A simulation system for aerospace spare inventory management and decision support

Airlines can minimize the chances of flights arriving at airports with failed components and no replacements by positioning spare components at strategically selected airports. In this paper, we describe a high-fidelity simulation system that can simulate component failures, replace-and-repair cycles, and inventory re-balancing policies in global commercial passenger flights. This simulation system is used together with other modules such as a user interface and an optimizer to provide inventory management and decision support for airlines or maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) service providers. We present some results from simulating failures of critical and non-critical spare components and show how they can be of use for decision support in the inventory management.