SURVEY ON PRACTICES FOLLOWED IN SPARE PARTS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IN MINING INDUSTRY.

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 3 SURVEY ON PRACTICES FOLLOWED IN SPARE PARTS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IN MINING INDUSTRY. 3.1: Introduction: A survey was carried out to understand the present practices followed by the various Mining companies in Hospet- Bellary region to know the scope of improvement required in the Spare parts Inventory Management 3.2: Data Collection: The detail of the questionnaire prepared to know the practice followed in Spare parts Inventory management by mines in Hospet - Karnataka is attached at Annexure : Summary of the Data: The summary of the data collected is attached at Annexure : Findings of the survey: On analyzing the survey report, it was observed that Financial norm for spare parts inventory: Out of 22 companies surveyed, none of the company was found having financial norms for limiting the spare parts inventory per machine.

2 Spare Parts Planning: The pie chart given below shows the percentages of companies who carried out spare parts planning and who do not carry out spare parts planning or who occasionally do the planning. Graph 3.1 Spare parts planning carried out by companies. Spare Parts Planning carried out by companies 81.83% 13.63% Do not plan Occasionally plan Plan 4.54% Out of 22 companies, only one company had a system of spare parts requirement planning. i.e. hardly 4.5% percentages of the companies carry out spare parts requirement % companies did not have any spare parts requirement planning system. Only three companies occasionally plan the spares requirement. Spare parts requirement planning was grossly neglected

3 by the management of the companies. The same is shown above by the pie chart. Spare Parts Stocking Levels: The Pie chart given below shows the percentage of companies who maintained the stocking levels and who did not maintain stocking levels. Graph 3.2 Setting up of stocking levels by companies. Setting up of Stocking Levels by companies 90.91% 9.09% Do not maintain ROL Maintain ROL 2 out of 22 companies i.e % of the companies maintain minimum, reorder and maximum levels to control the spare parts inventory. Remaining % companies do not maintain stocking levels. In the absence of spare

4 parts requirement planning and stocking levels, there is practically no control on the inventory of spare parts stocked by the companies. Inventory control techniques like ABC/VED/FSN implemented by the companies: The following bar chart shows the percentage of companies who had not implemented inventory control techniques like ABC/ FSN/VED analysis. Graph 3.3 Implementation of Inventory Control Techniques by Companies. Implementation of inventory control techniques by companies % 86.36% 90.00% Percentage of companies 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 13.63% Not implemented any Inventory control techniques Implemented FSN analysis techniques 10.00% 0.00% Not implemented any Inventory control techniques Implemented FSN analysis techniques

5 It can be seen from the above bar chart that % of the companies did not carry out any inventory control techniques like ABC or FSN or VED analysis. Only13.63% companies have classified items into FSN category. Spare Parts Inventory carried by the company: The below bar chart shows the percentage of companies who were holding very high spare parts inventory and the percentage of companies who were holding low inventory. Inventory held by companies. Graph 3.4 Inventory held by companies % Percentage of companies % 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 95.45% High Inventory Low Inventory 20.00% 4.55% 0.00% High Inventory Low Inventory

6 It is observed that % of the companies had very high inventory. The spare parts inventories stocked by these companies were very high as compared to the consumption of the spares. Retrieving of old / worn-out spares: The below bar chart shows the percentages of the companies who had spare parts repair facility and the companies which did not have repair facility. Graph 3.5 Spare parts retrieving facility at the companies % 90.00% Spare parts retrieving facility at the companies 86.36% Percentage of companies 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 13.64% Don t have spare parts retriving facility Have spare parts retriving facility 0.00% Don t have spare parts retriving facility Have spare parts retriving facility

7 It can be seen from above that 86.36% of the companies did not have spare parts repairing or retrieving facility. The maintenance jobs were given on contract basis and the contractors did not own the responsibility to repair or retrieve the spares. The contractor opted for replacement of worn- out spares with new spares. Only 13.64% of the companies had spare parts retrieving facility. Machine maintenance and availability: Most of the companies did not have proper records of time spend on maintenance of the machines and availability of the machines for operations. Service level: 31.81% of the companies claimed below 40% service level by the stores departments in spite of very high inventory. 3.5: Conclusion: It was found that 95.45% companies had very high inventory due to lack of spare parts planning. These companies did not have any financial limit for stocking spare parts inventory per machine. The spare parts were procured and stocked as per the recommendation of OEM without checking any consumption pattern. There were no checks or reviews made by the management on the requisition of spares or inventory stocked by the companies. The play safe tendency by the managers under the fear of breakdown or stock-outs resulted in overstocking of spares.

8 While procuring new spares, it is important that the company should introduce necessary checks so as to ensure that the inventory is not blocked in slow moving and unwanted spares, which will block the funds of the organization and lead to wasteful expenditure. In order to control and reduce the spare parts inventory, these companies should implement spare parts planning and control systems. The companies should set up stocking levels, implement inventory control techniques like FSN, ABC and VED analysis and pay adequate attention to review and monitor spare parts inventory. Care should also be taken to avoid losses due to obsolescence, unmoved stock or excess stock of items.