Spare Parts Management Research Articles

Longyuan Spare Parts Management System Development

This paper studies the design and use of spare parts and system management module, and designed a development model based on B/S architecture. System using MVC framework, using AJAX pages, data and business separation and a series of advanced technologies developed for the management of spare parts. System design mainly uses high-performance UNIX system database server and a set of easy to maintain Windows Server2003 system as an application server, middleware using open source Tomcat, database using the Oracle database, ensure the system's high availability and high cost. The function module is based on B/S model include: procurement module, inventory management module, allocation management module, quota management module statistics query module and module-based information management and system maintenance module, the system message announcement. Spare parts management system and the advantages are analyzed to prove that the system is capable of successful application.

A review of multi-criteria classification of spare parts

Purpose – Spare parts management plays a relevant role for equipment-intensive companies. An important step of such process is the spare parts classification, enabling properly managing different items by taking into account their peculiarities. The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the art of classification of spare parts for manufacturing equipment by presenting an extensive literature analysis followed by an industrial assessment, with the final aim to identify eventual discrepancies. Design/methodology/approach – Not only is the attention put on the literature about the subject, but also on an on-field analysis, that is presented comprehending an extensive survey and two in-depth exploratory case studies. The copper mining sector was chosen being representative for the case of capital intensive plants where the cost of maintenance has relevant weight on the total operating cost. Findings – The paper highlights the status of the scientific literature on spare parts classification by showing the current situation in the real industrial world. The paper depicts the existing barriers that leave gaps between theory and real practice for the application of an effective multi-criteria spare parts classification. Originality/value – The paper provides a review of the theory on spare parts classification methods and criteria, as well as empirical evidences especially for what concern current situation and barriers for an effective implementation in the industrial environment. The paper should be of interest to both academics and practitioners, since it provides original insights on the discrepancies between scientific and industrial world.

A novel prediction model for aircraft spare part intermittent demand in aviation transportation logistics using multi-components accumulation and high resolution analysis

High effective management of civil aircraft spare parts is of significant importance for the economical operation of aircrafts. However, the stochastic characteristics of the aircraft spare parts make it difficult to find a reliable rule to precisely predict the future demand. In order to address this issue, this work presents a novel multi-components accumulation and high resolution analysis (MCAHR) method to improve the forecasting performance of aircraft spare parts. The MCAHR takes the advantages of high resolution of the wavelet transform to analyze the time series of spare part intermittent demand. The original time series were decomposed into several sub-bands along with the time axis of the wavelet. Then particle swarm optimized fuzzy neural networks were established for each sub-band to intelligently mine their intrinsic features. Accurate prediction result was hence obtained by the accumulation of the outputs of all fuzzy neural networks. Experimental tests using the historical data of A320 civil aircrafts were carried out in this work to evaluate the proposed MCAHR method. The analysis results have demonstrated a high efficiency of the MCAHR method and that its prediction performance is superior to existing methods. Hence, the proposed MCAHR method has practical importance in the civil aircraft spare part intermittent demand prediction and will provide a significant economic benefit to the industry through reasonable management of aircraft spare parts.

Research and Application of Information Management for NC Equipment

Focused on the operation management of equipment, the workflow of NC equipment informatization management was deeply analyzed in this article. The functional structure of equipment management system was studied here. And, the equipment information management system was developed based on B/S structure. The system was applied to manage the basic information, Spare parts and Maintenance of the NC Equipment by way of information and automation, and realize the traceability of equipment maintenance and spare parts management throughout the whole Life Cycle. The alete integration of the Equipment Information Management System and other system, such as DNC, MES and ERP, was realized. And the integrated system effectively promoted the information interaction between layer of enterprise, workshop and equipment.

