2020 7th International Conference on Frontiers of Industrial Engineering
Optimizing Maintenance Spare Parts Re-ordering Process Using Computerized
Maintenance Management System
Kimuel Kier Mercado Rosita, Michael Nayat Young
School of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
Mapúa University
658 Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila 1002, Philippines
e-mail: kkmrosita@mymail.mapua.edu.ph, mnyoung@mapua.edu.ph
Abstract—Running an efficient and effective inventory
management system is critical for reducing a firm’s
maintenance costs and ensuring maximum, sustainable
production. However, establishing and sustaining the system
can be challenging, given the complex and tedious processes
involved. The computerized maintenance management system
software provides firms with a vital tool for optimizing their
maintenance spare parts reordering processes. This paper
demonstrates that the software helps maintenance managers to
perform the necessary ABC-XYZ calculations accurately and
make timely entry of counts, hence minimizing costly
equipment downtime. In this regard, the tool enables firms to
run smoothly and produce maximally. However, proper staff
training, and the definition of ground rules are critical for the
successful implementation of a CMMS-based inventory
management system.
Keywords-computerized maintenance management system
software; optimizing; maintenance spare parts
I. INTRODUCTION
Keeping an inventory of spare parts is critical for
ensuring that a manufacturing plant effectively meets the
demand of its maintenance system. Preventive maintenance
or operational failures can cause a rise in demand, which
may worsen and become costly if the necessary spare parts
are not available in time [1]. Unavailability of the essential
spare parts can also extend the plant’s idle time. On the other
hand, stocking excessive spares can involve huge capital and
contribute to high inventory holding costs. The plant’s
overall maintenance cost would thus skyrocket when more
spare parts are stocked. In this regard, there is a direct
correlation between a farm’s spare parts supply system and
the cost associated with its maintenance activity. Ensuring
optimal maintenance of the spare parts inventory is thus
critical for enhancing the efficiency of a firm’s production
system [1]. However, the maintenance spare parts are often
characterized by an inventory provisioning policy that is
unique from the others. The plant’s maintenance system
often plays a determinant role in the level of inventory
adopted by the firm in reordering its maintenance spare parts.
A manufacturing plant undergoes different types of
maintenance, including preventive maintenance and
corrective maintenance. In most cases, the corrective
maintenance tends to be very costly for the firm in
978-1-7281-0634-2/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 104
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA. Downloaded on February 12,2023 at 00:03:59 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
occasioning unwanted machine downtime. Preventive
maintenance is thus performed to avert the costs associated
with machine breakdown and increased machine uptime.
However, it can also be costly for the firm in terms of
overhead costs. Therefore, an optimized re-ordering of
maintenance spare parts can help a plant regularly schedule
its cycle counts, reduce its annual maintenance costs,
downtime, and improve its operational efficiency. The
computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)
provides an essential tool with which the firm can optimize
its maintenance spare parts re-ordering and foster a proactive
maintenance strategy. Therefore, the overarching aim of this
research paper is to demonstrate the potential of CMMS in
improving a firm’s supply chain management for spare parts.
II. COMPUTERIZED MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM
The CMMS, also referred to as enterprise Asset
management (EAM), is an essential software that simplifies
maintenance management. It helps in coordinating the
activities of complex processes such as supply chain
management and maintenance management. Being a
computerized tool, CMMS enables a firm to store its
maintenance data on a computer. Besides, as a maintenance
tool, it facilitates an on-demand response for a work order
for a breakdown in a firm’s operational processes. CMMS is
also a maintenance management software that gives the firm
an immediate insight into the status of its maintenance needs
with elaborate work order schedules and accurate inventory
forecasts. It improves maintenance reliability and
performance [2]. Moreover, the software facilitates instant
access to a wide range of insightful plant maintenance and
management reports. As a system, CMMS offers several
integrated maintenance and management solutions, which
the firm can utilize to enhance its operational efficiency and
effectiveness. Therefore, the CMMS software enables a
manufacturing plant to minimize equipment downtime,
lower its maintenance costs, increase the life of
manufacturing equipment, increasing productivity. Besides,
it enhances work order management, improves inventory
management, generates custom reports, and facilitates
scheduling of preventive maintenance. A firm that adopts the
software can also make data-driven decisions and comply
with the necessary safety standards. Existing empirical
 evidence suggests that the software can play a significant III. OPTIMIZED MAINTENANCE SPARE PARTS RE-
role in improving inventory management processes’ ORDERING PROCESS
efficiency and effectiveness.
