Advanced inventory planning and forecasting solutions: a case study of the UKTLCS Chinook maintenance programme

This article which advances on earlier published work by the authors, evaluates the forecasting performance of the inventory planning and forecasting support system used by Boeings United Kingdom Through Life Customer Support to manage inventory for the maintenance of the Royal Air force fleet of Chinook helicopters. Focussing mainly on a sample of the spare-part components considered most influential on maintenance costs, limitations in the current forecasting system are identified. Approaches for improving forecasting performance are explored using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)-based tools. It is found that generic proprietary inventory and forecasting systems can be enhanced by using VBA tools that allow detailed examination of each components demand time series. For propriety reasons, all data have been sanitised.