Whether or not to standardize equipment and spare parts is one of the enduring debates of engineering, maintenance and spare parts management. On the one hand, standardization is said to lead to improved operating and manpower efficiency, as well as reduced inventories; on the other hand, not standardizing is said

Do we really need bills of material (BOMs) for spare parts management? Back in my university days I serviced my own car – a Datsun 180B. Servicing my own car was a function of both economic necessity (I was studying full time and working part time) and technical interest

When it comes to the management of spare parts used for maintenance and operations support, the procurement team is often treated as an outsider, a service provider, rather than a partner in ensuring that the objective of maintaining operational capacity is achieved. In my experience, this approach is a drag

If you are on LinkedIn you may know that I am an active contributor to various forum discussions.  A few days ago I made the comment on one such discussion on how to control inventory.    My comment was:   ‘Controlling inventory is simple – after all it (usually) doesn’t

Recently I needed to make a spare parts repair or replace decision because I experienced something that might be familiar to some readers – an equipment breakdown! Last week I was mowing the lawn at the back of my house when my 15 year old lawn mower just gave up.

One question that I get asked a lot is: who should run the spare parts storeroom? The question is often asked out of frustration due to a perceived lack of service or frustration borne from overstocking. I suspect that the answer most people seek is that they should run the storeroom

Recently I wrote about the two major storeroom activities that prevent your issues data from accurately representing actual usage.  The first of these was the returns-to-store process and you will recall that, despite the impact on your data, if managed well this process can actually help you improve your reliability.