BMED: A WEB BASED APPLICATION TO ANALYZE THE PERFORMANCE OF MEDICAL DEVICES

In this study, a software application was developed to analyze the performance test results of medical devices. The software (BMED) provides a medical device database and analyses problems with medical devices. The BMED application analysis reports incompatible performance test results in accordance with international safety and inspection standards. The BMED also contains performance test measurement history of all medical devices in the BMED medical device database. The main purpose of this study is to make analysis of the performance control of medical devices faster, easier, mobile and more efficient. The increasing number of medical devices in a hospital is another reason to use applications such as this. The BMED software application was tested using sample data collected during performance test results of a total of 1553 medical devices. The devices were defibrillator, electrocardiography, pulse oximeter, anaesthesia unit, vaporizer, ventilator, electrosurgical unit, physiological monitor, sphygmomanometer, surgical aspirator, phototherapy unit and infant incubator. The performance tests of these medical devices were performed by the biomedical personnel in accordance with the inspection and preventive maintenance system (IPM) procedures, which were developed by the emergency care research institute (ECRI institute) and their results were also interpreted in accordance with the same procedures. The results of application testing showed that the BMED is a very successful application used to analyze performance test results of medical devices. Its usage is very easy, fast and comfortable. The main advantage of BMED is that it can be accessed with mobile devices from anywhere. This feature increases the performance and efficiency of biomedical staff. Additionally, this study showed that the BMED application provides consistent data for medical device problems. Spare part stock management and preventive maintenance activities decreased the repair costs and minimized the number of fault device conditions within the BMED application. All the analysis results also affected the selection and purchasing decisions of medical devices and their technologies. In short, the BMED served a manageable solution to combine all distributed data from a large number of medical devices located in different departments of a hospital — the location of the device, the biomedical number, the device name, the manufacturer, the serial number, the interpretation of the performance test results and the analysis results — into one platform. Thus, the management of medical device inventory was made easier. The future study will be the evaluation of the analysis for other medical devices. It is expected that usage of the tool will increase and it will be a very useful application for biomedical personnel.

Managing Nuclear Spare Parts Inventories: A Data Driven Methodology

This paper presents a methodology for developing a spare parts inventory management system with a focus on the nuclear power sector. Often, demand for spare parts is highly intermittent and cannot be accurately forecasted through traditional methods. Examples include nuclear power generation equipment, ground space systems, and aircraft engine parts. We take a data-driven engineering management approach and develop a four-step methodology for spare parts management in such environments. These steps comprise an influence diagram for identifying relevant factors, weighting of influences through the analytic hierarchy process, grouping parts according to inventory criticality indices, and the development of base stock inventory policies for each group. This approach allows the system to be actively managed within a continuous improvement framework through employee engagement and input, and mathematical assumptions are not made in the models. To our knowledge, no such integrated, comprehensive methodology for spare parts has been developed. The techniques employed in this research can be effectively used together to holistically manage the entire spare parts process, or they may be used separately to manage portions of the process. This paper provides an overview of the methodology, and the entire approach is illustrated via a test bed nuclear power generation facility.

Spare parts management: Linking distributional assumptions to demand classification

Spare parts are known to be associated with intermittent demand patterns and such patterns cause considerable problems with regards to forecasting and stock control due to their compound nature that renders the normality assumption invalid. Compound distributions have been used to model intermittent demand patterns; there is however a lack of theoretical analysis and little relevant empirical evidence in support of these distributions. In this paper, we conduct a detailed empirical investigation on the goodness of fit of various compound Poisson distributions and we develop a distribution-based demand classification scheme the validity of which is also assessed in empirical terms. Our empirical investigation provides evidence in support of certain demand distributions and the work described in this paper should facilitate the task of selecting such distributions in a real world spare parts inventory context. An extensive discussion on parameter estimation related difficulties in this area is also provided.

The Research on the Consuming Prediction of Military Aircraft Spare Parts

Aiming at the problem that the consuming-related factors of military aircrafts spare parts cant be revealed in the model, support vector machines (SVM) model was applied in the consuming prediction of spare parts. In the model, the main factors that affected spare parts consumption were taken as the input of SVM while the output was the consumption. Then, the test samples were input the trained model for prediction. The results show that, compared with GM (1,1) model and neural network model (ANN), the model has higher prediction accuracy and dynamic adaptability, which can provide some reference for the spare parts management sections.

Effectiveness of SLA Project with Spare Parts Management: The case of a telecom equipment industry

Managing a portfolio of customers of telecommunications equipment has several challenges, including the sales of the equipment itself, winning the contract for maintenance, but it is also to maintain the agreed level of service for this contract and give the customer required value to post-sale management. The primary objective of this paper is twofold: 1. Characterize the structure of the logistic cycle of spare parts for telecommunication equipment, underlining the importance of each process and the reasons, which require discipline in the control of every item in stock; 2. Verify the alignment between the decision makers concerning the choice of relevant criteria to assist the decision making on whether or not to acquire certain inventory items.

