Spare Parts Management Software Introduction

1. The importance of spare parts management software

Spare parts inventory management software plays an important role in achieving the desired plant availability at an optimum cost. Presently, industries are going for capital-intensive, mass production-oriented, and sophisticated technology. The downtime for such plants and machinery is prohibitively expensive. It has been observed in many industries that the non-availability of spare parts, as and when required for repairs， contributes to as much as 50% of the total downtime. Also, the cost of spare parts is more than 50% of the total maintenance cost in the industry. It is a paradox to note that the maintenance department is complaining about the non-availability of the spare parts to meet their requirement and the finance department is facing the problem of increasing locked-up capital in spare parts inventory. This amply signifies the vital importance of spare parts management in any organization.

The unique problems faced by the organization in controlling/managing the spare parts are as follows. Firstly, there is an element of uncertainty as to when apart is required and also the quantity of its requirement. This is due to the fact that the failure of a component, either due to wearing out or due to other reasons, can not be predicted accurately. Secondly, spare parts are not that easily available in the market as they are not fast-moving items. The original equipment manufacturer has to supply the spares in most cases. New models are introduced to incorporate the design improvements and old models are phased out. Thirdly, the number and variety of spare parts are too large making close control more and more tedious.  Fourthly, there is a tendency from the stage of the purchase of the equipment to the stage of the use of the spare parts, to requisition spare parts more number than that are actually required and accumulation of spares takes place. Finally, the rate of consumption of spare parts for some is very high and for some very low. These problems are to be faced by systematic spare parts management.

2. The objective of spare parts management software

The objective of spare parts management software is to ensure the availability of spares for maintenance and repairs of the plant and machinery as and when required at an optimum cost.

Also, the spares should be of the right quality. There are many actions required to ensure spare parts management effectively.