Spare parts inventory management is a complex
Inventory management of spare parts for manufacturing
phenomenon that may occasion a nightmare of holdups,
equipment is a critical process for a firm’s overall
equipment downtime, and production losses. However, if
productivity. (Teixeira, Lopes and Figueiredo, 2017)
undertaken effectively, it can support the efficient running of
conducted a case study to develop a spare parts classification
a firm’s maintenance activities, fostering cost-effective
for integration in a CMMS of a manufacturing entity. The
production processes [6]. In this regard, maintenance
research established that the software could help a company
managers need to have a good idea of the most critical
optimize its complex spare parts inventory management
machines for their firm’s operations. They need to strike a
process, hence minimizing costly equipment downtime and
balance between stocking essential spare parts and keeping
improving production efficiency. It enhances the spare parts
low inventory values as much as possible. Lower inventories
management system’s ability by integrating the two essential
help a firm to minimize its monetary values held up in spare
components of maintenance and logistics; hence, enhancing
parts stock, hence easing up cash flow for other production
a firm’s inventory decision-making processes. The software
activities. Doing so requires the managers to analyze their
can also serve as a vital quantitative, and qualitative
maintenance management systems using integrated real-time
classification tool forms spare parts inventory management
data. The CMMS software thus creates a vital opportunity
[3]. Existing empirical literature corroborates the notion that
for optimizing a firm’s spare parts inventory management
the CMMS software can improve a firm’s production
process. It serves as an essential tool for determining a firm’s
efficiency. For example, [4] investigated CMMS’s effect on
critical assets, thus facilitating cost-effective preventive
the critical assets of a cement manufacturing plant between
maintenance. With the help of the software, the firm can
2013 and 2015. The assets assessed by the researchers
accurately identify the necessary parts for the smooth
included limestone crusher (LC), kiln (KI), and cement mill
running of its manufacturing assets [6]. Identification of a
(CM). They adopted production losses (PL), plant reliability
firm’s critical maintenance spare parts is thus one of the
factor (RF), and the number of stoppages for incidents (NSI)
critical functions that a plant can perform using the CMMS
as key performance indicators (KPIs) for the evaluation
tool.
activity. The results shown in Table 1 indicate that the
Once the critical parts are identified, the next task is to
implementation of CMMS software in the subject firm
categorize them in terms of their priority to the firm’s
improved the plant reliability factor for all the three assets
efficient operation. The ABC-XYZ analysis method is one of
evaluated in the study – LC, CM, and KI during the research
the techniques that maintenance managers can employ in
period.
classifying identified critical spare parts [7]. The ABC-XYZ
TABLE I. PLANT RELIABILITY FACTOR FOR LC, CM, AND KI DURING inventory control and management method are based on
2013-2015 [4] the ”80/20 rule” or the Pareto Principle. As illustrated in the
Firm’s Assets Plant Reliability Factor
example in Fig. 1, the ABC analysis focuses on an identified
2013 2014 2015 part’s value, while the XYZ considers its forecastability.