The Application of Personalized Service in the Equipment Sharing Platform

Aiming at the problems existing in the development of engineering machinery, engineering machinery personalized service model is established according to the analysis of the methods of personalized service. Personalized service system of engineering machinery is set up with the engineering mechanical personalization service model as the core, expounds the ways of the realization of each function subsystem, including intelligent equipment management subsystem, intelligent locks subsystem, spare parts management subsystem and training assessment subsystem. The system greatly satisfies the customers' demands for personalized service, it makes great contributions to improve the service level and promote the development of the whole engineering machinery industry.

Modern Vacuum Pumps for the Vacuum Degassing of Steel in Small and Large Vacuum-Degassing Units

This article discusses a new design for Roots pumps and screw pumps which uses hermetically sealed motors. The new pump is easy to maintain, alleviates wear, and increases safety, which makes it more reliable than traditional Roots pumps. The screw vacuum pumps operate within a wide range of pressures. Thanks to the absence of friction in the vacuum chamber and the use of special coatings on the working elements, these units can be used in place of water-ring and rotary vane pumps for the high-vacuum evacuation of gases and vapors of liquids (including aggressive liquids). In this case, the gas being pumped is not contaminated by water vapor or oil. The absence of friction elements in the vacuum chamber means that the unit requires almost no maintenance. The use of standardized pre-equipped modular building blocks reduces fabrication and installation/startup costs, makes the equipment more compact, and saves power, oil, and water compared to other systems. The small size of both types of pumps – which can be used in any configuration – not only shortens delivery times and simplifies spare-parts management but also facilitates equipment assembly or (if necessary) replacement. Attainment of the pumps’ rated productivity is assured by parallel connection of several compact modules. The mechanical pumps can be used for VID, VIM, VD, RH, VIT (vacuum ingot teeming), and VAR (vacuum-arc remelting) units, including units that perform vacuum-oxygen decarburization. The pumps’ design incorporates measures to protect against dust and water-vapor condensation, which can lead to the formation of acidic liquids. The pumps can be used in all types of vacuum processes – including processes that involve the injection of oxygen – while observing existing safety standards. The low inertial mass of the pumps helps them respond rapidly to frequency control, which facilitates the evacuation process. Redundant operation is provided for in all the pumping-unit configurations.

Applying ARIMA and Fuzzy Logic to Predict the Electricity Spare Parts Demand

With the development of power industry and the growth of high-voltage power equipments in electric power company, the supply and management of spare parts are becoming more complexity and onerous. This investigation proposed a hybrid method to effectively predict the requirements of electric spare parts utilizing fuzzy logic and ARIMA so as to provide as a reference of spare parts control. The forecasting methods are tested in an empirical, comparative study for an electric power company of China. The results show that the approach is one of the most accurate methods.

A Spare-Part Distribution Management Model for Diesel Engine Industry

Under the analysis of the current situation and existing problems related to the spare-part distribution management of diesel engine industry, especially the incoordination between service stations and agents, the paper establishes a model featured as the multi-level warehouse, with a view of integrating the information of the whole chain and all levels of diesel engine industry from global warehouse, marketing and basic data, and effectively solving the problems regarding the distribution management of diesel engine industry. In the end of the paper, the implementation of the model in a case company is specified.

Simulations on the Spare Parts Inventory Management of Equipment Maintenance in Manufacturing Enterprise Based on Flexsim

In order to promote inventory management level, against the existing problem of spare parts management currently, the spare parts inventory management system of an enterprise engaged in casting and mechanical operations was studied. First, the simulation software Flexsim was used to model the original system. Then for the purpose of optimizing the system, ABC classification was proposed. According to the comparison of simulation results before and after optimization, optimized model can effectively improve the efficiency of inventory management. This can provide the reference of spare parts management for the other companies.

Multi-echelon, multi-indenture spare parts inventory control subject to system availability and budget constraints

Inventory management of spare parts is one of the most critical issues in the aeronautical industry, given the required level of system availability related to the strategic importance and high stocking costs of the components. Even if a large number of spare parts increases warehousing costs, every single shortage have a greater impact: the adoption of best-in-class inventory management techniques becomes crucial. On these considerations, the paper presents an innovative model of spare parts allocation for the Italian Air Force with the aim of minimizing backorders and, at the same time, ensuring an availability of 99% depending on the actual flight plan. The model, solved by a marginal analysis, considers an original configuration of features combining different skills of maintenance centers in a hierarchical multi-echelon, multi-item, multi-indenture structure. A real case is provided in order to analyze the solving method and the results.

