Demand Control Loops for a Global Spare Parts Management

Abstract

Abstract. Timely, reliable supply of customers with spare parts is a key factor for business success in many branches. In the field of aviation the competition and cost pressures in the MRO sector (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) increased strongly in recent decades. Large maintenance organizations offer component pooling services for aircraft operators. A main challenge in the processes of MRO service providers is the calculation of the optimal stock level for pool components. The basis of an optimal inventory planning for the supply of spare parts is the quality of the demand input parameters used for the calculation. This paper describes the processes and the challenges of the MRO spare parts management as well as the approaches of a research project to face these challenges.

Determination of the Spare Parts Demand for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Service Providers

“…[11], [15] In the context of the spare parts supply the determination of the spare parts demand is a major challenge, especially for service providers. [14], [17] This is caused by a variety of different aspects. The primary products in the aviation industry have very long life cycles.…”

“…Different impact factors regarding spare parts demand are mentioned in literature. These impact factors can be assigned to the primary product, the spare part itself, the maintenance strategy or to the market situation and other surroundings [13], [17]. For simplicity, in the following part the focus will be on a limited number of impact factors.…”

“…With the values determined in the training set, the resulting changes in the test set are calculated. [17] The deviation between the actual changes and the calculated changes is used as a measure for the quality of forecast. This is done for each hierarchical alternative and each reliability parameter.…”