Inventory/Stores Management

Inventory/Stores Management Overview

Establishing and stocking a spare parts store is an expensive and time-consuming activity for many companies, the money tied up in stock can be 40%-50% of the maintenance budget.

Managing spare parts can seem to be a daunting task, which can be eased by using a computer software package (most CMMSs have an inventory management module); this can be used to record all spare parts, their locations, purchase and usage. This way, technicians know exactly what parts they'll need for a repair or preventive maintenance task, where those parts are and how to use them.

Inventory/Stores Management Approach

Maintaining optimal inventory requires tracking usage data and inventory costs, order history and issues against work orders.

Effective stores and inventory management depends on a small number of key steps:

• Defining common standard to describe each item

• Deciding the stock policies (stock/no stock)

• Setting stock levels and reorder quantities

• Managing the issue and return of parts

Historically, few companies had these steps in place; hence there is generally an overstocking situation with duplicate, obsolete and redundant items. MCP can provide a complete stores and inventory improvement programme which covers:    

• Data cleansing and parts standardisation

• Data mining, standardisation, validation and enrichment

• Parts and materials classification

• Spare parts evaluation/inventory listings

• Stock replenishment policies - min/max stocking levels

• Building Bills of Materials (BOM) for assets

• Warehouse design and management processes development

• Spare parts analysis

• De-duplication cleansing of stock lists

• Disposal of excess stock inventory

Inventory/Stores Management Benefits

We support our clients to employ appropriate stores management techniques to optimise availability versus costs.

The benefits include:

• Improved demand forecasting to allow for optimised inventories

• Optimised target inventories (holding cost vs. ordering cost vs. service)

• Tactical stock location(s) and picking strategies

• Optimised stores design, layout, materials handling practices and workflows

• Stores management system requirements/specifications

• Safety stock requirements to meet specified service targets

• Stores automation and materials handling systems

• Dynamic inventory targets reflecting varying demand patterns

• ‘Cost to serve’ modelling to support the optimised solution