Maintenance, Repair, and Operations Parts Inventory Management in the Era of Industry 4.0

Abstract This paper discusses the challenges in Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) parts inventory management and how Industry 4.0 technologies can be leveraged to address them. Additive manufacturing, Internet of Things (IoT), big data analytics, machine learning, and new smart mobility logistics models are emerging technologies that enable efficient inventory solutions for different types of MRO parts. There is no single universal strategy that works for all MRO parts due to wide variety of part attributes including usage patterns, lead-time, and cost. In this paper, we propose the clustering of MRO parts into different groups and discuss the potential strategy to improve inventory management efficiency by leveraging emerging technologies for each MRO part group.