5 Tips for Building a Spare Parts Inventory & Why You Need One

Nothing is more frustrating than a CNC machine breakdown. Except waiting for the repair parts to arrive. That’s why the Gosiger Parts Department provides 24/7/365 access to its own $10,000,000 spare parts inventory and $40,000,000 of additional inventory from their OEM partners. 

However, a CNC shop can often get back up and running even faster if it has an inventory of critical spare parts on hand. Naturally, you don’t want to tie up dollars unnecessarily, but it makes good sense to have a well thought out list of replacement parts in your facility. So how do you determine which parts to stock? Here are a few guidelines:

1. Start by looking over the maintenance/technical manuals for each machine. That’s where you can identify the items you most often need to replace. Typical maintenance items include batteries, filters, way wipers, coolant pins and other consumables. 

2. Set up an inventory control system. List the part identification numbers by machine model and set a baseline quantity to keep on hand. When routine maintenance depletes the quantity of a part to its baseline, it’s time to reorder. 

3. In addition to basic replacement parts, you may want to keep a supply of small items such as electrical switches on hand. Depending on the type of machine, it may also be a good idea to keep certain other electrical or mechanical parts in stock. 

4. Although stocking such major replacement components as drives, encoders, ball screws, tool changer assemblies or attachment heads is usually not necessary, if you have a CNC machine that you simply can’t afford to be without, you may wish to add such items to your inventory. 

5. If you need help in putting together a spare parts inventory, contact the Gosiger Parts Department: partsales@gosiger.com or your local Gosiger facility