Before getting to this month's article I want to remind you that the MAPS conference and my pre-conference Boot Camp are now only a few days away.
So, if you were waiting until the last minute before committing to attend - the time is now! If you don't register in the next few days you will miss out on my only Boot Camp this year!
You can read about the MAPS conference and my Boot Camp here http://mapsconference.com
Now, on to this month's article. This is an extract from a recent white paper exploring the issues of obsolete spare parts, managing the End-Of-Life and determining your Last-Time-Buy.
Keep on improving,
Phillip Slater
Founder, SparePartsKnowHow.com
Obsolete Spare Parts Management
Obsolescence is Inevitable
It is inevitable that any spare part will, at some point, become obsolete. This fact is not influenced by how you manage your inventory (how well or how poorly) or how well you train your team. The fact is that technology changes, designs change, equipment changes, processes change. These are things that you really cannot expect to influence to any great extent. What you can influence, however, is how you plan for, and respond to, the inevitable outcome of obsolescence, whenever and however that occurs.
There are many labels used to describe obsolescence and how the obsolescence comes to be. For example, sometimes the term ‘commercially obsolete’ is used to mean that the item is no longer sold. Or a part could be described as ‘technically obsolete’, meaning that it has been superseded by newer technology. Whether or not this makes the item obsolete in any operational sense depends on whether you can still acquire the item when you need it.
However, for all practical intents and purposes there are just two mechanisms that lead to obsolescence: vendor-led and owner-led.
Vendor-Led Obsolescence
Vendor-led obsolescence occurs when the vendor or Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) no longer sells the item as a new part. They may or may not have an alternative item that can take the place of the old item but which will most likely have a different description and part number. They may even have an alternative that closely matches the item but where the use of that part will require some re-engineering to fit.
Owner-Led Obsolescence
Owner-led obsolescence occurs when your company decides to replace the equipment on which the item is used. This means that you will no longer need to keep the item in your inventory and so you may be left with unneeded stock that you will describe as ‘obsolete’.
Of course when spare parts are created within a management system few people will be thinking about the future obsolescence and, indeed, the same is true during the useful life of the part. The result being that companies are either ‘caught short’ and don’t have the parts they need or they end up disposing for zero value parts that they have bought and never really needed. This is why it is important for companies to build awareness of the potential obsolescence and establish practices for managing that obsolescence.
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