Advancing cost-effective readiness by improving the supply chain management of sparse, intermittently-demanded parts

any firms generate revenue by successfully operating machines such as welding robots, rental cars, aircraft, hotel rooms, amusement park attractions, etc. It is critical that these revenue-generating machines be operational according to the firm's target or requirement; thus, assuring sustained revenue generation for the firm. Machines can and do fail, and in many cases, restoring the downed machine requires spare part(s), which are typically managed by the supply chain. The scope of this research is on the supply chain management of the very sparse, intermittently-demanded spare parts. These parts are especially difficult to manage because they have little to no lead time demand; thus, modeling via a Poisson process is not viable. The first area of our research develops two new frameworks to improve the supply chain manager's stock policy on these parts. The stock polices are tested via case studies on the A-10C attack aircraft and B1 bomber fleets. Results show the AF could save...