Breakdowns and system failures caused by insufficient maintenance can have huge effects and negative economic impact. Hence, the effective and efficient management of spare parts supply chains has become crucial for achieving competitive advantage in today’s more and more complex production networks. Spare part supply chains cover maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) services for machinery equipment by providing spare parts and service personnel at the required location and time. In practice, there is not a “one size fits all” spare part supply chain (SPSC), but they evolved over time and differ regarding several characteristics, e.g., organizational forms and structures, type of companies involved, collaborating processes and digitization. In order to assess how good companies are collaborating in a SPSC, e.g. a maturity model could be designed and applied.

Hence, this Bachelor thesis aims at developing a maturity model that addresses the assessment of collaborations and coordination of companies in a spare parts supply chain. An established approach for developing maturity models should be followed (Becker et al. 2009).

First, the relevant research domains and streams in literature of supply chain coordination and collaborations as well as spare parts supply chains should be investigated. Thereby, specific characteristics should be identified, which influence the assessment of the collaborations between two partnering companies in a SPSC as well as the coordination of companies in the entire SPSC, e.g. shared information, applied processes and procedures, connected IT systems. Following, a literature review in the domain of maturity models will cover an appropriate approach for developing the maturity model as well as synergies with existing maturity models in the area of supply chain management. The development approach will be carried out to design a maturity model for the identified organizational and collaborative characteristics of SPSC. Depending on the development approach, also elements from existing maturity models could be included.

Literature:

• Becker, Jörg; Knackstedt, Ralf; Pöppelbuß, Jens (2009): Developing Maturity Models for IT Management. A Procedure Model and its Application. In: Business & Information Systems Engineering 1 (3), S. 213–222. DOI: 10.1007/s12599-009-0044-5 .
• Lahti, M.; Shamsuzzoha, A.H.M.; Helo, P. (2009): Developing a maturity model for Supply Chain Management. In: International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management 5 (6), S. 654. DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2009.024796 .
• Meng, Xianhai; Sun, Ming; Jones, Martyn (2011): Maturity Model for Supply Chain Relationships in Construction. In: Journal of Management in Engineering 27 (2), S. 97–105. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000035 .
• Stadtler, Hartmut; Kilger, Christoph; Meyr, Herbert (Hg.) (2015): Supply Chain Management and Advanced Planning: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Springer Texts in Business and Economics).
• For first MRO insights: Baumbach, Michael; Stampfl, Alexander T. (2002): After-sales-Management. Marketing - Logistik - Organisation. München: Hanser (Pocket-Power Einkauf und Logistik, 118).
• Huiskonen, Janne (2001): Maintenance spare parts logistics: Special characteristics and strategic choices. In: International Journal of Production Economics 71 (1), S. 125–133.
• Wagner, S. M.; Lindemann, E. (2008): A case study-based analysis of spare parts management in the engineering industry. In: Production Planning & Control 19 (4), S. 397–407. DOI: 10.1080/09537280802034554 .