Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Industrial Engineering Volume 2013, Article ID 851092, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/851092 Research Article Inventory Management and Maintenance in Offshore Vessel Industry Jalel Ben Hmida, Grant Regan, and Jim Lee Systems Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Room 244 CLR Hall, P.O. Box 44170, Lafayette, LA 70504-2250, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Jalel Ben Hmida; jxb9360@louisiana.edu Received 19 November 2012; Revised 22 February 2013; Accepted 22 February 2013 Academic Editor: Anis Chelbi Copyright © 2013 Jalel Ben Hmida et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. An evaluation of the inventory policy at an ofshore vessel company was conducted. Currently the items in inventory are used at random intervals as they are used only when parts fail. To solve the problem of reducing a very large inventory but keep enough to allow an uninterrupted service to the customer, we propose a real and economically eicient multicriteria inventory policy using inventory classiication method integrated with a preventive maintenance program. he proposed method can be summarized in the following three steps: irst, rank the parts according to both the lead time from supplier and the cost of downtime failure and use a matrix display to show the most critical items. In the second step develop a preventive maintenance program for the most critical parts to minimize downtime due to failure. Finally in the third step standardize most critical parts to reduce the inventory which saves the company money while maintaining the same level of service to its customers. Our study showed that the company with a very large inventory could efectively reduce its size by focusing on key parts. 1. Introduction Due to the increasing pressure for remaining competitive in the global market place, inventory management has become a major challenge for companies to reduce costs and to improve customer service. Most manufacturing and service companies large or small have some type of inventory. he items in inventory are there to make the day-to-day operations of the company more eicient and the low of goods smoother. While too much inventory reduces capital that can be directed into other aspects of the company’s operations, not enough causes other serious problems such as loss of sales and customer dissatisfaction. he challenge then becomes to efectively coordinate the overall inventory so the optimal amounts are maintained [1]. While working with an ofshore vessel company, we have witnessed the problems regarding inventory irst hand. he company provides service to oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico. hey lease a vessel from the company for a predetermined price set by the job the vessel will perform while under contract. If the vessel is not maintained correctly and breaks, then it becomes unusable. he unusable time becomes a downtime for the vessel, resulting in a loss of revenue. At times parts are hard to ind because the vessels work from of the coast of Alabama to the southern coast of Texas, especially in an emergency situation where the vessel is in need to be repaired and returned to work right away. herefore, there is an abundance of spare parts in inventory. Also, because the oil and gas industry operates twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, the parts need to be available to the mechanics at all times. he revenue generated per day is very high and the loss due to downtime is unrecoverable, so when a vessel breaks it becomes the goal of the manager to do whatever it takes to return the vessel back to work. In doing so in this stressful situation, the inventory cost is nearly always overlooked. Customer satisfaction is the main goal, and having a fully functional vessel becomes the top priority. his insures current revenue and a satisied customer guaranteeing future revenue. To avoid a downtime in the future, when a part is replaced an extra part is bought and put into inventory for the next time it happens to break to avoid the chances of a downtime.