Spare part

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A spare part, spare, service part, repair part, or replacement part, is an interchangeable part that is kept in an inventory and used for the repair or refurbishment of defective equipment/units. Spare parts are an important feature of logistics engineering and supply chain management, often comprising dedicated spare parts management systems.

Spare parts are an outgrowth of the industrial development of interchangeable parts and mass production.

In an industrial environment, spare parts are described in several manner to distinguish key features of various spare parts. The following describes spare part types and their typically functionality.

1. Capital parts are spare parts which, although acknowledged to have a long life or a small chance of failure, would cause a long shutdown of equipment because it would take a long time to get a replacement for them. Capital parts are typically repaired or replaced during planned overhauls/scheduled inspections.  As description implies, these Capital Parts are typically expensive and are depreciated over time.

Examples of capital parts include pumps and motor sets used in industrial plants, or impeller or a rotor required for a pump or motor. This “spare” requirement would be determined by redundancy of equipment used in the industrial processes.

2. Consumables can be divided into two groups:

• Operational consumables are typically consumed during operation and an example of these would be air filters, grease and lubricants, light bulbs, etc. (for a car, it would be washer fluid)

• Inspection consumables are typically replaced during planned overhauls/scheduled inspections and an example of these would be fan belt, gaskets, lube oil, oil filters, etc. (for a car, it would be engine oil or transmission oil)

3. Inspection spares or outage spares typically refer to those spare parts used in conjunction with Capital Parts during planned overhauls/scheduled inspections and maybe reused but typically are not repairable and are discarded after removal from use if Inspection Spares are damaged. These Inspection Spares are sometimes mis-characterized as Capital spares (vs Capital Parts) and are also confounded with Inspection Consumables, which must be replaced at every inspection/outage.  (an example of inspection spares would be bearings and mechanical seals, large bolts and nuts.)

4. Operational spares typically refer to those spare parts that are used during operation of equipment and would not require planned overhauls/scheduled inspections to replace. In an industrial setting, operational spares would be gages, valves (solenoid, MOVs that are in redundancy), transmitters, I/O boards, small AC/DC power supplies, etc.) (for a car, it would windshield wiper)