Clearing out the parts nobody will ever fit

Every maintenance storeroom holds parts for equipment that no longer exists. It accumulates because keeping a part costs nothing visible and writing it off is an uncomfortable conversation, so the default is always to keep it.

Find it in an afternoon

Two lists, cross-referenced, and the answer falls out.

• •Every part with no issues in three years
• •Every asset marked as removed or disposed of, and the parts that were linked to it

Anything on the first list that is also linked only to something on the second list is dead. That is usually a large share of the value and almost none of the arguments.

Three questions for the rest

Slow-moving stock for equipment you still own is a genuine judgement. Ask these before disposing of anything.

• •Is this a critical spare that is meant to sit there for years without moving?
• •Is the equipment obsolete, so this part cannot be bought again at any price?
• •Would another site in the organisation use it?

A yes to the first two means keep it and mark it, so it stops appearing on this list every year. The third is worth a message before anything is thrown away.

Record the decision, not just the disposal

Write down why a part was kept as well as why one went. The next person to run this review will otherwise reopen every question, and reviews that reopen every question stop happening.

Stop it accumulating

The mechanism is a step at the other end: when equipment is removed, check what stock was held for it as part of the decommissioning job. This is trivial at the time and archaeology three years later.

Do the last-time buy deliberately

When a supplier announces a part is being discontinued, that is a decision, not a notification. Work out how long you will run the equipment and buy enough, or accept that the equipment now has a replacement date. Ignoring the notice is how a machine becomes unmaintainable without anybody choosing it.