Following points, guidelines are to be taken into consideration and put into practice for making spare parts management successful.
1. Codification of spare parts is a must. This ensures that the same item is not held in stock under different headings. Since many items of spares lie in stock for a long time, identification of such spares after passage of time becomes more difficult in the absence of codification.
2. Overhaul and replacement schedules should be obtained from the maintenance department well in advance so that purchase action is initiated and completed in time.
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3. For fast moving consumables, spare parts consumption can and must be the basis for replenishment. Long term rate contracts can be arranged for such spares specifying staggered (phased) deliveries.
4. At the time of providing a major new facility (equipment) spares can be obtained from the supplier of reasonable unit costs. If insufficient quantity is procured at that time, the cost of buying the additional quantity later is substantially higher because of the heavy set up cost.
5. Calculated risks have to be taken in determining the quantity of spares to be ordered and kept in stock based on past experience and other factors. Such decisions must be supported by the top management. If something has gone wrong, questions such as, who prevented you to buy 4 instead of 3?” should not be asked otherwise the effect is positively demoralising.
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6. History cards should be maintained showing the consumption of spares correlating it to the age of the equipment.
7. The Japanese method of materials management is ‘just in time’ against the ‘just in case’ method used elsewhere. The latter one to buy up every part of the machine and stock it. This ultimately results in the computer throwing up lists of items not moved for 3 to 4 years or even more.
8. Most spare parts, whether indigenous or imported, are proprietary in nature. Proprietary purchases are inevitable initially when new equipment is introduced. But as soon as possible other sources of supply of spares must be developed or alternatively the user should try to make them in his own shop.
9. Money can be saved by reconditioning or repairing some of the worn out items e.g., worn out shafts can be machined to smaller diameter shafts, broad gauge axles of railway wagons, coaches or locomotives can be converted to metre gauge axles and metre gauge axles to narrow gauge axles.
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10. Standardisation of equipments helps in reducing the variety of spares to be stocked.
11. Inspection of spares is usually left to the manufacturers, whilst there is little choice in respect of proprietary spares. It should be possible for the organisation to impact spares which are bought to their own drawings and specifications. Such inspection will place the supplier on the alert.
12. Purchasers need not be carried away by the manufacturer’s catalogues or list prices. Substantial discounts over the list prices are possible through perseverance.
13. Usually complete equipment is supplied comparatively cheaper than the spares. The spares are priced much more higher— sometimes many times more than their true cost. It may be profitable to buy a few complete equipments which may be disassembled as spares.
14. Hundred percent protection (service level) would mean carrying infinite stocks. Therefore, no organisation should lay down a policy of avoiding any stock out.
15. Sometimes plants suffer incalculable loss because a spare part was not replaced when it should have been. Techniques of condition monitoring through vibration analysers, noise level meters and other sophisticated equipments can help in detecting incipient failures.
16. Proper preservation methods must be adopted for spares as quite a few of them have to remain in stock for long.