Industrial companies can monetise 70% of unused spare parts inventories

“We set up Marketplace as a space where industrial companies can buy and sell their stocked spare parts to each other so that they don’t end up in landfill, but one thing that has held buyers back was a lack of good quality data,” said Ben Findlay, CEO and Co-founder. “Hitting 70% data enrichment is important for us, our partners and the planet. We hope this inspires more companies to come forward and use the platform, helping drive a circular economy of surplus spare parts. Together we can reduce industrial over-consumption and have a positive impact on our planet.”

The Marketplace relies on clean and enriched data to provide buyers certainty about their purchases. For example, buyers need to know technical details and attributes about a part, such as its dimensions, which may not have been kept on file by its original buyer.

Typically, customers supply data that is only a few percent enriched, even after significant research. Machine Compare overcomes this with a process that enriches inventory data to 50% within a few minutes, with potential to reach as high as 70%. As more companies upload their spare parts onto the marketplace, its database is becoming more efficient at filling in the data gaps of uploaded parts.

Since the cost of owning spare parts is lower than the cost of an unplanned outage, the world’s industrial businesses are sitting on mountains of surplus mechanical and electrical inventory – many of which are destined for landfill. Machine Compare has calculated that a typical small to mid-sized facility will often hold inventory worth $300,000 and scrap around $100,000 of these per year. Working closely with large and small producers globally, the company has already identified spares with a potential value of at least $10bn that could be resold. Reselling would free up capital while recycling parts for their original purpose, therefore avoiding CO₂ emissions that would be needed to make new parts.

This milestone comes at a time when Machine Compare has more than $35m worth of electrical and mechanical spare parts on its platform, such as bearings, brackets, wires, connectors, and sensors. This figure is expected to quadruple in 2022.