Although not always recognized, the supply chain area in mining companies plays a key role to guarantee the continuity of the operation. The lack of spare parts or supplies in a plant could paralyze production for several days, causing great losses to the business. On the other hand, limited resources prevent from holding all materials in stock and with high safety stocks. For these reasons, companies are focused on finding the optimal balance between service level and inventory cost, in order to improve competitiveness and at the same time ensure the continuity of their operation.As a purchasing department, the main task is to manage the uncertainty in demand and in supply, in order to maximize availability with an optimal investment in inventory level. This is a daily challenge as the assortment is huge and consists of all kinds of demand patterns, especially materials that are very low rotating (or non-movers) and at the same time are critical to the production process. In addition, most of the suppliers have long lead times and the average cost per item, is high. To have an inventory level that allows us to satisfy the demand for materials, at minimum cost, it is necessary to implement an Inventory Strategy Matrix. This matrix is a result of the translation of the business strategy into tactics, where each item can obtain a differentiated inventory strategy, according to its criticality and demand profile. This matrix helps to understand where we need to control the uncertainty, where collaboration is extremely important and which ones can be managed automatically. The main objective of this Whitepaper is to present tools and methodologies that will help optimize the inventory management for the supply area in the mining industry. This translates into a decrease in stock breaks by up to 50 %, at the same time that the value of assets is lowered by 20 % and the obsolescence of articles decreases significantly. For this purpose, we will explain a strategy that has helped other companies with similar challenges.
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