The importance of 'critical' spares to your business

A Dematic White Paper
 
Consider this scenario, you are in a breakdown situation, a pallet has collapsed and damaged a gearbox on a critical conveyor line. It is a peak production period and there is an important sales promotion in the stores, you can't miss this planned shipment. Your technicians have stripped down the conveyor, they've identified the damaged part and gone to the spare parts store to retrieve the replacement. However, where a fully serviceable replacement gearbox should be, there is an empty space on the shelf.

 
We've all been there, despite investing in your technicians' education, training them to proactively maintain your equipment, respond effectively to a breakdown situation, you still find yourself in danger of missing that key promotion which may result in facing penalties and of course facing the wrath of your customer. Availability of spares, or more accurately the 'non-availability' of spares, is still the most common cause of poor  equipment performance. Of course there might be options to obtain a replacement quickly or perhaps repair the damaged gearbox, but what is an acceptable period of unplanned downtime to your business?

So your Operations Department don't accept unplanned downtime, they have targets to meet and without a spare gearbox on the shelf waiting to be fitted, your short term ability to return to equipment availability is somewhat hindered.
 
All eyes are on you in this situation, after all you are responsible for delivering system availability. Of course, it isn't only gearboxes which can be critical, any spare part becomes critical when you need it the most and the cost of stocking that critical spare can become insignificant in this hypothetical situation.
 
As the term suggests, 'Critical' spares will have a serious impact on your system should they fail during operation, therefore by investing in these items to hold locally, you are reducing your risk of prolonged system downtime.
 
Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), reorder point planning, and stock service levels are not always appropriate in this low volume scenario. When planning a spares package for an automated materials handling system, you are not considering holding eight or ten pieces in stock, you often have to consider stocking one piece or nothing at all. The luxury of having a back-up for a back-up is not always financially viable, therefore there is more focus on accurate stock management and some assurance your stock is serviceable when you need it.
 
Stocking all spare parts isn't always the answer, a challenge to any business with production equipment includes ensuring availability, managing maintenance cost by stocking the right parts and dealing with the consequences of a stock-out effectively as a well-considered business risk. What is important to you, is investing in the right stock for your operation and ensuring effective management of your spare parts stores. These two activities alone are vital if you are to reduce your exposure to stock-out situations and the subsequent impact of prolonged system downtime to your business' operation.
 
Are you sure you are stocking the right parts? Are you sure of your stock accuracy? Are you sure all your stock parts are serviceable? Can you answer 'Yes' to all of these questions? If not, consider investing in an Initial Spare Parts Package if you haven't already done so. If you have existing stock, invite external experts to review your system needs, provide some professional advice and recommend best practice for the management of spare parts. Consider a spare parts stock audit to ensure what you think you have in stock is on the shelf in a serviceable condition. If you haven't implemented a CMMS or stock management system, perhaps now is the time to consider one.
 
Don't delay, act now, reduce the risk to your business.