Service Parts Planning: Planning for consumable parts vs. Repairable Parts

When deciding on the right stocking parameters for spare parts and service parts, it is important to distinguish between consumable and repairable service parts. These differences are often overlooked by service parts planning software and can result in incorrect estimates of what to stock. Different approaches are required when planning for consumables vs. repairable spare parts.

First, let’s define these two types of spare parts.

Consumable parts are spares contained within the equipment which are replaced rather than repaired when they fail. Examples of consumable parts include batteries, oil filters, screws, and brake pads. Consumable spare parts tend to be lower-cost parts for which replacement is cheaper than repair or repair may not be possible.
Repairable parts are parts that are capable of being repaired and returned to service after failing due to causes like wear and tear, damage, or corrosion. Repairable service parts tend to be more expensive than consumable parts, so repair is usually preferable to replacement. Examples of repairable parts include traction motors in rail cars, jet engines, and copy machines.

Traditional spare parts planning software fail to do the job

Traditional parts planning software is not well-adapted to deal with the randomness in both the demand side and the supply side of MRO operations.

Demand-Side Randomness
Planning for consumable spare parts requires calculation of inventory control parameters (such as reorder points and order quantities, min and max levels, and safety stocks). Planning to manage repairable service parts requires calculation of the right number of spares. In both cases, the analysis must be based on probability models of the random usage of consumables or the random breakdown of repairable parts. For over 90% of these parts, this random demand is “intermittent” (sometimes called “lumpy” or “anything but normally distributed”). Traditional spare parts forecasting methods were not developed to deal with intermittent demand. Relying on traditional methods leads to costly planning mistakes. For consumables, this means avoidable stockouts, excess carrying costs, and increased inventory obsolescence. For repairable parts, this means excessive equipment downtime and the attendant costs from unreliable performance and disruption of operations.

Supply-Side Randomness
Planning for consumable spare parts must take account of randomness in replenishment lead times from suppliers. Planning for repairable parts must account for randomness in repair and return processes, whether provided internally or contracted out. Planners managing these items often ignore exploitable company data. Instead, they may cross their fingers and hope everything works out, or they may call on gut instinct to “call audibles” and then hope everything works out. Hoping and guessing cannot beat proper probability modeling. It wastes millions annually in unneeded capital investments and avoidable equipment downtime.

Spare Parts Planning Software solutions

Smart IP&O’s service parts forecasting software uses a unique empirical probabilistic forecasting approach that is engineered for intermittent demand. For consumable spare parts, our patented and APICS award winning method rapidly generates tens of thousands of demand scenarios without relying on the assumptions about the nature of demand distributions implicit in traditional forecasting methods. The result is highly accurate estimates of safety stock, reorder points, and service levels, which leads to higher service levels and lower inventory costs. For repairable spare parts, Smart’s Repair and Return Module accurately simulates the processes of part breakdown and repair. It predicts downtime, service levels, and inventory costs associated with the current rotating spare parts pool. Planners will know how many spares to stock to achieve short- and long-term service level requirements and, in operational settings, whether to wait for repairs to be completed and returned to service or to purchase additional service spares from suppliers, avoiding unnecessary buying and equipment downtime.

Contact us to learn more how this functionality has helped our customers in the MRO, Field Service, Utility, Mining, and Public Transportation sectors to optimize their inventory. You can also download the Whitepaper here.

White Paper: What you Need to know about Forecasting and Planning Service Parts

This paper describes Smart Software’s patented methodology for forecasting demand, safety stocks, and reorder points on items such as service parts and components with intermittent demand, and provides several examples of customer success.

A Primer on Probabilistic Forecasting

The Smart Forecaster

Pursuing best practices in demand planning,

forecasting and inventory optimization

If you keep up with the news about supply chain analytics, you are more frequently encountering the phrase “probabilistic forecasting.” If this phrase is puzzling, read on.

