Subject Area: Spare Parts Management Decision Support Platform
Improve Spare Parts Inventory Performance by Making Better Decisions
Excess spare parts inventory ties up capital. Insufficient inventory puts equipment availability at risk. Inconsistent decisions can create both problems at the same time.
Improving performance requires more than software, inventory calculations, or new stocking rules. It requires people who understand how to make sound spare parts decisions and apply them consistently.
SparePartsKnowHow.com helps individuals, teams, and organizations develop the knowledge, tools, and decision-making capability to improve spare parts inventory performance.
What do you want to achieve?
1. Solve Spare Parts Management Problems
Practitioner Toolkit — For Individuals
Need to make better decisions about which parts to stock, how many to hold, criticality, obsolescence, or inventory policy? The Practitioner Toolkit provides practical calculators, checklists, templates, specialist guidance, and structured learning resources to help you address real spare parts management problems. It is a resource to use when you need it, not simply a course to complete.
Explore the Practitioner Toolkit >>>
2. Get Your Team Working from the Same Principles
Foundations for Teams — For Organizations
Effective spare parts management depends on maintenance, procurement, engineering, stores, and finance making informed and consistent decisions. But these groups often have different priorities, assumptions, and approaches. Foundations for Teams is a facilitated development program that builds shared understanding of spare parts management, aligns decision-making principles, and prepares your team to work together more effectively.
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3. Achieve a Specific Improvement Outcome
Targeted Improvement Programs — For Organizations
Need to reduce excess inventory, develop stocking policies, standardize practices across sites, or implement a structured improvement program? We work with organizations to develop the capability, decision processes, and practical approaches needed to achieve defined improvement outcomes. Programs are tailored to your objectives and may combine team development, specialist resources, policy development, and implementation support.
Explore Targeted Improvement Programs >>>
Try our Selection Tool to find where you should start. Try Our Selection Tool
Why Spare Parts Require a Different Approach
Spare parts inventory is not the same as retail, wholesale, or production inventory.
Demand can be unpredictable. Lead times can be long. The consequences of not having a part when needed can far exceed its purchase cost.
These differences mean that conventional inventory techniques do not always produce appropriate spare parts decisions.
The challenge is not simply to hold less inventory. It is to make better decisions about what to stock, how much to hold, and how those decisions are managed over time.
That is the thinking behind the Spare Parts Decision Framework.
Explore the Spare Parts Decision Framework >>>
This table shows the key differences between spare parts and other general inventories.
Practical Answers to Important Spare Parts Questions
| How do I know which spare parts to stock? Deciding which spare parts to stock is one of your most important decisions — and one of the easiest to get wrong. Explore this question >>> |
How do we calculate the Re-Order Point? Too high ties up cash. Too low increases downtime risk. The decision needs structure. Explore this question >>> |
| How do we determine spare parts criticality? Learn why criticality is about consequence and availability, not just price or usage. Explore this question >>> |
How do we manage obsolete inventory? Obsolescence usually starts with early decisions, not with the stocktake that reveals it. Explore this question >>> |
| How do I optimize spare parts inventory? Optimization should focus on process not just numbers. Explore this question >>> |
What should be in a spare parts stocking policy? Clarify the rules that turn good intentions into consistent decisions. Explore this question >>> |
Jozef Ferenc
Lear Corporation
Pieter Janssens
Longveld
Sondra Carroll
Shaw Industries Group
Probin Konwar
QAFCO
“Achieving your spare parts management goals requires specific process and decision-making skills. You can either adopt these and improve, or stay where you are.”
SparePartsKnowHow.com was established by Phillip Slater, an internationally recognized spare parts inventory management specialist, author, and consultant with more than 40 years of experience.
Our resources draw on decades of practical work with asset-intensive organizations in manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, utilities, and other industries.
The emphasis is on practical application: helping people understand the decisions they face, apply appropriate methods, and sustain improvements.
Better decisions. Better inventory performance. Capability that lasts.