Industry Rises to Aftermarket Parts Challenges

摘要

Although spare parts planners haven't ex-actly resorted to casting runes or reading tea leaves to create their inventory fore-casts, the tools available to them have often been insufficient to the task. Managing aftermarket parts inventories is notoriously difficult because of unpredictable equipment failures, reverse logistics issues, stocking of refurbished equipment, and widely dispersed inventory locations. Service-level agreements with customers are also more complex; they now include contracted response times ranging from two days to two hours. More and more, companies are turning to a combination of logistics outsourcing and technology solutions. Service parts planners have a growing array of tools to choose from, on both the planning and execution fronts. And according to AMR Research, they spent $1.7 billion last year on parts management. Traditional vendors such as Servigistics, Baxter Planning Systems, and MCA Solutions have continued to grow their products and their businesses, and Xelus, which had been losing ground to its competitors, has realigned its product suite and added features.