Open Architecture, Inventory Pooling and Spare Maintenance Assets

Abstract

The adoption of open architecture affects several economic components in the life of an asset, including developmental costs, maintenance costs, and inventory management costs. This article focuses on the benefits provided by pooling together the inventory necessary to meet the demand of many users into a small number of storage sites with reduced product variety obtained with the adoption of Open Architecture (OA). The example showcased in this analysis, distribution of spare engines for the F-16 in continental United States, supports open architecture as the right design approach to reduce expenditures in the acquisition of valuable assets without compromising availability.