Why is service part logistics inherently difficult? This paper explores the challenges in managing service parts, essential for maintaining industrial systems and consumer products. It addresses the limitations of common inventory management models due to different demand processes and scarce demand data. It is a problem relevant to many industries. The study discusses experiences from case studies of practical stock control techniques, highlighting new concepts for managing slow-moving parts. It proposes strategies such as suppliers leasing service parts and standardizing parts across machines or industry sectors. An approach of a “broker” between suppliers and customers makes inventories transparent and facilitates parts pooling. These techniques aim to reduce the problem of slow-moving parts and improve the efficiency of service part logistics.
International Journal of Operations & Production Management explores improvements in production and operations. This article fits this topic by addressing the challenges in service parts management and proposes new stock control techniques to mitigate these challenges, leading to improvements in efficiency and effectiveness of service operations.