INTRODUCTION

Proper planning and control of spare parts inventory is a critical component of an effective asset management program. If the right parts are not on hand when needed for routine maintenance or repairs, downtime is prolonged. If too many parts are on hand, the enterprise absorbs excessive costs and the overhead of carrying the inventory. There are tried and true strategies to manage spare parts in support of effective asset management, along with some that can be considered questionable, and a variety of new and innovative practices. Advanced enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions support the proper implementation of these capabilities. Following are examples of each.

Item search. It can be frustrating to a maintenance planner who is not familiar with item numbers to locate the appropriate part in a computer system. Nouns and qualifiers are a way of simplifying a search. A noun is a simple, meaningful name for the item, for example "pump." The qualifier adds more detail, such as "hydraulic." A search on this combination will bring up all hydraulic pumps in the stock item master file.
An assortment of captions and a detailed item description can provide an increasingly narrowed search that considers make, model, size, formulation, capacity, etc. If the part can be substituted with an alternate or equivalent part, that reference also should be stored in the stock record.

ABC and XYZ analyses. The generally accepted 80:20 rule illustrates that approximately 80 percent of any storeroom’s volume is associated with only 20 percent of the items in inventory. It is important to pay extra attention to that critical 20 percent.
ABC and XYZ codes are commonly used to identify those parts. The codes are assigned based on value or quantity of stock movement, and each code will have an associated "upper limit." Highest value parts, for example those