THESIS
2013
x, 90 p. : ill. ; 30 cm
Abstract
In this thesis, we study the design of a service parts system for system maintenance in the after-sale supply chain. With the increasing demand to secure critical system uptime, it is crucial to have spare parts that are organized and accessible. However, storing spare parts in various locations can lead to high costs. In recent years, due to the advancement of third-party logistics for expedited service and in response to this emerging trend, an increasing number of manufacturers have started to provide different service contracts, such as a next day service and a special expedited service. Through an appropriate service contract, users could then outsource the management of spare parts to service providers, apart from solely managing the on-site spare parts in the traditional approach...[
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In this thesis, we study the design of a service parts system for system maintenance in the after-sale supply chain. With the increasing demand to secure critical system uptime, it is crucial to have spare parts that are organized and accessible. However, storing spare parts in various locations can lead to high costs. In recent years, due to the advancement of third-party logistics for expedited service and in response to this emerging trend, an increasing number of manufacturers have started to provide different service contracts, such as a next day service and a special expedited service. Through an appropriate service contract, users could then outsource the management of spare parts to service providers, apart from solely managing the on-site spare parts in the traditional approach.
The system design of service parts systems incorporates the considerations of service contracts with different response time agreements, on-site spare parts, component failure uncertainty, component variety and the impact of component failure for different users. Under the framework of the axiomatic design theory, we identify customer attributes, functional requirements, design parameters and process variables in the service parts system. We then analyze the configuration of service options by modeling the user decisions on selecting the most suitable service contracts and optional on-site spare parts for system maintenance. With greater understanding of selection decision from different users, we study the design of inventory pool structures in the operation to support the part requests with two major types of service contracts. The contributions of these research studies are not only to design a mass customized service parts system for service providers to satisfy different user requirements with the operational efficiency, but also to align with various user decisions in the service parts fulfillment strategies in the after-sale supply chain.
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