Service, Aftermarket, and MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) parts inventories generally exhibit a wide range of behaviors, from fast-moving consumables to extremely slow-moving and even obsolete stock. Criticality of each part varies as well. Some parts require ready availability to avoid a work stoppage, while others can be buy-to-order.

Distributors are typically trying to manage thousands or hundreds of thousands of SKU/location combinations. With this many parts to handle and a lack of powerful tools, companies with these inventories often have too many of the wrong parts. The end result is unnecessary inventory expense, while still feeling the pain of service limiting stock-outs.

Manual spreadsheet-based efforts to mitigate the situation typically fail because of the time-intensive nature of the problem. This type of planning process is not well suited for high inventory mix, many slow movers, and complex distribution networks. Sales and customer service teams are frequently frustrated when they cannot generate the customer service levels that they desire. Whether you are planning for one location, multiple locations, or a hub-and-spoke supply chain, service parts planning can be an overwhelming task.

• Consistently dealing with a large number of parts exhibiting sporadic demand
• Setting accurate safety stock levels-especially for parts with low and infrequent sales
• Difficulty in accurately forecast future demand
• Setting and maintaining thousands of min/max levels
• Excess and/or obsolete inventory
• Incorrect mix of inventory items
• Material shortages and stock-outs
• Accurately maintaining manual forecasting and replenishment processes
• Outsourced manufacturing – long lead times to acquire product
• Short product life cycles

• Demand Manager – forecasting, safety stock, and reorder point planning
• Requirements Planner – advanced supply planning, optimization, and PO generation
• Economic Order Manager – Economic Order Quantity, ABC analysis, and service level goals
• Exception Signals – exception based management of both supply and demand streams
• Supply Base Manager – vendor lead time performance management

• Sales & Operations Planning -connect organizational strategy with operations
• Demand Collaboration Portal -collaborative forecast facilitation tool

• Read some of our success stories in Service Parts
• Download RockySoft product literature
• Contact us to request more information
• Contact us to schedule a demonstration of the Pack Light Inventory Management Suite®

• Paul MacHenry
• Red Hawk (golfcart.com)
• Nissan Trading Corporation, USA
• FastCo
• Spartan Chassis
• US AutoParts