OPUS10 – More than Spare Parts Optimization

To many, OPUS10 – one of the software tools in Opus Suite – is synonymous with cost effective spare parts optimization. With its realistic modeling of technology and support solution, rapid calculations, and results that reduce the spare part investment by 30% or more – while also increasing system availability – OPUS10 has become an industry standard in this field. But as you will find below, it has a lot more to offer.

Spare Parts Optimization

OPUS10 is ideal for finding the most cost effective answer to questions such as:

• What spare parts assortment should I have in stock, and how should I allocate it to the different stock facilities to ensure maximum overall performance at the lowest possible cost?
• A high average performance is great but not enough. I have multiple performance requirements that differ per location and system type. What is then the most cost effective spare parts assortment and allocation?
• How should the spare parts solution be progressively adjusted to ensure cost effective support during a time phased scenario (like a stepwise roll out or phase out of systems)? 
• For each component and type of failure, should the component be repaired or discarded when it fails?
• Where is it optimal that repairs occur, locally or centrally?
• What will the spare parts inventory cost given my target performance and support solution restrictions (if such restrictions apply)?
• How will efficiency and costs be affected if e.g. prices, failure rates or lead times increase by X%?

Evaluation of Support Solutions

While spare parts optimization is a core capability and the most common application, OPUS10 provides indispensable decision support in a wide range of situations. It is possible to optimize the entire maintenance concept, to evaluate and comparing alternative support solutions and to make decisions about:

• What is the most cost effective support organization structure?
• Where in the organization should maintenance equipment and personnel be located
• Should all or part of the maintenance be outsourced?
• How many warehouses do I need, and where should they be located?
• What is the most cost effective transport solution?
• How sensitive is my solution to changes or data inaccuracy?
• How should the support organization and spare parts inventory be adjusted during stepwise ramp up or phase-out?

Evaluation of Technical Systems

Another application area is to evaluate different technical systems and find answers to questions such as:

• What system design and configuration are optimal from a supportability perspective?
• Which component choice is the most cost effective from a life cycle perspective, the one with a higher price and better reliability, or the one with a lower price and somewhat lesser quality?
• What component upgrades and design changes are worth the investment because of increased performance and/or reduced cost of ownership?

Modeling and Optimization of Different Scenarios

OPUS10 is scalable and flexible, and can handle smaller scenarios with a handful of components and a few locations to large programs with thousands of components and a complex support solution. The effective optimization algorithms means that even large cases will be optimized in seconds. OPUS10 is capable of accommodating;

• repairable components, discardable / re-ordered items and a combination of these,
• scheduled and unscheduled maintenance,
• time phased scenarios where systems are gradually introduced or phased out
  item specific support solutions,
• physical or maintenance based product breakdown structures
  different criticality levels for components,
• multiple optimization requirements per e.g. location, unit or system type.

Read more about application areas