The Boss and Spare Parts Management
Earlier this month I released an online quiz designed to help you to understand your spare parts management strengths and weaknesses.
This quiz asks you to rank your approach to 7 key spare parts management tasks. Based on your responses you are then ranked using the songs of Bruce Springsteen!
OK, the ranking is a bit of fun on my part (I've been a Springsteen fan since the 70's). But the message is serious. Reflecting on your own assessment of how you perform these 7 key tasks will help you to understand what you need to address in order to get the most out of your inventory investment.
How will you perform? Is your inventory management 'Born to Run' or are you just 'Dancing in the Dark'?
Find out here:
http://sparepartsknowhow.com/spare-parts-management-quiz/#.Vu938MfaDLQ
Below is this month's new article.
Keep on improving,
Phillip Slater
Founder, SparePartsKnowHow.com
The #1 Problem With Spare Parts Inventory Management
Engineering spare parts management is a big topic and managing a spare parts inventory involves engaging with lots of participants from different parts of the business. This means that there is plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong. And that may be one of the complications that makes this task more difficult than it superficially appears.
Some Universal Issues
So, what do you think is the biggest problem in engineering spare parts management?
This is a question that I ask at the beginning of almost every workshop and training event. Given the range of personnel involved in spare parts inventory management it is perhaps no surprise that I get a wide range of responses. Here is a list from one recent session:
• Satellite stores
• Rotable spares management
• Lead time variability
• Stock outs
• Engaging operations
• Determining criticality
• Availability
• Redundant stock
• Logistics
• Cannibalized spares
• Location mix up
That’s quite a list!
These responses could be sorted into a number of different categories, such as: structure (e.g. satellite stores), process (e.g. rotable spares management, logistics), and outcomes (e.g. stock outs, availability, clutter). There may even be other categories or ways to break down this list.
Despite these issues being quite universal, identifying them and grouping them doesn’t really help us identify the #1 problem with spare parts inventory management. To identify the #1 problem we need to look for a theme that is evident in each of these issues.
Common Themes
One theme that is evident in almost all of these issues is uncertainty. For example, the typical reason that rotable spare parts management is an issue is that there is uncertainty about the spares usage requirements, the repair time, the reliability of the repaired item – sometimes all three! We could say something similar about lead time variability (uncertain by definition), determining criticality, stock outs, availability, redundant stock, and location mix ups.
Another possible theme is communication. One reason that many items on this list become an issue revolves around the communication (or lack of) that occurs. This is obvious with items such as engaging operations, managing logistics, and even cannibalization, and location mix ups.
Or cut and past this URL
http://sparepartsknowhow.com/the-1-problem-with-spare-parts-inventory-management/#.Vu95dMfaDLQ
