Keep an eye on the parts: design and implementation of a computerized spare parts inventory control system at Fokker Services

Spare parts inventory control is essential to aircraft service organizations, since excess inventory leads to high holding costs, while insufficient inventory has a great impact on the repair performance. Given factors like demand intermittence, part obsolescence, part interdependency, repair complexity, coupled with high service levels, a detailed assessment was carried out at Fokker Services B.V. Schiphol regarding the current inventory management. The aim of this project was to design and implement a computerized system to support inventory controllers with stock control. A simple (s, Q) control policy was chosen, and fill rate as a customer service measurement was proposed to determine safety stock levels. Demand characteristic was simulated by Compound Poisson or Gamma distribution based on parts classification. Further, as the outputs of the redesign, stock availability and statistic repair Bill-of-Material are inputs to the high level planning concept. The system has the capability to present different scenarios related to control parameters, and the possibility of data exchange with the company information system Pentagon 2000.