SPAROpt™ - Spare Parts Optimization

For any maintenance task - inspections, repairs, and preventative - spare parts provisioning is mission-critical. With irregular maintenance the rule and not the exception, lack of materials and parts are the most frequent cause of maintenance delays. These delays cost businesses in both production downtime and lost potential business - and can't always be avoided through raising stock levels.

To address these challenges, more and more organizations are turning to predictive modeling to more effectively forecast maintenance demands - to keep key business processes and functions up and running for maximum productivity.

The Best of Both Worlds

Traditionally, there are two methodologies for optimizing resources - analytical methods and simulation - each with their inherent deficiencies.

SPAROpt's unique self-learning hybrid approach leverages the best of both methodologies. Based on the SPAR platform's highly-accurate simulation capabilities, SPAROpt solves optimization problems by analyzing simulation output - providing rapid and accurate answers.

SPAROpt Benefits

Quick and accurate answers
Unique hybrid analytic/simulation approach
Cost vs. performance tradeoffss
Easy-to-use User Interface
Insightful output

How it Works

Based on the following parameters, SPAROpt performs spare part optimization:

A SPAR Model – simulates the near-to-reality operation and target performance of the system, and creates a set of system reliability parameters.
A Cost Profile – cost of purchasing and logistics of spares of each type in the model
Optimization Control Parameters – optional parameters that determine the resolution of the optimization process

SPAROpt's GUI consists of two main forms that display the same optimization information in two ways, on a Cost-Effectiveness Graph and in Stock Effectiveness & Sparing Strategy Tables.

Cost-Effectiveness Graph -- This intuitive visualization is easily understandable, and allows decision makers to examine the relationship between cost of spares and overall availability.

Figure 1: Unavailability vs. Cost Graph

Stock Effectiveness & Sparing Strategy Tables -- this format identifies which spares contribute most to system unavailability, and ranks spares by their “bang for the buck” - ultimately presenting the most cost effective sparing strategy

Figure 2: Stock Effectiveness and Sparing Strategy Table

Additional SPAROpt Output

In addition to optimizing spare parts for cost effectiveness, SPAROpt also provides such key information as spares availability, total spares cost, inherent system unavailability, and wait-time for spares.

SPAROpt Advantages

Quantifying the relationship between cost of spares and system performance is the key of making cost-effective decisions. The unique SPAROpt approach helps accurately analyze the tradeoffs between these issues. Featuring a powerful GUI, flexible inputs and insightful outputs, SPAROpt can help improve bottom line quickly and easily, allowing:

Minimizing cost of reaching a system performance goal
Maximizing system performance with a given spares budget
Performing sensitivity studies to examine how changes in cost data affect the optimized spares policy
Running unconstrained optimization - generating a ranked spares effectiveness table

For more information, download the following selected documents from our Information Center:

SPAROpt v1 Product Announcement SPAR and Spare Parts Optimization
The Monte Carlo Method and Optimization of Spare Parts in Complex Systems

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