and take up costly space.
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I sometimes call these undocumented stores emotional stores. If you have ever tried to document these stores and take away the parts from the people who have them, you will understand why.
Decide which spare parts to keep in the storeroom.
There are many traditional methods to decide what to keep in storage, including:
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However, it is common that part-specific information isn’t considered, such as:
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If you don’t have this information, you are just guessing about what should and should not be kept in the storeroom.
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Analyze which production equipment is critical and which components within each piece of critical equipment could cause a breakdown. The breakdown cost compared to the cost of keeping parts in stock is important to consider when deciding on storage levels.
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With good condition monitoring, you can often avoid keeping parts in storage if the failure developing periodis longer than the delivery time of the parts you are monitoring.
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A practical example of this is steel chains and sprockets. They wear down over a longer period of time, they are easy to inspect using objective methods, and the delivery time is often short. If you monitor wear of sprockets and chains, you can order them as needed instead of keeping a supply in the storeroom.
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Good storeroom management involves knowing how many identical parts are included in the production equipment. To identify these parts, keep an accurate inventory catalogue/plant register that includes component records and spares documented for each piece of equipment.
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This is necessary and important information to have when evaluating suppliers’ recommendations and decisions on what to keep in stores. Neglecting to collect this data leads to keeping the wrong parts and wrong quantities of parts in storage.
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Standardization can also substantially reduce storage. If you have a production line with 22 or so different and critical electrical motors, you might decide to keep one of each of the 22 motors in the storage. You can often standardize by about five different motors or even just one type. Then, only five or maybe just one motor is kept in storage.
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Know what good spare parts storage looks like.
A good storeroom not only contains a cost-effective store volume. It is also closed and delivers parts where they are needed at the right time.
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The following image depicts the delivery of parts and special tools for a shutdown scheduled to start in three days. If the storeroom is not functioning as it should, there will be a line outside it the morning of the shutdown.
Store all spare parts correctly.?
You need to keep parts you store in the right environment: free of dust, other contaminations, and vibrations.
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Keep the shafts of rotating items such as electric motors and pumps in the aisles in the storeroom so they can easily be rotated to avoid damage to bearings as well as sagging.
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Keep v-belts and other belts made of rubber and similar material away from daylight, preferably in a dark location. Bearings should be stored lying flat and be rotated on a regular basis. Read more about preserving the life of bearings.
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Conclusion
Effective spare parts management is vital for lean maintenance success. The storeroom working with the maintenance department ensures a balanced approach between cost reduction and operational reliability. Common mistakes can be avoided by prioritizing a high service factor over simply trying to reduce inventory value. Accurate inventory, addressing emotional stores, and strategic decisions on what parts to keep enhance efficiency. A well-managed storeroom prioritizes both cost-effectiveness and timely delivery. Integration with maintenance optimizes lean initiatives, aligning goals for efficient operations.
IDCON INC MATERIALS AND SPARE PARTS MANAGEMENT TRAINING
Have the parts you need when you need them.
Maintenance materials and spare parts for equipment are a large part of any plant’s operating cost. Waiting for parts to arrive impacts productivity, reliability, and the bottom line. When you don’t have the parts you need when you need them, your maintenance department is left behind and production uptime is in jeopardy.
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Better management of this process is an untapped opportunity for organizations to improve reliability.
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IDCON Materials and Spare Parts Management Training gives you a better understanding how to increase plant reliability and maintenance performance through improved management of spare parts and materials related information.
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Topics include:
Training can be onsite and customized to your plant and team. Contact us to discuss your needs. IDCON also offers public training courses live or virtual at our headquarters. View our schedule.
Spare parts is the often forgotten element of maintenance. We get so used to waiting for them to arrive that the sight of down equipment is accepted. Sure, you cannot keep every single piece readily available all the time, but you sure can do a little simple analysis to look at usage rates and determine the amount to keep in stock so you are covered. Tools like Aspen Fidelis certainly help. No matter the tools used, capturing and then understanding real data is the key. Good stuff. #assetperformancemanagement #aspenfidelis
This is a great overview of the challenges and best practices of spare parts management. It is easy to fall into the trap of simply slashing inventory without considering the potential impact on production downtime and maintenance efficiency. We would like to emphasize the importance of data-driven decision-making. While the article mentions analyzing critical equipment and components, it could be further expanded upon. It’s important to include tools that allow a critical analysis that can further provide valuable insights into which parts are most likely to fail and have the biggest impact on operations. This data can then be used to update stock levels and prioritize preventive maintenance activities. Of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to add that exploring digital solutions such as a #cmms and adopting predictive maintenance as a basis procedure can have a tremendously positive impact on spare parts management. This technology can automate the restocking process and predict failures before they occur, reducing costs and reducing downtime. Thanks for your article, IDCON INC. We’ve recently written a guide to maintenance stock management. Here's the link: https://www.manwinwin.com/maintenance-stock-management/.
MPS Supply Chain Management Candidate | Operations & Maintenance Management | Manufacturing Excellence | LSS Green Belt | Former ICI Pakistan & AkzoNobel Professional
9 个月this is a useful reading Sheraz Ul Khateeb, Muhammad Naqash, Hamza Mohsin, Saad Ali, MUHAMMAD BIN SHAHID, Sultan Abbas Butt, Waleed Usman Khan. There are certain parts of it that relate more to our dynamics, but I think there is a bit of learning throughout.