Spare parts inventory control under system availability constraints

Spare parts inventory is a difficult problem, including the supply chain elements of maintaining inventories of numerous spare parts. In today's global economy, spare parts are never next door, but can be across hemispheres. In addition to distance, the sheer volume of spare parts that are required to keep complex systems operational is huge - systems like the military, transportation, and industrial businesses include an immense number of separate parts many of which are worn out through use over time. Added to these complexities are the stochastic problems associated with budget constraints and the timing of maintaining inventory levels of the consumable spare parts of an operational system. SYSTEMS APPROACH TO BUDGET-CONSTRAINED SPARE PARTS MANAGEMENT develops a variety of multi-item models that optimize spare parts inventories so that target availability levels for specific systems and machine domains are met with minimal costs. The contributions of this systematic book treatment are as follows: Multi-item inventory models for the optimization of spare parts stock; Target availability levels for machines installed in the field are met against minimal costs for inventory holding of spare parts and for different forms of emergency shipments; Specific algorithms that produce optimal or close-to-optimal solutions for real-world problems; Case applications are provided for all of the primary types of models; Insights are developed for strategic decisions shipping decisions and these decisions are explored for possible critical-level policies (rationing policies) in situations with multiple classes of customers.