Research on Collaborative Management Strategy of Spare Parts Based on E-Marketplaces

Spare parts are a kind of protective materials for normal equipment maintenance and emergency treatment. Effective management of spare parts can not only guarantee the continuity and safety of production, but also improve the productivity. Firstly, the paper summarized the characteristics of spare parts and current problems existing in their management. Then it established the collaborative management model of spare parts around procurement management and inventory management of spare parts. Finally, the paper proposed the operation mode of collaborative management based on e-marketplaces – the third-party e-marketplace. Furthermore, there provided the functions and operation process of the third-party e-marketplace. Third-party e-marketplaces can realize the collaborative management of procurement and inventory through integrating members of the company alliance in horizon and associating suppliers with purchasers in vertical.

Preventive Maintenance Scheduling

In this work, the effectiveness of preventive maintenance scheduling (PMS) decisions was reported based on a techno-economic model that reflects cost objective function for ship maintenance activities. With a potential to impact on both transportation businesses and users of transportation services, the model provides an alternative to the combined classical literature problems of spare-parts inventory management and control, failure prediction and reliability. The PMS model developed incorporates separate and combined functions of indirect, direct and factor maintenance costs. Idleness period for various formulated schedules are evaluated and compared. First, a general form of the preventive maintenance cost function incorporating unit cost of maintaining ships, a set of cost function parameters and variables was developed. The operations research framework for the problem is then applied to obtain test cases in which cost parameter(s) was/were used for scheduling decisions. Monte Carlo simulation is applied to generate additional test problems. Practical data were used to validate the model. For each problem, optimal schedules based on one to four cost parameters were determined. For each schedule, the total maintenance cost, cost of idleness, total ship idle period and total ship operation period were computed under inflation, opportunity and combined opportunity and inflation and compared with the values corresponding to maintenance cost parameter using t-test (p<0.05). Thus, the use of combined data from maintenance, opportunity and inflation for preventive maintenance scheduling of a fleet of ships is more effective than direct maintenance cost approach.

An EOQ Based Multi-Storage Location of Spare Part Inventories: A Case Study

Spare parts inventory management is very important to ensure smooth operation of maintenance department. The main objectives of inventory management of spare parts are to ensure the availability of spares and materials for the maintenance tasks and increase the productivity of the maintenance department. This research centred on the development of the Computerised Inventory Management System (CIMS) for the maintenance team at Weida Integrated Industries Sdn. Bhd. The inventory management technique used to control the spare parts inventory in this research was the basic Economic Order Quantity models (EOQ). However, the CIMS developed is unique as it has the ability in handling inventories in multiple-storage locations. The CIMS was written using the Visual Basic 2010 software. This CIMS has the abilities to keep records and process the spare parts information effectively and faster besides helping the user to perform spare parts ordering tasks compared to the current manual recording. In addition, the ordering quantity and frequency for the CIMS is determined through the EOQ technique. However, observation indicates that the overall average inventory level currently at the factory is lower than the expected overall average inventory level produced by the CIMS. This is due to the fact that the CIMS was unable to consider the opening stock in ordering the inventories. Therefore, further improvements are needed to optimize the performance of the system such as using the EOQ with the reorder point technique, the periodic or continuous review system.

PDF417 Barcode and its Application in Aviation Spare Parts Management

The necessity of PDF417 barcode technology in application of aviation spare parts management is described. And through the careful requirement analysis and discussion the feasibility of automatic identification system for aviation spare parts management information barcode is also discussed. In addition, the development and design ideas of the production system and application system on PDF417 barcode are introduced. It can be included from the research that, the technology can effectively overcome the drawbacks such as error easiness, low efficiency that the manual input bring on in supply and management for aviation spare parts, and can realize the automatic identification, input and monitoring for aviation spare parts information.

Study and Identify on the Best Reserve Quota of Maintenance Spares

Identifying the reserve quota of maintenance spares is an important foundation work in spare parts management. The higher the reserve quota of maintenance spares, the higher the service level, accordingly, stock funds occupied more. It is also a kind of large waste for the enterprise. Therefore, it is becoming more importance for making the best reserve quota. In this work, it was based on the consuming law of maintenance spares that the mathematical model was established, so service level of maintenance conditions was identified according to that. The best reserve quota was identified depend on the relationship between service level of maintenance condition and the best service level.