Global demand for spare parts is already sky high. According to the Spare Parts Manufacturing Market Report 2025, the industry is on a rapid growth trajectory with projections expanding from $425.2 billion in 2021 to $813.0 billion by 2033.
Growth trajectories are seen across industries, from manufacturing and automotive to energy and construction, as manufacturers are under pressure to balance spare parts availability against inventory costs. This pressure is increasing as manufacturers work to control tied-up capital, reduce waste, and maintain service levels without carrying more stock than necessary.
In this article, we’ll explore how digital inventories are transforming spare parts management. For UK manufacturers, this shift is increasingly important as supply-chain volatility and long-term product support commitments place pressure on traditional inventory models.
Spare Parts Management: The Rise of Digital Inventories
Spare parts are necessary alongside the production of almost every product on the market today. Whether the spare parts are needed for replacements, repairs, or upgrades, they are vital to ensure products continue to serve customers.
Many UK manufacturers are supporting their operations by making their inventories digital; additive manufacturing spare parts on demand to save costs, time, and keep projects on track. A digital inventory provides the structured data foundation, while additive manufacturing enables those parts to be produced only when required.
The solution is an attractive one. Beyond the obvious cost savings, the environmental benefits and reduced part obsolescence have the potential to be immense.
The Costs and Limitations of Traditional Manufacturing
While digital inventories and additive manufacturing offer flexibility and efficiency, the traditional spare-parts model is far less agile. Conventional production would require storing critical spare parts with uncertain demand. This meant bulk ordering, excessive storage costs, and supporting spare parts for many years only to find the supplier or tooling is no longer available when they’re needed again.
A closer look at the traditional spare-parts network reveals several compounding issues:
- Manufacturing parts that may never be required
- Maintaining large physical inventories over long periods
- Spare parts becoming obsolete before they’re needed
- Scrapping obsolete or unused inventory
These challenges often result in capital being locked into stock that may never be used, alongside the risk of tooling or suppliers becoming unavailable over time.
The situation becomes even more challenging when a product approaches the end of its lifecycle. Manufacturers must place a Final Order to cover all future spare-part needs once production stops. Accurately estimating this quantity is challenging, prompting miscalculations that can often lead to significant financial losses, unnecessary waste, and environmental impact from unused stock.
Together, these factors make the traditional spare-parts model both costly and inefficient. Digital inventories paired with on-demand additive manufacturing are transforming this landscape, allowing companies to produce only what’s needed, when it’s needed.
How Digital Inventories Transform Spare Parts Management
Digital inventories fundamentally change the way manufacturers manage, store, and produce spare parts. Instead of holding large quantities of physical stock, manufacturers can maintain a virtual library of validated part files that are ready to be produced when required.
This shift removes the dependence on bulky warehouses and replaces it with an agile, data-driven system built around real demand. The value is not just in the production technology, it’s in eliminating the need to forecast years in advance or commit to expensive Final Orders. Every part becomes a made-to-order asset, dramatically reducing the financial and operational risks associated with traditional models.
The Benefits of Digital Spare-Part Inventories
Reduced Costs: Digital inventories are held in an online space, meaning they eliminate physical storage costs. This allows manufacturers to maintain inventories of all sizes without shouldering the expenses of physical storage facilities. It also reduces capital tied up in slow-moving or rarely used parts.
Streamlined Operations: Digital inventories are streamlining the spare part procurement process, allowing manufacturers to order what they need when they need it. This reduces administrative burdens, risk of error, and gets spare parts in the hands of the people who need them, faster. It also improves traceability by ensuring the correct, validated file is always used for production.
Supports Distributed Manufacturing: Parts that are digitally stored can be securely shared with approved production partners anywhere in the world. This reduces logistics, shipping emissions and delays, while increasing supply chain resilience.
Reduced Material Waste: Digital inventories significantly reduce waste as they allow parts to be produced on demand, eliminating excess stock and part obsolescence.
Improved Responsiveness: Digital spare parts can be produced as and when required, reducing lead times while allowing manufacturers to meet changes in customer demands and the wider market. This is particularly valuable for low-volume, legacy, or specialist parts where traditional lead times can be lengthy.
Protected Designs: Secure digital inventories let manufacturers authorise spare part production through trusted suppliers. This ensures designs are protected at every stage of the production process.
Preparing for the Shift: Digital Inventories and DfAM
As manufacturers move towards digital spare-parts strategies, many will need to adapt their internal processes to fully leverage the benefits. Building and managing a digital inventory requires accurate 3D models, consistent data standards, and workflows designed for on-demand production.
At the same time, adopting Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) enables companies to redesign parts specifically for 3D printing by optimising weight, material, performance, cost, and sustainability beyond the limits of traditional manufacturing. Digital inventories deliver their full value when spare parts are intentionally designed or adapted for on-demand production rather than simply replicated from traditional designs.
This transition represents a major opportunity, while also introducing new technical and organisational considerations that many teams are navigating for the first time.
How Truform Supports Manufacturers in This Transition
Truform helps manufacturers make this shift with confidence. Our capabilities span the full digitisation and additive manufacturing pipeline:
- 3D scanning and reverse engineering to convert existing physical parts into accurate digital models
- Digital inventory service that stores, structures, and validates part files for long-term use
- DfAM expertise, ensuring parts are optimised specifically for additive manufacturing
- On-demand production using advanced 3D printing technologies and materials
- Technical guidance and support throughout the transition to digital spare parts management
We support teams as they update internal processes, helping them establish reliable workflows for digital and on-demand spare-parts production.
With Truform, manufacturing more efficiently isn’t a pipe dream, it’s a reality. Get in touch with us today to start your digital inventory journey.