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 Inventory Classifications Matter?
In this 2 Minute Tutorial, Phillip Slater, discusses spare parts inventory classifications. Does it matter whether you classify your spare parts inventory by machine type or inventory type? Phillip thinks that it does and explains why. For information on our Pro Level membership please visit our
What is Your Dock-to-Stock Time?
The Influence of Lead Time One of the most important aspects of spare parts inventory management, in fact any inventory management, is the lead time. Lead time has a major influence on how much stock you hold. Lead time is one of two key factors in determining your cycle stock
Bill of Materials (BOM): Necessary or Just Nice to Have?
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
Why Isn’t Procurement Treated as a Partner in Spare Parts Management?
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
Achieving Accurate Inventory Records
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
The Spare Parts Repair or Replace Decision
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.
Who Should Run Your Spare Parts Storeroom?
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
How Squirrel Stores Wreck Your Data
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.
How Returns to Store Improves Reliability
Recently I was an attendee at a webinar on the interaction between maintenance reliability and the storeroom. This was a free webinar that while free of cost was also free of content! Unfortunately in this case what content was there was also downright misleading because one of their key points was