Project – Spare Parts
Any equipment you install is going to need spare parts – components fail or wear out.
Delivery times over the past few years have gotten longer. Parts that vendors previously kept in stock are no longer on the shelf. You can’t always depend on getting that spare you need to get your line back up in the next day or so.
Hopefully, when you’re scoping a project, you consider the existing equipment before you make a final decision. If you have 5 machines from Vendor A, you’ll have a bunch of spares for Vendor A’s equipment. (Your operators and maintenance folks are familiar with A as well, but that’s another issue.) Of course, you’re not going to stick with outdated equipment just to keep common spares, but it’s a factor to consider.
At the RFQ stage, can the vendor give you a list of recommended spares?
Consider ordering start-up spares for commissioning.
Planning for future expansion can provide a safety factor. Order a PLC system with additional cards and terminals for future I/O; Motor Control Centers can be ordered with extra buckets. Those expansion parts can be used as a spare part in a pinch.
Conversely, when you’re looking at that vendor-provided list, you may have some spares at the site, either in stores or installed on equipment where it can be borrowed in an emergency outage.
Don’t forget things like grease, oils, and hydraulic fluid. Does this new equipment call for one of those that you don’t currently stock?
How about tools? Any special tools needed to maintain the equipment? Can you order those on the project? Software?
It’s a good idea to take that recommended spare parts list from the vendor and run it by your Maintenance and Stores folks. They’ll have a good perspective on what’s readily available, what they already have on hand, what’s hard to get, or even what’s near obsolescence.
Make sure you follow your company’s rules about what spares you can order with the project, versus what’s required to be operational spending or capital spares. But get the spare parts you need.