System Dynamics Modeling In Spare Parts Operations System Analysis In The Company A

As competition in PC industry becomes more and more severely,margin in this field becomes thinner and thinner. Service partsmanagement becomes more and more important and stands in the frontierof lean operations enhancement campaign of a company. However,considering complexity of categories, operations in global level andlong-term service parts management, the industry urgently needs asystematic analysis method to analyze service parts operations system,assess relevant factors’ influence on inventory and cost, and evaluate prosand cons of different operating scenarios.In the paper, it firstly reviewed historical relevant research andpapers, and chose Sterman’s general inventory management systemdynamics model as the base for following modeling process. It introducedbasic concepts, system dynamics theory、typical SD models and modelingprocesses. Secondly, we employed Delphi method to identify importantfactors and their interrelations in three rounds of anonymousquestionnaire processes. Thirdly, we built a complete stocks and flows SD model step by step and give the model right formulas and values. Fourthly,we further validated the model by testing its unit consistency, reality,extreme performance and sensitivity. On one hand, this model analyzedkey factors’ impacts on the company’s inventory, cost and their optimalvalues by four service parts demand curves types. On the another hand, itevaluated three policies, which introduce underage cost, establishing fastreplenishment channel when inventory shortage and using stepped leadtime in the model, advantages and disadvantages, and providedmanagement decisions support for enhancing the company’s operationsperformance.