You probably already know what “forecasting” means. And you probably also know that there seem to be lots of different ways to do it. And you’ve probably heard pungent little phrases like “every forecast is wrong.” So you know that some kind of mathemagic might calculate that “the forecast is you will sell 100 units next month”, and then you might sell 110 units, in which case you have a 10% forecast error.

You may not know that what I just described is a particular kind of forecast called a “point forecast.” A point forecast is so named because it consists of just a single number (i.e., one point on the number line, if you recall the number line from your youth).

Point forecasts have one virtue: They are simple. They also have a flaw: They give rise to snarky statements like “every forecast is wrong.” That is, in most realistic cases, it is unlikely that the actual value will exactly equal the forecast. (Which isn’t such a big deal if the forecast is close enough.)

This gets us to “probabilistic forecasting.” This approach is a step up, because instead of producing a single-number (point) forecast, it yields a probability distribution for the forecast. And unlike traditional extrapolative models that rely purely on the historical data, probabilistic forecasts have the ability to simulate future values that aren’t anchored to the past.

“Probability distribution” is a forbidding phrase, evoking some arcane math that you may have heard of but never studied. Luckily, most adults have enough life experience to have an intuitive grasp of the concept. When broken down, it’s quite straightforward to understand.

Imagine the simple act of flipping two coins. You might call this harmless fun, but I call it a “probabilistic experiment.” The total number of heads that turn up on the two coins will be either zero, one or two. Flipping two coins is a “random experiment.” The resulting number of heads is a “random variable.” It has a “probability distribution”, which is nothing more than a table of how likely it is that the random variable will turn out to have any of its possible values. The probability of getting two heads when the coins are fair works out to be ¼, as is the probability of no heads. The chance of one head is ½.

The same approach can describe a more interesting random variable, like the daily demand for a spare part. Figure 2 shows such a probability distribution. It was computed by compiling three years of daily demand data on a certain part used in a scientific instrument sold to hospitals.

Figure 1: The probability distribution of daily demand for a certain spare part

The distribution in Figure 1 can be thought of as a probabilistic forecast of demand in a single day. For this particular part, we see that the forecast is very likely to be zero (97% chance), but sometimes will be for a handful of units, and once in three years will be twenty units. Even though the most likely forecast is zero, you would want to keep a few on hand if this part were critical (“…for want of a nail…”)

Now let’s use this information to make a more complicated probabilistic forecast. Suppose you have three units on hand. How many days will it take for you to have none? There are many possible answers, ranging from a single day (if you immediately get a demand for three or more) up to a very large number (since 97% of days see no demand). The analysis of this question is a bit complicated because of all the many ways this situation can play out, but the final answer that is most informative will be a probability distribution. It turns out that the number of days until there are no units left in stock has the distribution shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Distribution of the number of days until all three units are gone

The average number of days is 74, which would be a point forecast, but there is a lot of variation around the average. From the perspective of inventory management, it is notable that there is a 25% chance that all the units will be gone after 32 days. So if you decided to order more when you were down to only three on the shelf, it would be good to have the supplier get them to you before a month has passed. If they couldn’t, you’d have a 75% chance of stocking out – not good for a critical part.

The analysis behind Figure 2 involved making some assumptions that were convenient but not necessary if they were not true. The results came from a method called “Monte Carlo simulation”, in which we start with three units, pick a random demand from the distribution in Figure 1, subtract it from the current stock, and continue until the stock is gone, recording how many days went by before you ran out. Repeating this process 100,000 times produced Figure 2.

Applications of Monte Carlo simulation extend to problems of even larger scope than the “when do we run out” example above. Especially important are Monte Carlo forecasts of future demand. While the usual forecasting result is a set of point forecasts (e.g., expected unit demand over the next twelve months), we know that there are any number of ways that the actual demand could play out. Simulation could be used to produce, say, one thousand possible sets of 365 daily demand demands.

