An overview of recent literature on spare parts inventories

Spare parts inventories are not intermediate or final products to be sold to a customer, and the policies that govern spare parts inventories are different from those which govern work-in-process and other inventories. This paper is an update of the discussion of maintenance inventories and a discussion of the future research needed. After a discussion of unique aspects of spare parts inventories, literature is reviewed which relates to management issues, age-based replacement, multi-echelon problems, problems involving obsolescence, repairable spare parts, and special applications.