Limestone 46 51 59
crusher (LC)
Cement Mill 76 79 88
(CM
Kiln (KI) 86 88 92

The plant’s production losses also reduced from 22.5

million to 19.37 million dollars between 2013 and 2015. The
study’s KPIs indicated that the implementation of the
CMMS software in the case firm improved its maintenance
performance function during the research period [4]. Thus,
these results demonstrate the significance of the software in
minimizing a plant’s maintenance costs and improving its
production efficiency. It is an invaluable tool with which a
manufacturing plant can cost-effectively manage its
maintenance processes by tracking various categories of
maintenance costs, including spare parts. CMMS allows for
the full tracking of spare parts and their automatic re-
ordering using the purchasing function [5]. Therefore, in
light of the above, exploring the software’s potential in
facilitating an optimized maintenance spare parts re-ordering
process for a plant is of the essence.
Figure 1. An ABC-XYZ inventory classification model [7].
The illustration in Figure 1 indicates that the AX parts are
valuable and have a constant demand compared to AZ items
whose demand is sporadic despite having high sales value.
Therefore, it would make sense for a maintenance manager
to treat the AX items differently from the AZ ones. From the
Pareto Principle perspective, the use of the ABCXYZ
method for the management of a firm’s maintenance spare
parts inventory is underpinned by the assumption that
completing 80 percent of the repairs 20 percent of the

105

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA. Downloaded on February 12,2023 at 00:03:59 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 available critical parts. Understanding how to perform the
ABC analysis is thus necessary. The ABC analysis entails a
comprehensive review of the maintenance spare parts
inventory, then labeling them as A, B, C. Table 2 describes
the classification of parts under the ABC model.
TABLE II. THE ABC ANALYSIS [9]
Spare parts Description
classification
As shown in fig.2, A parts account for 80 percent of
A all the consumed parts, yet require 20 percent or less of
inventory stock. the A items are essential and, in some
cases, business-critical. they are characterized by a high
sales value [9]
Fig. 2, shows that B parts constitute about 25 percent
B of repairs usage, but consumes about 30 percent of a
firm’s inventory stock [9]. The B items level of
importance falls between A parts and C parts. They are
mid-range in terms of both inventory and demand.
C parts constitute about 5 percent of users but account
C for about 50 percent of the firm’s inventory stock [9].
They are characterized by low inventory value.
Therefore, in light of the descriptions in Table 2, parts are
essential inventories, while the B parts are moderately
important. The C parts, on the other hand, are relatively
unimportant items. A visual display of the breakdown of the
ABC classification system is shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 2. An example of ABC analysis graph [9].
As shown in Fig. 2, the spare parts account for 80 percent
of the parts necessary for repairs, yet they only constitute 20
percent of the firm’s inventory stock. Therefore, they must
be replenished most frequently compared to the B and C
parts. Besides, the ABC analysis, the inventory management
system also involves XYZ analysis, which primarily focuses
on maintenance costs. The categorization of spare parts into
X, Y, and Z requires maintenance managers to perform
several tasks. For example, they have to identify the critical
parts for inclusion in the analysis and calculate the
variation’s coefficient for each part. It is worth noting that
the coefficient of variation is determined by dividing the
standard deviation by mean and multiplying it by 100
percent. Also, the managers have to sort the items based on
their calculated coefficients and establish each category’s
106
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA. Downloaded on February 12,2023 at 00:03:59 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
boundary [10]. Table 3 describes the components of the XYZ
classification system.
TABLE III. THE XYZ CLASSIFICATION [10]
Spare parts Description
classification
X parts constitute about 80 percent of the firm’s
X inventory value, yet account for about 20 percent of the
inventory stock.
The Y parts make up 25 percent of the inventory value
Y but takes up 30 percent of the firm’s inventory stock.
The Z parts constitute 5 percent of the firm’s inventory
Z value but account for 50 percent of its inventory stock.
The explanation provided in Table 3 thus suggests that X
parts are more valuable for a firm’s maintenance system than
parts Y and Z. Therefore, given the above, the overarching
purpose of the ABC-XYZ classification model is to help
maintenance managers to carry out a precise breakdown of
the critical spare parts that the plant utilizes most frequently.
