Stage 1 of the SparePartsKnowHow.com redevelopment is now live.
The first stage is the Foundations Playbook.
That may seem like the obvious place to start, but the reason matters.
We did not start with Foundations because it is the easiest part of spare parts management. We started there because it is the part most often assumed.
And that assumption creates problems.
Many people involved in spare parts inventory decisions have never been given a clear, spare parts-specific foundation. They may understand procurement. They may understand warehousing. They may understand maintenance. They may understand finance. They may understand standard inventory control.
But spare parts inventory management has its own logic.
It is different from retail inventory.
It is different from production inventory.
It is different from general supply chain inventory.
And when the wrong logic is applied, the consequences can be significant.
- A decision that appears financially efficient may increase operational risk.
- A stocking rule that works for fast-moving inventory may fail completely for intermittent demand.
- A focus on reducing inventory value may create hidden exposure to downtime.
- A reorder point calculated without understanding criticality, demand behaviour, or lead time risk may provide false confidence.
This is why foundations matter.
One of the key ideas behind the redevelopment of SparePartsKnowHow.com is that spare parts management is not just a list of topics.
It is a connected set of decisions.
What should we stock?
How many should we hold?
Which parts are critical?
How should we manage obsolete inventory?
What role should policy play?
How do we improve operational control?
How do we know whether our ERP settings are supporting the decisions we need to make?
These questions are not isolated.
- A stocking decision affects inventory value, availability, risk, and future review workload.
- A criticality decision affects prioritization, stocking logic, approval processes, and sometimes policy exceptions.
- A reorder point decision is not just a formula. It is a risk decision.
- A policy decision is not just a document. It is a way of making repeatable choices across functions.
That is why the redevelopment is being organized around the Spare Parts Decision Framework.
The aim is to help users understand the decisions they need to make, why those decisions matter, and what practical guidance is available.
We are using the term Playbook deliberately.
A playbook is not just a course. It is not just a library. It is not just a collection of articles.
A playbook should help someone act.
It should provide structure, direction, and practical guidance. It should help users understand where they are, what they need to know, and how to approach the decisions in front of them.
That is important because many people do not come to SparePartsKnowHow.com simply looking for “training”.
- They come because they have a problem.
- They need to know whether a part should be stocked.
- They need to understand why their spare parts inventory keeps growing.
- They need to explain criticality to colleagues.
- They need to reduce excess without exposing the operation to avoidable risk.
- They need to understand why standard inventory rules do not always apply.
The Foundations Playbook is designed to support those needs by providing a practical starting point.
The Foundations Playbook is intended to help users build a clear understanding of how spare parts inventory really works.
It covers the essential logic that sits behind spare parts decisions.
That includes understanding why spare parts are different, why conventional inventory thinking often falls short, and why operational risk must be considered alongside inventory value.
It is designed for people who are new to spare parts management, but not only for them.
It is also relevant for people who have been involved in spare parts for some time but have learned through experience rather than through structured spare parts-specific guidance.
It is useful for cross-functional teams because spare parts decisions are rarely made by one function alone.
Stores, procurement, maintenance, engineering, supply chain, and finance can all influence the outcome.
If those groups are using different assumptions, different language, and different decision logic, improvement becomes harder than it needs to be.
Foundations gives them a common starting point.
A reasonable question is: why not start the redevelopment with calculators, templates, or advanced practitioner tools?
The answer is that tools are only useful when the decision logic is understood.
A calculator can produce a number.
But the user still needs to know whether the inputs make sense, whether the assumptions are valid, and whether the result is appropriate for the operational context.
This is particularly important in spare parts inventory management because many decisions involve uncertainty.
Demand may be intermittent.
Lead times may be unreliable.
Failure consequences may be severe.
Supplier support may change.
Replacement parts may become obsolete.
Operational priorities may differ across functions.
Without a sound foundation, tools can give the appearance of precision while still supporting the wrong decision.
That is why Stage 1 starts with Foundations.
The Foundations Playbook is only the first stage.
Stage 2 will be the Operations Playbook.
This will focus on practical operational improvement, including areas such as optimization, policy development, barcoding, process control, and implementation.
Stage 3 will be Practitioner Access.
This will provide deeper decision support through tools, calculators, templates, frameworks, and advanced reference material.
Those stages require further back-end development, so they will be released later.
For now, the Foundations Playbook is live.
This is the first visible step in a broader shift in how SparePartsKnowHow.com supports spare parts inventory decisions.
The purpose of this redevelopment is not to make the website look different.
The purpose is to make the knowledge easier to use.
People need structured learning, but they also need practical decision support.
They need to know what question they are really trying to answer.
They need to know why spare parts inventory behaves differently.
They need to know where generic inventory logic can mislead them.
And they need access to guidance that reflects the realities of MRO and asset-intensive industries.
That is what the Foundations Playbook is intended to support.
Stage 1 is now complete.
The Foundations Playbook is live and available to join.
Posted by: Phillip Slater