The optimization of the management of spares stocks makes a key contribution to the performance of after-sales activity and the maintenance of systems in operational order, both from the economic perspective and in terms of the availability of equipment.

There are several steps in the optimization of the performance of the spare parts supply chain:

• the service offer, which represents the promise made to the customer, often needs to be revised in order to precisely meet the customer’s expectations. This step helps to avoid the most common problems:
  • insufficient questioning of the actual value delivered to the customer and falling short of the real expectations,
  • insufficient segmentation of the clientele,
  • no control of the service costs and customer profitability,
  • difficulty in delivering a satisfactory service rate in comparison with the offers.
• the logistics network and stocks policy are then defined simultaneously in order to support the service offers:
  • structure and location of the nodes of the distribution network and the associated trading zones, in order to minimize the overall cost (including taxes, in certain cases),
  • location and size of the stocks according to the consumption, cost and criticality of each product and the lead time and service rate targets,
  • analysis of stock / service sensitivity required to optimize the service rate with limited stocks and at the lowest possible cost, and to determine the optimal overall compromise.
• sales forecasting is an important process in the spare parts supply chain. It must cover:
  • the high volumes of part numbers to be managed,
  • the erratic nature of sales, using sophisticated statistical calculations,
  • exceptional incidents (technical, quality, business, etc.),
  • analysis of causal factors and their prediction (e.g.: the link between the number of flying hours / landings and the sale / consumption of parts),
  • changes in the installed base (and its different operational configurations),
  • changes to articles all through their life cycle (interchangeability, etc.),
  • the various sales and consumption channels (sales of replacement spares, own consumption by repair centers, sales to affiliates),
  • the link with stocks of repaired parts and changes in the “repair or replace” policy.
• the operational control processes (forecasts, procurement, deployment, deliveries, etc.), roles and responsibilities and the organization of the teams (forecasters, order managers, logistics managers, etc.) must all be adapted to the types of service offer and the customer's demands (especially in terms of lead time: AOG, delivery in 24h, in 48h, in several weeks, locally, regionally, nationwide, worldwide, etc.),
• finally, three aspects of the life cycle of parts must be controlled:
  • regulations and safety,
  • technical (possible interchangeability, upgrade policy, mapping with the configurations of systems in operation and their modification, etc.),
  • commercial (compulsory upgrade?, total or partial coverage of the upgrade costs, impact on the total cost of ownership for the customer).

Argon Consulting can help its customers to optimize their spare parts supply chain, from the diagnostic and definition of the target, to support with operational implementation.

• formal definition of the customer’s expectations and the target service offer,
• design of the distribution logistics network and the stock policy (models and tools),
• definition of the supply chain processes (forecasting, distribution, procurement, etc.), of the organization and the roles and responsibilities,
• support with the implementation of IS tools (APS),
• definition of the means of managing the life cycle of parts and subassemblies.