This set of demand scenarios would more fully expose the range of possible situations with which an inventory system would have to cope. This use of simulation is called “stress testing”, because it exposes a system to a range of varied but realistic scenarios, including some nasty ones. Those scenarios are then input to mathematical models of the system to see how well it will cope, as reflected in key performance indicators (KPI’s). For instance, in those thousand simulated years of operation, how many stockouts are there in the worst year? the average year? the best year? In fact, what is the full probability distribution of the number of stockouts in a year, and what is the distribution of their size?

Figures 3 and 4 illustrate probabilistic modeling of an inventory control system that converts stockouts to backorders. The system simulated uses a Min/Max control policy with Min = 10 units and Max = 20 units.

Figure 3 shows one simulated year of daily operations in four plots. The first plot shows a particular pattern of random daily demand in which average demand increases steadily from Monday to Friday but disappears on weekends. The second plot shows the number of units on hand each day. Note that there are a dozen times during this simulated year when inventory goes negative, indicating stockouts. The third plot shows the size and timing of replenishment orders. The fourth plot shows the size and timing of backorders. The information in these plots can be translated into estimates of inventory investment, average units on hand, holding costs, ordering costs and shortage costs.

Figure 3: One simulated year of inventory system operation

Figure 3 shows one of one thousand simulated years. Each year will have different daily demands, resulting in different values of metrics like units on hand and the various components of operating cost. Figure 4 plots the distribution of 1,000 simulated values of four KPI’s. Simulating 1,000 years of imagined operation exposes the range of possible results so that planners can account not just for average results but also see best-case and worst-case values.

Figure 4: Distributions of four KPI’s based on 1,000 simulations

Monte Carlo simulation is a low-math/high-results approach to probabilistic forecasting: very practical and easy to explain. Advanced probabilistic forecasting methods employed by Smart Software expand upon standard Monte Carlo simulation, yielding extremely accurate estimates of required inventory levels.

Call an Audible to Proactively Counter Supply Chain Noise

You know the situation: You work out the best way to manage each inventory item by computing the proper reorder points and replenishment targets, then average demand increases or decreases, or demand volatility changes, or suppliers’ lead times change, or your own costs change.

Managing the Inventory of Promoted Items

In a previous post, I discussed one of the thornier problems demand planners sometimes face: working with product demand data characterized by what statisticians call skewness—a situation that can necessitate costly inventory investments. This sort of problematic data is found in several different scenarios. In at least one, the combination of intermittent demand and very effective sales promotions, the problem lends itself to an effective solution.

Top 3 Most Common Inventory Control Policies

To make the right decision, you’ll need to know how demand forecasting supports inventory management, choice of which policy to use, and calculation of the inputs that drive these policies.The process of ordering replenishment stock is sufficiently expensive and cumbersome that you also want to minimize the number of purchase orders you must generate.

