Best Practices in Developing Proactive Supply Strategies for Air Force Low-Demand Service Parts

Abstract : The Air Force uses thousands of parts to maintain its aircraft. While some of these are replaced quite often, most of them, in fact, are needed infrequently. Of nearly 60,000 items the Air Force requisitioned in a recent three-year period, nearly three in four had no more than a half dozen annual requisitions. Difficulties in developing effective supply strategies for these "low-demand" parts can cause problems in maintaining aircraft just as problems in purchasing and supply chain management for more frequently used parts can. In fact, the unpredictability of needs for low-demand parts, as well as the difficulties in attaining them from suppliers who find them less lucrative to produce than more commonly used parts, can mean that they pose even more challenges for Air Force operations than do parts with higher demands. Low-demand parts also pose challenges to Air Force purchasing and supply chain management goals, such as those for reducing sourcing cycle time, improving supply material availability, and decreasing material purchase and repair costs, particularly when low-demand parts are used by larger, more expensive parts and assemblies.