A reliability-based methodology for resilient spare parts planning and control

Geo-political conflicts, financial crises, natural disasters, pandemics, human operational errors, and other disruptive events can affect supply chain integrity with unpredictable consequences. In addition, intermittent demand patterns and strict service requirements enhance the complexity of Spare Parts Supply Chains (SPSCs). SPSC resilience has become a significant challenge in today’s increasingly competitive business environment. This study presents a reliability-based methodology with a customer-oriented perspective to support industrial companies in spare parts planning and control. This original approach provides resilience to SPSCs by defining a statistical variable to study supply chain variabilities and externalities, aiding stockout risk control, and suggesting spare parts management plans. The application of the proposed methodology in a case study of a packaging machine company is illustrated.