The strategic role of spare parts availability and facility location on maintenance in industrial systems

The role of spare parts management and low turnaround parts and components in production systems is discussed by several research contributions as reported in the literature. A few studies explicitly measure the role and effects of spare parts management and fulfilment on performance and availability of complex production systems operating worldwide and eventually made of different facilities, service and maintenance providers included, located far away each one from each others. Aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of reducing replenishment and fulfilment spare parts lead times in order to increase the availability of a complex production system, reduce the cumulated downtime and related costs of lost production and maintenance actions. To this purpose a reliability based optimization model is presented. It is supported by the Monte Carlo simulation, a multi-scenario what-if analysis and an analytical cost based optimization model as proposed by the literature. The results demonstrate the significant criticality of logistics issues in spare parts control, planning and managing maintenance actions. In particular, the geographical location of production and storage facilities reveals the most critical factor affecting cost and performance of the maintenance system.