AI System for Checking Spare Part Requests Against Equipment and Stock

The problem

When requests, equipment bills of materials, equivalence records and stock data are held in separate sources, their fields must be matched by hand before a list of part candidates and missing information can be prepared.

The maintenance stores manager must compare every suggestion in the list of part candidates and missing information with its source record; missing or conflicting evidence must not replace the final decision.

If an equivalent part whose compatibility has changed between revisions is not set aside for review, an incompatible part could be reserved; the record must not proceed without a human decision.

What we set out to improve

• Time taken for a draft list of part candidates and missing information, together with its supporting evidence, to reach the maintenance stores manager for review
• How records set aside for human review because an equivalent part's compatibility has changed between revisions are resolved
• Number of suggestions corrected after identifying a risk that an incompatible part could be reserved

How the system works

1. 01 Retrieve the request, equipment bill of materials, equivalence records and stock data from permitted sources using the record identifier
2. 02 Link source, date and version information to the shared work record
3. 03 Validate fields and units
4. 04 Prepare the list of part candidates and missing information with its supporting evidence
5. 05 Check for an exception: an equivalent part's compatibility has changed between revisions
6. 06 Have the maintenance stores manager accept, revise or reject the suggestion
7. 07 Record the approved decision and its source in the processing log

Methods we used

• A source-identified common data schema for the request, equipment bill of materials, equivalence records and stock data
• A decision structure that separates deterministic rules from AI suggestions
• A review screen showing the list of part candidates and missing information alongside the underlying source evidence
• A mandatory human review queue when an equivalent part's compatibility has changed between revisions
• An event identifier that prevents duplicate processing

Where people stay involved

Data and security

Only the fields required for this decision should be processed from the request, equipment bill of materials, equivalence records and stock data. Access to the source systems must be authorised separately from the maintenance stores manager role, and personal data, commercial information and technical secrets must not be passed into the model context unnecessarily. Reading, suggestions and human decisions must be logged separately.

Who this suits

Frequently asked questions