A User-Centered Design of a Decision Support Tool for Spare Parts Inventory Control

Manufacturing companies carry large volumes and varieties of spare parts to ensure production availability. Supply conditions for industrial spare parts are becoming increasingly volatile. Additionally, spare part demand irregularity makes spare parts management and control difficult. Analyzing supply and demand data can support maintenance and material planners in spare parts management. This paper proposes a design for a decision support tool to adjust spare parts inventory replenishment policies through user-centered design in a manufacturing company. We identified users' decision parameters through contextual interviews, gathered user input in a focus group, and consequently designed a prototype. We evaluated the prototype in a comparative study against an ERP system. The study results show a significantly lower task completion time as well as a higher system usability score for the prototype. Additionally, users perceive the difficulty of adjusting inventory parameters to be lower using the prototype. Therefore, introducing a tool that offers decision-relevant information and a recommendation for adjusting spare parts inventory parameters, could support material and maintenance planners in continuously adapting spare parts inventory according to current supply and demand conditions.