" Importance and few logical approches of Spare Part Management plan and Inventory Control of any Facility or Industries "

Spare parts are lifeblood of operational reliability of any Plant / facility / Industry. No facility or Industry can operate at high level of output with out a reliable supply of functional spare parts


The main motive of maintainanace is Keeping equipment's available, reliable and cost optimized for production. Any manufacturing, Production & Process industries use heavy machinery consist of Electrical, Electronic, instrumnetation& mechanical equipments like Motors,Drives,PLC's,Rollers,Gears...etc.?.        

To Increase the efficiency of production we requires minimization of machine downtime. However, we don’t know which machine part will fail when? Therefore, availability of a wide range of spare parts is major factor for reduction in downtime when a breakdown occurs



Cost reduction in maintenance does not necessarily mean a reduction in service or in the quality of service. It means a better control of the maintenance and its related areas.



So Identification, procurement & maintainance of Critical/Non Critical spare parts provide reliable production and make maintenance team to respond quickly whenever needed.



A logical approach to solve the issue of spare parts availability lies in stocking large quantities of spare parts for immediate use,On the other hand stocking is limited by space and cost herefore designing a system and managing spare part in an optimal way represents a critical and important task.


Spare parts Management is to be treated as separate discipline from normal Inventory Management , Top Management support and encouragement for calculated risk taking and innovation is a must for sustained improvement.
        

Some of typical Characteristics of Electrical / Electronics / Instrumentation Spares


1.Large in No's & Varities.


2.Absense of Specification.


3.Erratic Consumption/No pattern.


4.Sourcing Constraint.


5.Higher Prices, Importing may be required.


6.Requirement of Large Space & Preservation Techniques.


7.Diffcult to dispose off.

        

There are few approaches can be considered while designing a spare part management plan and inventory control of any facility or Industry


Initial Approach :


Comprehensive List With details of Equipment and Spares. That is nothing but systematic identification all parts of machinery / equipment.


Estimate requirements based on past experience for similar equipments.


Classify Criticality of Equipments.


Classify Spares as Vital, Essential, Desirable.


In-depth understanding of lead times for different Spare parts.


Identify Insurance Spares.


Identify Cost impacted spares.


Identify Durable and Consumable Spares.?

        

Operational Approach :Adopt Standardization as most as Possible.



Use standardized or Similar Model of equipments. This Standardization purely varies from industry to industry and its appilication and ofcourse seviority of failure of machinery or equipment.

Bulky Procurement for group of sites which are having same machinery/equipment so that product reliability will also be there along with the Procurement .


Identify Vendors / Suppliers at site location, If not available may need to proceed through centralization.
        

Procurement strategy: Among various categories of procurement like Routine, Leverage, Bottleneck, Spare parts fall into category of bottleneck, Hence we should have close relationship with suppliers, OEMS/Alternate Sources.        

Few benefits of a Spare part Management Plan and inventory Control :


Yes it improves the accuracy of inventory Orders, Its status and tracking of critical and non critical equipments which are actually required for reliable operation of machinery or equipment to avoid the down time.

Warehouse can be organized in a easy access manner with labels and Positioning.

Efficiency of the Productivity can be increased.

Ofcourse Saving of Money and Time

It can simplifies the Vendor supply chain also.        

Conclusions : Now a days there are lot of advanced modules or softwares are available for perfect Spare part Management Plan and inventory Control. Best of that can be choosed to achieve the minimum stock quantities, to Simply the purchasing processes, To record the vendor information at one place and ofcourse it may help you to increase the visibility between your computerized maintenance management system and ERP.