Nieuw onderzoeksproject - Nieuws

Resilience in Circular Spare Part Inventory Management

Ahmadreza Marandi (a.marandi@tue.nl) & Rob Basten (r.j.i.basten@tue.nl)

In the domain of spare-part inventory management for capital goods, our research focuses on optimizing strategies that ensure uninterrupted machinery operation throughout its lifecycle. During this lifecycle, machinery components often encounter issues—some fail prematurely or deliver suboptimal performance, necessitating redesign.

Once a part undergoes redesign, planners confront a critical decision: how to handle the existing spare parts. Should they swiftly transition to the redesigned components, or should they gradually deplete the existing inventory? This decision significantly impacts both service continuity and costs. While customers advocate for new parts, companies recognize the value of circularity within the supply chain.

Moreover, as machines approach the end of their operational life, spare parts face the risk of obsolescence. The companies’ challenge lies in maintaining high service levels while optimizing spare-part storage.

Project Objective: Circular Inventory Systems

Our project aims to create a resilient circular spare-part inventory system for capital goods, considering the dynamic environment of part redesign. To achieve this, we will develop a comprehensive framework that incorporates the following critical goals:

1. Economic Efficiency: Minimizing costs associated with spare-part management.
2. Circularity: Enhancing sustainability by reducing waste and maximizing the reusability of spare parts.
3. Resilience: Ensure that inventory levels remain robust even in the case of disruptions in the system.

More explicitly, we aim to develop methodologies that rely on information on past failures, demand rate, usage rate, and the age of machinery. These methodologies consider the risk of obsolescence to provide optimal stocking strategies. Furthermore, they provide conditions on when to choose which approach to not only minimize cost but also maximize circularity while being resilient against disruptions in the spare part inventory system.

Industrial Support

We have specific expectations regarding external support. We require a company willing to provide an in-kind contribution of €90,000 over four years. To achieve this, we plan to supervise approximately two MSc theses per year. We need an unofficial response by the end of April and this commitment in writing by mid-May. Our planned start date for the project is January 2025.