Recommended spare parts lists, drafted from the as-built BOM in the buyer's own layout.

Near the end of a build, the buyer's project expects a recommended spare parts list, often on its own template and by a date the PO sets. Your parts manager works down the as-built BOM, picks out wear parts, long-lead buyouts and parts that would stop the line, copies maker numbers from data sheets, fills in the buyer's columns and decides how many of each to recommend.

In the proof of concept, AI works through copies of machines you already shipped and drafts each list the way that buyer asked for it: every candidate line from the as-built BOM, your part number beside the maker's, how many the machine carries, and where your past lists put the same part. The quantity, price and category columns stay empty, and each line the draft was unsure of carries its reason.

The buyer's spares clause sets the headings. One published specification for the reject handling system of a coal-fired power unit splits spares three ways. Mandatory spares come from the owner's own list, each priced and counted when bids are compared. Recommended spares cover three years of normal operation; their prices are not evaluated, and the owner may buy any of them or none. Start-up and commissioning spares are the contractor's to bring to site, and any left unused when the taking-over certificate is issued stay the contractor's property. Other buyers group spares for two years of operation, or set capital and insurance spares apart. The draft keeps each buyer's headings, and a line that fits none of them goes to your parts manager.

Quantities come in the buyer's units. The same specification states some quantities as a share of every such item in the whole station, rounded up to a whole number. A set of bearings for a pump means every bearing in it plus the fitting hardware, and left-hand, right-hand, mirror-image or opposite-rotation assemblies count as separate items. Bidders also state each item's population per unit and its expected service life. So the draft fills in only what your records prove: how many of each part one machine carries, which handed versions it has, and a service life where your maintenance schedule gives one.

Some buyers want maker numbers and no prices. One machine tool maker's published guideline for its suppliers wants every line to carry an item number, quantity, designation, material, the original manufacturer and its part number, and an E or V mark for a spare or wear part, with each part positioned on the assembly drawing. It refuses lists drawn on drawing sheets, synonymous numbers in place of the maker's order number, and prices, and wants the lists once the supplier's engineering ends, ahead of the machine. An automotive paint-systems supplier asks for the maker's part number on every spare and wear part too, while the power specification above prices every line. NFPA 79 ends its documentation chapter with a parts list section, 17.10 in the 2024 edition. The draft keeps your number and the maker's together and leaves every price blank.

The category is a decision, not a lookup. Under IAS 16, paragraph 8, a buyer reporting under IFRS treats spare parts, stand-by equipment and servicing equipment as property, plant and equipment when they meet that definition, and as inventory otherwise, so a spare gearbox may sit on a capital list while belts and seals sit under operating spares. Annex I of the Machinery Directive, at 1.7.4.2(t), has the manual specify the spare parts to use wherever they affect operators' health and safety, so the list and the manual should agree. Builders tier their own lists too: one keeps wear items for annual preventive maintenance, plus low-cost parts that could stop the machine, in a first level, and a wider set of critical parts in a second. The draft shows where your past lists placed a similar part, and never picks a tier, a category or what is critical.

Your reviewer. The owner names the person who knows your spares lists best, often the parts or aftermarket manager. They lay each draft beside the list your team sent and the version the buyer accepted: lines found and missed, headings and columns, maker part numbers, quantities fitted, handed parts and every flagged line. Include an order for several identical machines, a buyer template your team rarely sees, and a list the buyer sent back.

After a yes, each machine whose as-built BOM is released gets a draft spares list in its buyer's layout, for about 30 days.

Your parts manager sets every quantity and price, edits the list and sends it from your own system. Lines flagged for engineering go there first, and each live list is scored on the same table as the test.