The Mitsubishi Electric Nakatsugawa Works, Iida Factory WATCH NOW
Mitsubishi Electric – FA systems that transform our lives
’ The plant keeps going and we have some spare parts in the stores’ is a well-worn rallying cry. Whatever level of obsolescence exists on plant, this will continue to exist due to the reliability and longevity of most automation platforms. In turn, this will eventually lead to higher costs, significant downtime and production losses.
When equipment becomes obsolete, spare parts become increasingly difficult to get hold of and, if you can get them, you pay a significant premium to purchase them. So, when the last spare part has been used from the stores and cannot be found via the internet – or only with the risk of it coming from an unauthorised source with no warranty and no guarantee it will actually work – serious problems may arise. The way out of this is to adopt a legacy migration strategy long before reaching this critical stage.
Q. WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE ON DEVELOPING A SPARE PARTS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY?
» Production plant stakeholders should consider multiple initial
132 May 2025