In this regard, they can develop a cost-effective
replenishment plan for the parts. Despite its determinant role
in ensuring an efficient and effective maintenance spare parts
inventory management system, the ABC-XYZ is admittedly
a complicated and time-consuming process [8]. Therefore,
the CMMS software can help the managers simplify the
analysis and optimize their spare parts re-ordering processes.
It enables them to avoid stockouts by implementing a cost-
effective, data-driven inventory management plan. The
CMMS tools can efficiently and effectively perform the
ABC and XYZ related calculations. The software’s ability to
carry out the ABC-XYZ analysis can be illustrated using a
Fiix-generated screenshot shown in Fig. 3. It is worth noting
that Fiix is a cloud-based CMMS that helps managers to
organize their inventory processes and work towards
preventive maintenance. As a web-based solution, the Fiix
tool aids the real-time and automatic updating of a firm’s
inventory management system.
Figure 3. An ABC analysis tool in fiix software.
As shown in Fig. 3, the CMMS software helps users to
determine the percentage usage of their firms’ A, B, and C
spare parts. A CMMS inventory management-based system
automatically organizes spare parts into the three classes
 based on the degree of their usage, as indicated in the Figure.
The software then categorizes the inventory items into either
high-volume, medium-volume, or low-volume parts. The
results of the analysis by CMMS, thus informs the creation
of a cost-effective plan for optimizing the firm’s inventory
stocks for the most utilized spare parts [4]. In this regard, the
software can be used to optimize the re-ordering process for
maintenance spare parts. A CMMS-based inventory
management system helps maintenance managers by
automatically calculating the average lead time and usage, as
well as the best re-order point. The three elements are critical
components of an optimized inventory management system.
Fig.4, illustrates the inventory management functionality in
the CMMS software.
Figure 4. CMMS inventory management functionality.
As maintenance managers complete tasks that consume
specific spare parts and enter their respective usages into the
system, the CMMS software can automatically reorder the
parts on a need basis, and at the right time. The red box in
Fig. 4 highlights the fields for spare parts’ re-order point,
maximum point, and re-order quantity. It is worth pointing
out that the three processes can be involving and time-
consuming. However, employing a CMMS tool with
inventory management features such as Fiix can help
maintenance managers to minimize their firms’ inventory
levels over time, and save monetary resources by
automatically determining optimal reorder points and
quantities [4]. The software also optimizes the spare parts
re-ordering process by eliminating the tedious paperwork
that is often associated with the traditional inventory
management approach. It also helps to streamline a firm’s
inventory counts. The CMMS tool facilitates a smooth and
timely data entry process. By employing a cloud-based
CMMS software with mobile capabilities, managers can
perform a real-time, direct entry of counts into the inventory
system, as shown in Figure 5, hence saving on time.
107
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA. Downloaded on February 12,2023 at 00:03:59 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Figure 5. A cycle count functionality in the CMMS software.
As shown in Fig. 5, the software provides users with an
option to include their names when entering counts, a
phenomenon that ensures greater accountability in the
inventory management team. It is worth noting that
employee accountability and commitment is critical for the
successful implementation of the CMMS-based inventory
management system. Besides, members of a firm’s
maintenance management team need to possess the requisite
data management knowledge and skills to utilize the CMMS
tool optimally and ensure a streamlined re-ordering process
for parts. Moreover, the necessary procedures have to be
appropriately defined to avert potential confusion and costly
problems [6]. For example, unclear procedures may lead to
wrong entries of counts in the system. Incorrectly entered
counts may cause employees to lose faith in the system,
especially when they fail to find parts they are searching for.
