How Well Do You Know
Your Current Spare Parts
Inventory Operation?
October 2017 | VehicleServicePros.com 37
ood spare parts inventory management is essential
for a fl eet’s operational reliability and equipment
uptime. Prolonged vehicle downtime and
reduced technician and shop productivity due to
out-of-stock or incorrect parts can cost an organization
valuable time and money.
Th is can be avoided, however, with processes
and systems that:
• Eff ectively monitor and track spare parts.
• Ensure that parts are appropriately stored and
treated.
• Allow maintenance operations to easily identify
and access required parts.
• Surprisingly, spare parts inventory management
is frequently overlooked as a contributor to vehicle
uptime, and technician and shop productivity. It
is not enough to just have parts stockrooms with
good shelving, bins and boxes all neatly labeled.
Th is article will off ers some recommendations
and guidance for improving spare parts inventory
management.
Stockroom Management
Questionnaire
Th e following questionnaire is a useful research
tool for ascertaining how well your parts inventory
is managed. It is adapted from the work of Don
Nyman, in the book Maintenance Planning and
Scheduling by Don Nyman and Joel Levitt, and
expanded by Life Cycle Engineering.
It is likely that you will not know the answers to
all of these questions. Nevertheless, this fi ve-part
questionnaire will help you learn about the areas
where you may be unsure of the answer.
G
Good management practices
contribute to vehicle uptime, and
technician and shop productivity
By Joel Levitt, Director of Projects, Reliability Leadership Institute,
Reliabilityweb.com & David A. Kolman, Editor
Page 38
First Steps
A cursory evaluation to perform a
seamless parts inventory.
A first step to evaluating the current performance
and opportunities for improving
parts room inventory management is to
assess parts stockrooms. Here are some
suggestions for doing this in an hour or so:
Look closely at a bunch of bins
in the stockroom.Do any have
1.
more than one type of part?
Randomly sample four or five bins. Compare
the count to your enterprise resource
2.
planning (ERP) or offer computerized maintenance
management systems/software (CMMS)
record. Write down a few bins that are empty.
Check the system see if any are showing a
positive QOH (quantity on hand). Check to
3.
see if they are on reorder and are expected soon.
Look at the number of “stock outs” per
month, and especially the number of stock
4.
outs of important parts causing downtime.
Take a random sample of waiting
time at the parts window, reporting
5.
the average and standard deviation.
Do you have a storage area for urgent parts?
If so, note the dates they arrived. Subtract
6.
the arrival dates from the current date to see
the number of days the parts have been there.
How many parts did not move at all in the
last year? Of these parts, which ones are not
7.
on the critical or insurance policy parts lists?
Are the basics numbers of the warehouse
well known: value of stock (by category),
8.
number of SKUs, turnover, accuracy, etc.?
Talk to a few employees (e.g., planner
and maintenance worker) and ask them
9.
their opinions about parts and inventory.
SHOP MANAGEMENT
» A best practice is to employ a
computerized inventory control
system that automatically reorders
parts when the on-hand quantity
drops to or below the reorder point.
Photo courtesy of DK Communications