The organization should have procedures to evaluate and determine the appropriate level of spare parts. The evaluation should include, but not be limited to, the following considerations:
- Maintenance agreements and its conditions (e.g. spares included, response/fix time).
- Supplier and/or manufacturers recommendations.
- Failure probability and its potential impact.
- Lead-time of spare purchase.
- Life expectancy of spares.
- Storage space and conditions.
- Cost of inventory holding.
Spare/replacement parts should be sourced from a reputable supplier if not from the original manufacturer.
The organization should maintain a list of all spare parts which are part of the organizational assets residing onsite and offsite. The list should be so that spares can be adequately and efficiently identified, located and managed throughout its life cycle.
The asset list should contain at least, but not be limited to, the following information:
- Unique identifier for each spare part type:
a) Where spare parts are subject to different sub-types (e.g. modified parts, different firmware versions) the unique identifier should be so that they can be distinguished appropriately.
- Description.
- Revision/Firmware version.
- Location.
- Vendor details.
- Date purchased.
- Warranty.
- Expected EOS (End Of Service) date.
- Where used.