Inventory Optimization for Manufacturers, Distributors, and MRO

Managing Spare Parts Inventory: Best Practices
In this blog, we’ll explore several effective strategies for managing spare parts inventory, emphasizing the importance of optimizing stock levels, maintaining service levels, and using smart tools to aid in decision-making. Managing spare parts inventory is a critical component for businesses that depend on equipment uptime and service reliability. Unlike regular inventory items, spare parts often have unpredictable demand patterns, making them more challenging to manage effectively. An efficient spare parts inventory management system helps prevent stockouts that can lead to operational downtime and costly delays while also avoiding overstocking that unnecessarily ties up capital and increases holding costs. […]
Innovating the OEM Aftermarket with AI-Driven Inventory Optimization
The aftermarket sector provides OEMs with a decisive advantage by offering a steady revenue stream and fostering customer loyalty through the reliable and timely delivery of service parts. However, managing inventory and forecasting demand in the aftermarket is fraught with challenges, including unpredictable demand patterns, vast product ranges, and the necessity for quick turnarounds. Traditional methods often fall short due to the complexity and variability of demand in the aftermarket. The latest technologies can analyze large datasets to predict future demand more accurately and optimize inventory levels, leading to better service and lower costs. […]
Future-Proofing Utilities: Advanced Analytics for Supply Chain Optimization
Utilities in the electrical, natural gas, urban water, and telecommunications fields are all asset-intensive and reliant on physical infrastructure that must be properly maintained, updated, and upgraded over time. Maximizing asset uptime and the reliability of physical infrastructure demands effective inventory management, spare parts forecasting, and supplier management. A utility that executes these processes effectively will outperform its peers, provide better returns for its investors and higher service levels for its customers, while reducing its environmental impact. […]
Centering Act: Spare Parts Timing, Pricing, and Reliability
In this article, we'll walk you through the process of crafting a spare parts inventory plan that prioritizes availability metrics such as service levels and fill rates while ensuring cost efficiency. We'll focus on an approach to inventory planning called Service Level-Driven Inventory Optimization. Next, we'll discuss how to determine what parts you should include in your inventory and those that might not be necessary. Lastly, we'll explore ways to enhance your service-level-driven inventory plan consistently. […]

Blog Categories

Increasing Revenue by Increasing Spare Part Availability

The Smart Forecaster

Pursuing best practices in demand planning,

forecasting and inventory optimization

Let’s start by recognizing that increased revenue is a good thing for you, and that increasing the availability of the spare parts you provide is a good thing for your customers.

But let’s also recognize that increasing item availability will not necessarily lead to increased revenue. If you plan incorrectly and end up carrying excess inventory, the net effect may be good for your customers but will definitely be bad for you. There must be some right way to make this a win-win, if only it can be recognized.

To make the right decision here, you have to think systematically about the problem. That requires that you use probabilistic models of the inventory control process.

A Scenario

Let’s consider a specific, realistic scenario. Quite a number of factors have an influence on the results:

The item: A specific low-volume spare part.
Demand mean: Averaging 0.1 units per day (so, highly “intermittent”)
Demand standard deviation: 0.35 units per day (so, highly variable or “overdispersed”).
Supplier average lead time: 5 days.
Unit cost: $100.
Holding cost per year as % of unit cost: 10%.
Ordering cost per PO cut: $25.
Stockout consequences: Lost sales (so, a competitive market, no backorders).
Shortage cost per lost sale: $100.
Service level target: 85% (so, 15% chance of a stockout in any replenishment cycle).
Inventory control policy: Periodic-review/Order-up-to (also called at (T,S) policy)

Inventory Control Policy

A word about the inventory control policy. The (T,S) policy is one of several that are common in practice. Though there are other more efficient policies (e.g., they don’t wait for T days to go by before making adjustment to stock), (T,S) is one of the simplest and so it is quite popular. It works this way: Every T days, you check how many units you have in stock, say X units. Then you order S-X units, which appear after the supplier lead time (in this case, 5 days). The T in (T,S) is the “order interval”, the number of days between orders; the S is the “order-up-to level”, the number of units you want to have on hand at the start of each replenishment cycle.

To get the most out of this policy, you must wisely pick values of T and S. Picking wisely means you cannot win by guessing or using simple rule-of-thumb guides like “Keep an average of 3 x average demand on hand.” Poor choices of T and S hurt both your customers and your bottom line. And sticking too long with choices that were once good can result in poor performance should any of the factors above change significantly, so the values of T and S should be recalculated now and then.

The smart way to pick the right values of T and S is to use probabilistic models encoded in advanced software. Using software is essential when you have to scale up and pick values of T and S that are right for not one item but hundreds or thousands.

Analysis of Scenario

Let’s think about how to make money in this scenario. What’s the upside? If there were no expenses, this item could generate an average of $3,650 per year: 0.1 units/day x 365 days x $100/unit. Subtracted from that will be operating costs, comprised of holding, ordering and shortage costs. Each of those will depend on your choices of T and S.