The accuracy of counts entry is, therefore, critical for
creating an optimized spare part re-ordering process. Several
measures need to be put in place to ensure the necessary data
accuracy when using the CMMS tool. First, the standard
processes relating to the receipt, storage, issuance, and
returning of spare parts need to be defined clearly. The
timelines for recording forecasted inventory changes should
also be discussed and agreed upon [3]. Second, employees
involved in the maintenance spare parts re-ordering process
should be trained on how best to utilize the CMMS tool to
ensure an optimized inventory management system. The firm
can liaise with the software vendors for staff training. Third,
users of the software should be held accountable for its
proper execution in the re-ordering process. Poor inventory
management culture can be costly for the firm, hence should
be avoided at all time. Holding employees accountable can
foster proper completion of maintenance tasks such as
accurate entry of counts. Specific conclusions can thus be
drawn from the above discussions.
IV. CONCLUSION
An efficient and effective inventory management system
is critical for ensuring reduced maintenance costs and
maximum production in a manufacturing plant. The
maintenance process is often a complex and tedious
phenomenon, with time-consuming calculations and analyses.
 However, as demonstrated in this paper, the CMMS software
provides managers with a vital tool for optimizing their
maintenance spare parts re-ordering processes by creating
cost-effective inventory management plans. In this regard,
firms need to adopt a CMMS-based inventory management
system to eliminate costly equipment downtime and ensure
sustainable production. The software helps managers to
automatically and accurately perform the fundamental ABC
and XYZ analyses, hence avoiding potential data
management issues.
Future studies are recommended to continuously improve
the CMMS approach. Other equipment reliability techniques
like Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) would also be
a good research direction to integrate with CMMS. Also,
any experience in broad implementation of the ideas
discussed in this paper can teach valuable information that
cannot be learned from this study alone.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express their sincere
appreciation to their families and colleagues at Mapúa
University for their valuable comments and support that
helps to enhance the quality of this paper.
REFERENCES
[1] P. J Siddique, H.T Luong, and M.Shafiq, “An optimal joint
maintenance and spare parts inventory Model,” Int. J. Industrial and
Systems Engineering, vol 29. no.2 pp.177-193, 2016.
108
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA. Downloaded on February 12,2023 at 00:03:59 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[2] M. Wienker, K. Henderson, and J. Volkerts, “The computerized
maintenance management system an essential tool for world-class
maintenance,” Procedia Engineering, vol. 138, no.1, pp. 413-420,
2016.
[3] Teixeira, I. Lopes and M.Figueiredo, “Multi-criteria classification for
spare parts management: A case study,” Procedia Manufacturing, vol.
11, no. 1, pp. 1560-1567, 2017.
[4] O.R Adetunji, S.M Owolabi, O.M Adesusi, O.U Dairo, S.O Ipadeola
and S.O Taiwo, “Effect of computerized maintenance management
system on a cement production plant,” Int. J. of Integrated
Engineering, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 12-16, 2018.
[5] N. Baluch, C.S Abdullah, and S. Mohtar, “Evaluating effective spare
parts inventory management for equipment reliability in
manufacturing industries,” European Journal of Business and
Management, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 69-75, 2015.
[6] Q. Hu, H. Chen, J.E. Boylan and A. Labib, “OR in spare parts
management: A Review,” European Journal of Operational Research,
vol. 266, no. 2, pp.395-414, 2018.
[7] M. Stojanović and D. Regodić, “The significance of the integrated
multicriteria ABC-XYZ method for the inventory management
process,” Acta Polytechnica Hungarica, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 29-48,
2017.
[8] B. Krishnaraj and P.K. Meenakshi, “A study on ABC-XYZ analysis
in a pharmacy store,” Int. J. Mathematics and Statistics Invention, vol.
4, no. 9, pp. 24-26, 2016.
[9] M. R. Douissa and K. Jabeur, “A new model for multi-criteria ABC
inventory classification: PROAFTN method,” Procedia Computer
Science, vol. 96, no. 1, 550-559, 2016.
[10] D. K. Dhoka and Y. L. Choundary, “XYZ inventory classification and
challenges,” IOSR Journal of Economics and Finance, vol. 2, no. 2,
pp. 23-26, 2015.