Analysis of a Proposal to Implement the Readiness Based Sparing Process in the Brazilian Navy
Abstract
With the Brazilian Navy facing increasingly tight budget constraints as a result of the countrys severe economic crisis, maintaining appropriate inventory levels of stochastic spare parts, to support complex weapon systems, has become more challenging. Currently, only the traditional item approach is utilized to determine inventory levels. This research investigates whether implementing the U.S. DOD readiness-based sparing (RBS) methodology could provide the Brazilian Navy with greater cost savings, in comparison to the traditional item approach, without compromising the availability of supported weapon systems. A case study is developed based on a helicopter engine and a selected group of its critical reparable components. The existing inventory of reparable components is evaluated against a range of efficient solutions computed using greedy heuristics. The results indicate that the analyzed inventory could be dramatically reduced, while the expected average system availability would not be adversely affected. Moreover, potential cost savings could be leveraged if the proposed approach is applied to establish initial provisioning.The implementation of readiness-based sparing within the Brazilian Navy is recommended, but a thorough investigation is proposed prior to a comprehensive implementation of the model. A phased approach is suggested by applying the methodology first for determining reparable spares initial provisioning.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1046491
Entities
People
- Regis M. Nogueira
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School