The software provides specific numbers: Setting T = 321 days and S = 40 units will result in average annual operating costs of $604, giving an expected margin of $3,650 – $604 = $3,046. See Table 1, left column. This use of software is called “predictive analytics” because it translates system design inputs into estimates of a key performance indicator, margin.

Now think about whether you can do better. The service level target in this scenario is 85%, which is a somewhat relaxed standard that is not going to turn any heads. What if you could offer your customers a 99% service level? That sounds like a distinct competitive advantage, but would it reduce your margin? Not if you properly adjust the values of T and S.

Setting T = 216 days and S = 35 units will reduce average annual operating costs to $551 and increase expected margin to $3,650 – $551 = $3,099. See Table 1, right column. Here is the win-win we wanted: higher customer satisfaction and roughly 2% more revenue. This use of the software is called “sensitivity analysis” because it shows how sensitive the margin is to the choice of service level target.

Software can also help you visualize the complex, random dynamics of inventory movements. A by-product of the analysis that populated Table 1 are graphs showing the random paths taken by stock as it decreases over a replenishment cycle. Figure 1 shows a selection of 100 random scenarios for the scenario in which the service level target is 99%. In the figure, only 1 of the 100 scenarios resulted in a stockout, confirming the accuracy of the choice of order-up-to-level.

Summary

Management of spare parts inventories is often done haphazardly using gut instinct, habit, or obsolete rule-of-thumb. Winging it this way is not a reliable and reproducible path to higher margin or higher customer satisfaction. Probability theory, distilled into probability models then encoded in advanced software, is the basis for coherent, efficient guidance about how to manage spare parts based on facts: demand characteristics, lead times, service level targets, costs and the other factors. The scenarios analyzed here illustrate that it is possible to achieve both higher service levels and higher margin. A multitude of scenarios not shown here offer ways to achieve higher service levels but lose margin. Use the software.

Call an Audible to Proactively Counter Supply Chain Noise

Managing the Inventory of Promoted Items

Top 3 Most Common Inventory Control Policies

Inventory Optimization for Manufacturers, Distributors, and MRO

Managing Spare Parts Inventory: Best Practices
In this blog, we’ll explore several effective strategies for managing spare parts inventory, emphasizing the importance of optimizing stock levels, maintaining service levels, and using smart tools to aid in decision-making. Managing spare parts inventory is a critical component for businesses that depend on equipment uptime and service reliability. Unlike regular inventory items, spare parts often have unpredictable demand patterns, making them more challenging to manage effectively. An efficient spare parts inventory management system helps prevent stockouts that can lead to operational downtime and costly delays while also avoiding overstocking that unnecessarily ties up capital and increases holding costs. […]
Innovating the OEM Aftermarket with AI-Driven Inventory Optimization
The aftermarket sector provides OEMs with a decisive advantage by offering a steady revenue stream and fostering customer loyalty through the reliable and timely delivery of service parts. However, managing inventory and forecasting demand in the aftermarket is fraught with challenges, including unpredictable demand patterns, vast product ranges, and the necessity for quick turnarounds. Traditional methods often fall short due to the complexity and variability of demand in the aftermarket. The latest technologies can analyze large datasets to predict future demand more accurately and optimize inventory levels, leading to better service and lower costs. […]
Future-Proofing Utilities: Advanced Analytics for Supply Chain Optimization
Utilities in the electrical, natural gas, urban water, and telecommunications fields are all asset-intensive and reliant on physical infrastructure that must be properly maintained, updated, and upgraded over time. Maximizing asset uptime and the reliability of physical infrastructure demands effective inventory management, spare parts forecasting, and supplier management. A utility that executes these processes effectively will outperform its peers, provide better returns for its investors and higher service levels for its customers, while reducing its environmental impact. […]
Centering Act: Spare Parts Timing, Pricing, and Reliability
In this article, we'll walk you through the process of crafting a spare parts inventory plan that prioritizes availability metrics such as service levels and fill rates while ensuring cost efficiency. We'll focus on an approach to inventory planning called Service Level-Driven Inventory Optimization. Next, we'll discuss how to determine what parts you should include in your inventory and those that might not be necessary. Lastly, we'll explore ways to enhance your service-level-driven inventory plan consistently. […]

