On High-Reliability Parts

Carryover Parts and New Product Reliability

By studying a unique data set from a motor vehicle manufacturer, we find that carryover parts, common parts used in successive generations of multi-generational products, are a major source of quality problems, contrary to conventional wisdom. Moreover, the failure rate of carryover parts grows from one generation to the next, a phenomenon known as the carryover spike. Motivated by these result...

NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program NEPP Task: Reliability of High-Voltage Tantalum Capacitors

Integrating reliability centered maintenance and spare parts stock control

In the classical approach to determine how many spare parts to stock, the spare parts shortage costs or the minimum fill rate are a key factor. A difficulty with this approach lies in the estimation of these shortage costs or the determination of appropriate minimum fill rates. In an attempt to overcome this problem, we propose to use the data gathered in reliability centered maintenance studie...

Optimization models for critical spare parts inventories - a reliability approach

In industries characterized by heavy utilization of equipment and machinery, such as mining, oil & gas, utilities, transportation, adequate stockholding of critical spare parts becomes essential. Insufficient stocks affect overall performance of physical assets, as lack of spares may result in gross penalties, lower availability or increased operational risks. On the other hand, oversized inven...

Spare Parts Inventory Management with Substitution-Dependent Reliability

Motivated to apply sustainable supply chain principles to air-pollution control systems, this paper presents a dynamic inventory-management approach where substitution is possible to maintain these systems’ equipment. An air-pollution control system’s subsequent reliability depends on the replacement equipment selected. The corresponding problem is formulated as a stochastic dynamic program. Be...