Business organizations currently must have an effective warehousing and inventory management system for manufacturing equipment within the mining industry. Choosing the best methods for storing, supplying, and purchasing is crucial for quality and reliability in inventory management. Individual item criticality, which explains how important a component is, should be taken into account in this situation. In this sense, both qualitative and quantitative methods could be used to assess such criticality in the given industry.
Quantitative methods and qualitative methods can both be used to categorize the criticality of inventories. It is standard procedure in the mining industry to employ ABC categories, a conventional classification, to ascertain the maintenance needs for spare components (Ahmad and Mondal, 2019). The categorization makes inventory control simpler for businesses. The goal of ABC analysis is to divide the stock-keeping units (SKUs) into three categories: A (extremely significant products); B (relatively essential products); and C (less significant products) (Teixeira et al., 2017). ABC category validates the inventory control of commodities that are generally homogeneous and is simple to utilize (Teixeira et al., 2017). Product annual demand and mean unit price are used as the grading criteria.
The qualitative methods typically employed for classifying mining spare parts are based on subjective assessment or grading techniques. The given approach is the VED (Vital, Essential, Desirable) criteria (Teixeira et al., 2017). The expertise of the maintenance specialist is the foundation of the VED categorization system (Pardede & Vanany, 2021). Despite appearing straightforward, the structure can be challenging because user perceptions can affect how it is implemented. Hence, among some criteria that can be used to determine the criticality of inventory within the mining industry are ABC analysis and VED categorization.
References
Ahmad, M.T. & Mondal, S. (2019). Dynamic supplier selection approach for mining equipment company. Journal of Modelling in Management, 14(1), 77-105. Web.
Fisher, M. L., Hammond, J. H., Obermeyer, W. R., & Raman, A. (1994). Making supply meet demand in an uncertain world. Harvard Business Review, 72, 83-83. Web.
Pardede, S. R., & Vanany, I. (2021). Analysis and Control for Heavy Equipment Spare Parts Inventory in the Nickel Mining Industry. IPTEK Journal of Proceedings Series, 6, 478-483. Web.
Sainathuni, B., Guthrie, B., Parikh, P. J., & Kong, N. (2019). Distribution planning for products with varying life cycles. Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, 31(1), 41-74.
Teixeira, C., Lopes, I., & Figueiredo, M. (2017). Multi-criteria classification for spare parts management: A case study. Procedia Manufacturing, 11, 1560-1567.