Inventory management of repairable service parts for personal computers : A case study

Recent years have seen an increase of interest in the field of service parts inventory - particularly in computer industry. The computer industry is a highly competitive industry; products have to be repaired as quickly as possible, since slow repair can lead to loss of future business to competitors with better service reputations. A good reputation is therefore closely linked to the availability of spare parts on the market. Given this fact and using a real-life case study, this paper first elaborates on the management and control of service-parts inventory and presents a brief overview of the contemporary literature on the subject. Next the paper presents the solution approach adopted and the results of study, which indicate that significant savings can be realized through good management of service-parts inventory.