Blog Categories

Coping with Surging Demand During the Rebound

The Smart Forecaster

Pursuing best practices in demand planning,

forecasting and inventory optimization

Many of our customers that saw demand dry up during the pandemic are now seeing demand return. Some are seeing a significant demand surge. Other customers in critical industries like plastics, biotech, semiconductors and electronics saw demand surges starting as far back as last April. For suggestions about how to cope with these situations, please read on.

Surging demand usually creates two problems: inability to fill orders and inability to get replenishment due to supplier overload. This situation requires changes in the way you use your advanced planning software. Here are three tips to help you cope.

Tip #1: Narrow your temporal focus

In normal times (remember those?), more data implied better results. Nowadays, old data poison your calculations, since they represent conditions that no longer apply. You should base forecasts and other calculations on data from the current situation. Where to cut off past data may be obvious from a plot of the data, or you may decide to set a “reasonable” cutoff date based on a consensus of colleagues. Smart Software has developed machine learning algorithms that automatically identify how much historical data should be optimally fed to the forecast model. Be on the lookout for these enhancements to the software that will be rolling out soon. In the meantime, conduct accuracy tests using held-out actuals using different historical start dates. Smart’s forecast vs. actual feature will support this automatically.

Smart Demand Planner forecasts vs. actual report

Tip #2: Increase your planning tempo

When operations are stable, you can set your inventory policies and trust them to be appropriate for a long time. When times are turbulent, it is important to increase the frequency of your planning cycles to keep old policy settings from drifting too far away from optimality. More frequent recalibration of your stocking policies and forecasts means that you’ll be quicker to catch trends that will surprise your competition and always keep you steps ahead. With software capable of automatically selecting optimal values, all that work can be done in one shot by the software. You should review those changes and possibly tweak them, but it makes sense to let the software do the bulk of the work.

Tip #3: Do more What-If planning

In turbulent times, you might expect even more turbulence in the future. Using your software for what-if planning helps you prepare for changes that may be coming. For example, suppose you’ve been in touch with a key supplier who hints that they may be raising prices or may have to slip their delivery schedules. By feeding the software different inputs, you can do contingency planning. If prices go up, you can see how responding by changing order quantities would impact your inventory operating costs and inventory investment. If lead times go up, you can see what the impact would be on item availability. This foreknowledge helps you figure out what your counter-moves would be before the crisis hits.

If there ever was a time when we could cruise on automatic pilot, it’s in the rear-view mirror. Your organization, coping with explosive growth, has many challenges. Old answers are obsolete; new answers have to come from somewhere, fast. Advanced software that leverages probabilistic forecasting can help, along with changes in planning processes.

