Sustainable Supply Model of Rotating Equipment Spare Parts in Iran’s Oil Industry using a Combined Approach of System Dynamics (SD) and Strategic Assumptions Surfacing and Testing (SAST)

Abstract

The supply of rotating equipment for the oil industry poses a serious risk to the sustainable production of the products due to equipment wear, high costs, and high downtime. In this research, a systematic intervention is done in the system of sustainable supply of rotating equipment spare-parts in the oil industry as to the Abadan Oil Refinery National Company’s data, applying a combined approach of System Dynamics (SD) and Strategic Assumptions Surfacing and Testing (SAST), and the agreed solutions are extracted as: 1) economic sustainability, namely oil industry investment in spare-parts’ manufacturing industry, reforming the repair-maintenance contracts, and monitoring the process of designing and manufacturing the spare-parts, 2) social sustainability, say, amending the law on supply tenders, transferring the experience among the spare parts’ manufacturers and the oil industry specialists, and increasing the user training and safety training, and 3) environmental sustainability, including decommissioning worn-out equipment and replacing with green equipment, observing the safety and environmental standards, and reviewing the preventive predictive maintenance program. The results show that the sustainable supply of spare-parts will improve by combining the three strategies of economic, social and environmental sustainability, accompanied by government support of the spare-parts’ manufacturing industry and local specialists’ training plans.

Keywords

• sustainable supply of the spare parts
• sustainable maintenance
• rotating equipment in the oil industry
• system dynamics
• strategic assumptions surfacing and testing