Spare Parts Inventory Management: A Literature Review

Shuai Zhang, Kai Huang and Yufei Yuan
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Shuai Zhang: Area of Operations Management, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S4M4, Canada
Kai Huang: Area of Operations Management, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S4M4, Canada
Yufei Yuan: Area of Information System, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S4M4, Canada

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-23

Abstract: Spare parts are held as inventory to support product maintenance in order to reduce downtime and extend the lifetime of products. Recently, spare parts inventory management has been attracting more attention due to the “right-to-repair” movement which requires that manufacturers provide sufficient spare parts throughout the life-cyle of their products to reduce waste so as to achieve sustainability. In this review, 148 papers regarding spare parts inventory management published from 2010 to 2020 are examined. The studies are classified based on two groups of perspectives. The first group includes the characteristics of spare parts, products, inventory systems, and supply chains, while the second group focuses on the characteristics of research methodologies and topics in the reviewed studies. The novelty of this literature review is three-fold. Firstly, we focus on analyzing the supply chain structure of different inventory networks for managing spare parts. Secondly, we classify the current literature based on analytics techniques, i.e., descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. Finally, the research gaps in this field are discussed from the perspective of reverse logistics, consumer durable goods, inventory network structure and policy, spare parts demand pattern modeling, and big data analytics.

Keywords: spare parts; inventory management; operations research; management science; supply chain sustainability; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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