Readiness Starts with the Right Parts: Optimizing for the Mission

An aircraft can represent an enormous investment and still be unavailable because one inexpensive part is missing. That contrast captures a challenge at the heart of service supply chain planning: the value of an inventory decision depends on what it enables.

In a recent interview I hosted with retired U.S. Air Force Major General Brent Baker and Dr. Sanjay Jagdale, Vice President of Servigistics Technical Solutions at PTC, we explored the connection between service parts planning and readiness. Their perspectives brought operational experience and optimization science to the same question: how do organizations prepare to perform when they are needed?

Readiness is the outcome inventory must support

For (Ret) General Baker, readiness means being prepared to execute the mission when called upon. People, assets, and resources must be ready together. Service parts are one essential contributor to that broader capability.

Baker described a shift away from relying on large quantities of inventory distributed everywhere toward having the right parts in the right locations, at the right time and in the right quantities. Stocking broadly is expensive, and volume alone does not establish whether the inventory can support the mission.

The same principle applies in commercial operations. A hospital needs its equipment available. An airline needs aircraft ready for service. An industrial operator needs production assets functioning. Parts planning must connect inventory investment to those operational outcomes.

Uncertainty changes the planning problem

Jagdale explained why forecasting demand and adding safety stock is an incomplete description of service parts planning. Demand can be intermittent, replenishment lead times can vary, and expensive repairable parts circulate through return and repair loops. Inventory is also spread across bases, depots, and other locations whose decisions affect one another.

These conditions require planning for uncertainty. Historical averages cannot fully describe when a part will fail, how long a repair will take, or how deployment conditions will change future demand.

Baker illustrated the challenge with a recollection from his Air Force career: an engine repair requirement grew far beyond the original plan as aircraft operating in desert conditions experienced additional wear. The lesson is that a plan must be revisited as the operating environment changes.

For a service organization, that means examining how changes in utilization, geography, fleet configuration, and supply conditions affect the inventory needed to support its objectives.

Budget tradeoffs require evaluating consequences

The challenge becomes especially clear when resources change. If a budget falls by 10%, should purchases or stocking levels for every part also fall by 10%? Jagdale explained why that approach can miss the objective: individual parts make different contributions to fleet readiness.

Marginal analysis evaluates the consequence of an incremental change. How much money does removing one unit save, and how much does it affect the desired service or readiness outcome? Comparing those effects gives planners a basis for allocating constrained resources.

Servigistics brings purpose-built optimization to these decisions across the service network. The goal is to evaluate the mix and placement of parts against operational priorities, rather than apply a uniform adjustment whose impact is unknown.

Set the target at the level where the mission is measured

Jagdale’s closing advice was to begin with the business purpose of the location. At a forward base, fleet readiness may be the priority. At a maintenance depot, the wait for parts needed to complete work may be the more relevant measure.

Part-level fill rates can provide useful information, but they do not fully capture these aggregate objectives. Leaders need a way to connect the inventory plan to what their organization is trying to accomplish and let the optimization evaluate the supporting stocking decisions.

He also cautioned against making forecast accuracy the overriding measure of success for sporadic demand. Forecasting remains important; the practical question is whether improvements in prediction and planning translate into better operational outcomes.

That is the leadership opportunity in service parts optimization: define the mission, evaluate the uncertainty, and direct investment toward the decisions that support it. Readiness gives the inventory plan its purpose.

Watch the full conversation with retired U.S. Air Force Major General Brent Baker and Dr. Sanjay Jagdale to explore how service parts optimization, AI, and leadership contribute to mission readiness.