Call an Audible to Proactively Counter Supply Chain Noise

Managing the Inventory of Promoted Items

Top 3 Most Common Inventory Control Policies

Inventory Optimization for Manufacturers, Distributors, and MRO

Managing Spare Parts Inventory: Best Practices
In this blog, we’ll explore several effective strategies for managing spare parts inventory, emphasizing the importance of optimizing stock levels, maintaining service levels, and using smart tools to aid in decision-making. Managing spare parts inventory is a critical component for businesses that depend on equipment uptime and service reliability. Unlike regular inventory items, spare parts often have unpredictable demand patterns, making them more challenging to manage effectively. An efficient spare parts inventory management system helps prevent stockouts that can lead to operational downtime and costly delays while also avoiding overstocking that unnecessarily ties up capital and increases holding costs. […]
Innovating the OEM Aftermarket with AI-Driven Inventory Optimization
The aftermarket sector provides OEMs with a decisive advantage by offering a steady revenue stream and fostering customer loyalty through the reliable and timely delivery of service parts. However, managing inventory and forecasting demand in the aftermarket is fraught with challenges, including unpredictable demand patterns, vast product ranges, and the necessity for quick turnarounds. Traditional methods often fall short due to the complexity and variability of demand in the aftermarket. The latest technologies can analyze large datasets to predict future demand more accurately and optimize inventory levels, leading to better service and lower costs. […]
Future-Proofing Utilities: Advanced Analytics for Supply Chain Optimization
Utilities in the electrical, natural gas, urban water, and telecommunications fields are all asset-intensive and reliant on physical infrastructure that must be properly maintained, updated, and upgraded over time. Maximizing asset uptime and the reliability of physical infrastructure demands effective inventory management, spare parts forecasting, and supplier management. A utility that executes these processes effectively will outperform its peers, provide better returns for its investors and higher service levels for its customers, while reducing its environmental impact. […]
Centering Act: Spare Parts Timing, Pricing, and Reliability
In this article, we'll walk you through the process of crafting a spare parts inventory plan that prioritizes availability metrics such as service levels and fill rates while ensuring cost efficiency. We'll focus on an approach to inventory planning called Service Level-Driven Inventory Optimization. Next, we'll discuss how to determine what parts you should include in your inventory and those that might not be necessary. Lastly, we'll explore ways to enhance your service-level-driven inventory plan consistently. […]

Blog Categories

Spare Parts Planning Webinar for Public Transit Agencies

Spare Parts Planning in the Age of Covid: Problems and Solutions for Public Transit Agencies

Covid has wreaked havoc on public transit. Plummeting ridership, reduced capacity, unprecedented losses in fare and tax revenue, along with added costs to keep buses and trains safe have resulted in massive transit system budget shortfalls. APTA reports that even with two rounds of emergency funding, public transit agencies will face a projected shortfall of $39.3 Billion through 2023. This webinar will address the need for transit agencies to reconsider traditional practices, find innovative ways to capture cost savings, and do so without jeopardizing service levels. Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, will discuss the particular challenge of spare parts planning, why traditional practices used today fail, and how inventory forecasting technology is being harnessed to optimize performance and drive significant financial return. Greg will highlight the experience of Smart Software’s transit customers, how they’ve generated bottom-line savings, what they are doing to prepare for the rebound, and share a technology demonstration using transit industry data. Please feel free to review the content below. We have provided case studies profiling the use of our technology within public transit and a software review from APICS Magazine. Transit Specific Content

About Smart Software, Inc. Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions. Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Disney, Siemens, Metro Transit, APS, and The American Red Cross. Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items. It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels. Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com. SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O have registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc. All other trademarks are their respective owners’ property. For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478. Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

White Paper: What you Need to know about Forecasting and Planning Service Parts

The Smart Forecaster

Pursuing best practices in demand planning,

forecasting and inventory optimization

Managing the Inventory of Promoted Items

Top 3 Most Common Inventory Control Policies

Recent Posts

Inventory Optimization for Manufacturers, Distributors, and MRO

Blog Categories

The Smart Forecaster

Pursuing best practices in demand planning,

forecasting and inventory optimization

Managing the Inventory of Promoted Items

Top 3 Most Common Inventory Control Policies

Recent Posts

Inventory Optimization for Manufacturers, Distributors, and MRO

Blog Categories

The Smart Forecaster

Pursuing best practices in demand planning,

forecasting and inventory optimization

Tip #1: Narrow your temporal focus

Tip #2: Increase your planning tempo

Tip #3: Do more What-If planning

Managing the Inventory of Promoted Items

Top 3 Most Common Inventory Control Policies

Recent Posts

Inventory Optimization for Manufacturers, Distributors, and MRO

Blog Categories

Spare Parts Planning in the Age of Covid: Problems and Solutions for Public Transit Agencies