Spare parts demand: Linking forecasting to equipment maintenance

Demand for spare parts is typically intermittent and forecasting the relevant requirements constitutes a very challenging exercise. Why is the demand for spare parts intermittent and how can we use models developed in maintenance research to forecast such demand? We attempt to answer these questions; we present a novel idea to forecast demand that relies upon the very sources of the demand generation process and we compare it with a well-known time-series method. We conclude that maintenance driven models are associated with a better performance under certain conditions. We also outline an inter-disciplinary agenda for further research in this area.

► We are concerned with the issue of forecasting spare parts requirements. ► We attempt to answer why the demand for spare parts is intermittent. ► We present a novel maintenance driven approach to forecast such demand. ► Our approach is found to perform very well under certain conditions. ► We also outline an inter-disciplinary agenda for further research in this area.