What is spare parts management?
Spare parts management covers everything needed so customers get the right spare part at the right time: defining and marking parts, providing information, handling requests, planning stock and availability, and supplying parts throughout the machine’s lifecycle.
For machine manufacturers it has two sides: it is central to customer satisfaction – downtime costs your customers money – and at the same time a line of business that generates revenue over the machine’s entire service life.
Part types: spare, wear and consumable parts
| Type | Characteristic | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Wear parts | wear out predictably during intended use | bearings, belts, seals, conveyor belts |
| Spare parts | replaced after a defect or damage | motors, sensors, deflection rollers |
| Consumables | used up during operation | lubricants, filters, blades |
A classification by criticality also pays off: which parts cause downtime if they fail? Customers should get a stocking recommendation for these.
The typical problems
- Unclear identification: customers send photos, pictures of the rating plate or describe the part on the phone.
- Wrong version: the parts list doesn’t match the design state of the machine at the customer site.
- Outdated PDF lists: stored somewhere in a folder, not searchable and obsolete after the first change.
- High query effort: service spends time researching instead of solving.
- Wrong deliveries: wrong parts cost shipping, time and trust.
KPIs worth tracking
- Handling time per request – from receipt to quote.
- Share of unambiguous requests – with part number and machine reference, no follow-up needed.
- Wrong delivery rate – wrong or unsuitable parts.
- Spare parts revenue per installed machine – an indicator of aftersales customer loyalty.
The electronic spare parts catalog as the key
An electronic spare parts catalog solves the identification problem at its root: the customer sees their machine – in exactly the installed version – and finds the part in the 3D model, the BOM or via search. The request automatically contains part number, quantity and machine.
The data basis is what matters: if the catalog is generated from the same engineering data as the documentation, names, part numbers and item numbers match everywhere – and changes flow in automatically.
That’s exactly how proquodo parts works: one catalog per customer with their machines, 3D view with exploded view, one-click request list to your service team and white label in your branding.
5 steps to better spare parts management
- Mark spare and wear parts during design.
- Ensure unique part numbers across CAD, ERP and documentation.
- Link every machine shipped to its product version.
- Provide spare parts information digitally and per machine.
- Capture requests in a structured way and measure KPIs.
See proquodo live
In a personal demo we’ll show you how documentation and a spare parts catalog are created from your data.