Subject Are: Spare Parts Challenges
Photo by Martin Wettstein on Unsplash
Most organizations I work with believe their spare parts challenges are somehow special.
Different assets.
Different industries.
Different histories.
Different constraints.
And almost without fail, someone will say: “Yes, but we’re different.”
There’s a quote from Mel Robbins that captures this perfectly:
After several decades working with maintenance, engineering, and supply chain teams across mining, oil & gas, utilities, manufacturing, and infrastructure, I can say this with confidence:
You are not the exception.
Not in downtime.
Not in lead times.
Not in ERP usage.
Not in process discipline.
Not in inventory waste.
The patterns repeat — everywhere
Walk into almost any operation and you’ll hear the same themes:
- Downtime is expensive — often eye-wateringly so.
- Critical parts come from overseas, with long and unpredictable lead times.
- Systems exist, but they’re inconsistently followed.
- ERP platforms are installed, but only a fraction of their capability is actually used.
- Stores contain obsolete stock sitting next to urgently needed items that no one can find.
- Engineers bypass processes because “it’s quicker this way.”
- Purchasing reacts to breakdowns instead of preventing them.
- Everyone is busy — but no one quite owns the end-to-end outcome.
What changes are the details. What stays the same are the structural problems.
This matters, because believing you’re unique creates a dangerous blind spot. It leads teams to assume:
- Generic frameworks won’t work here.
- Best practices don’t apply to us.
- Our environment is too complex.
- Our assets are too specialised.
And that belief quietly justifies inaction.
“We’re different” becomes an excuse
I’ve seen this mindset stall improvement more than any technical constraint.
Once a team convinces itself its spare parts challenges are exceptional, proven methods get dismissed before they’re even explored.
Criticality analysis becomes “too theoretical.”
Obsolescence planning is “nice to have.”
Inventory optimization is “something we’ll look at later.”
Meanwhile:
- Emergency orders continue.
- Downtime remains reactive.
- Capital is tied up in low-value stock.
- Knowledge walks out the door when experienced people retire.
The irony is that spare parts management is one of the most repeatable disciplines in industrial operations.
Asset types vary, but risk doesn’t.
Failure modes change, but inventory principles don’t.
Geography shifts, but lifecycle realities stay stubbornly consistent.
That’s exactly why frameworks work — because they’re built on patterns observed across hundreds of sites, not one.
Everything I teach and publish through SparePartsKnowHow comes from this accumulated field experience.
Not theory.
Not vendor marketing.
Not generic supply chain advice.
Real plants. Real constraints. Real failures. Real recoveries.
Over time, clear themes emerge:
- Most organizations carry 20–40% surplus inventory.
- Less than 10% of stocked parts usually drive most operational risk.
- Obsolescence is almost never proactively managed.
- ERP data quality is poor, but rarely prioritised.
- Training is fragmented, with no shared operational language.
These aren’t isolated cases. They’re systemic.
Which is good news — because systemic problems can be solved systematically.
The first step isn’t a new system or another consultant.
It’s acknowledging that your challenges are normal.
That doesn’t diminish them.
It makes them solvable.
Once teams stop defending their uniqueness, they become open to structured approaches: lifecycle thinking, criticality-based stocking, risk-aligned inventory, competency development, and practical governance.
That’s when results start to appear.
Lower downtime.
Reduced working capital.
Better decision clarity.
More confident teams.
Not because you found a magic solution — but because you finally accepted that you’re playing the same game as everyone else.
And that means you don’t have to reinvent it.
If this resonates with you, it is time to take action. Start here >>> Home page.
Posted by Phillip Slater