DETERMINATION OF REORDER POINTS FOR SPARE PARTS IN A 2-ECHELON INVENTORY SYSTEM - THE CASE OF NONIDENTICAL MAINTENANCE FACILITIES

This paper deals with the determination of reorder points in a two-ech elon spare parts inventory system. The system consists of a central wa rehouse that supplies several maintenance facilities. Each maintenance facility faces random demand. Inventory carrying cost is the same in both echelons, but the consequences of stockout vary among the mainten ance facilities. An inventory management policy is proposed that deter mines the reorder point for each facility, so that predetermined requi rements concerning relationships between the resulting service levels are met. The inventory system described in this paper is typical to cl ass A (in a Pareto or ABC analysis) of spare parts inventories, i.e., military. Limited quantities of spare parts are stocked in an inventor y system serving several maintenance facilities. The same type of equi pment is maintained by each facility. However, due to readiness requir ements of the organizational units served by each facility, the requir ed service levels of the centers are not all the same.