SPAM - A COMPUTER-MODEL FOR MANAGEMENT OF SPARE-PARTS INVENTORIES IN AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY DEALERSHIPS

A user-friendly computer model has been developed to assist agricultur al machinery dealerships in managing inventories of spare parts availa ble at their stores. The model ''SPAM'' is encoded in PASCAL language on IBM-compatible personal computers. The model is based on mathematic al theories that forecast economic order quantities, economic order po int, and lag period based on both periodic factual input data analysis and update, and cash-flow economic assessment. The model also provide s a comprehensive package for inventory management including stock ana lysis, inventory costs, part ordering, invoicing, and parts descriptio n. In addition, it takes into account monthly demand fluctuations resu lting from variations due to seasonal agricultural operations. The mod el requires a minimum of 3 Mb hard disk space allocation, is initializ ed by an 'autoexecution' batch file, and is run from selective menus d isplayed on the user's screen. Printed outputs include parts descripti on cards, stock analysis reports, part orders, and invoices.