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Abstract
The inventory of spare parts that a firm holds depends on the number of working parts and age of the equipment to be serviced, the expected failure rate associated with each working part, and the acceptable level of service. We model the problem of consolidation of spare parts to reduce overall inventory as an integer program with a nonlinear objective function. A linear reformulation of this model is obtained that helps solve some practical instances. A more compact implicit formulation is developed and solved using a specialized branch-and-price technique. We also demonstrate how this specialized branch-and-price technique is modified to devise a very effective heuristic procedure with a prespecifiable guarantee of quality of solution produced. This provides a practical and efficient methodology for maintenance spare consolidation. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]