Introduction

The global rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure has entered a new phase. With millions of public and private chargers now deployed worldwide and annual additions growing at over 30%, the industry’s attention is shifting from deployment speed toward uptime, reliability, and operational efficiency.

EV Charger Asset Management Systems have emerged as the backbone of this transition. They track charger connectivity, faults, utilisation, and performance. Yet in many deployments, one critical operational dependency still remains unintegrated into asset management: spare parts.

A charger may be continuously monitored, but if the right spare part is unavailable or incompatible, repairs stall. From an operational perspective, that charger is effectively offline. This gap between asset visibility and repair readiness is one of the key areas where charging networks lose uptime, time, and money.

Why Spare Parts Can’t Sit Outside Asset Management

In practice, spare parts determine how quickly a charger can return to service. Asset data can tell operators what would have failed, but in most cases spare parts data determines how fast it can be fixed.

When spare parts are managed separately through spreadsheets or disconnected inventory tools several problems surface:

·   Technicians are dispatched without certainty that the correct part is available in the warehouse.

·    In large-scale EV charging operations, inventory problems are rarely about not having parts, but about not knowing which part is where, why it was used, and whether it solved the problem.

·    Spare parts are not linked to past repair outcomes, forcing technicians into trial-and-error replacements and repeat site visits.

This is not a tooling issue alone. It’s a process mismatch. EV chargers are service-critical assets, and spare parts are a direct dependency of their availability.

A Simple Spare Parts Flow in Iris R-One That Scales 

R-One is built around a straightforward idea:
spare parts should move as smoothly as the chargers they support.

Here’s how the flow works in practice.

Clear part creation
Every spare part is created once using standard master data, including minimum quantity values, and an auto-generated part number. This avoids duplicates and confusion later. Supplier details are captured at the same time, so teams always know where the part came from.

One place to see all spares
All spares live in a single, central inventory linked to invoice records. Whether a part is new, in stock, or already used, it’s easy to find, review and view history without jumping between systems.

Live assignment to chargers
Spares can be assigned or removed from a station, CPID, or client with a few clicks, and the current spare data against each station/CPID can be easily viewed.

Clean handling of damaged parts
When a spare is damaged or no longer usable, it’s marked and moved out of active stock. It stays visible in history, but it doesn’t clutter the working inventory.

Full history always available
Every spare keeps a complete record of where it has been when and why it was assigned, moved, or archived. This restores traceability and simplifies future operational decisions.

Simple reports that answer real questions
Stock in, stock out, faulty parts, current balance is all visible at a glance for specific dates. 

Setting Minimum Spare Quantities the Right Way

R-One has the capability to setup minimum quantity value against a spare master data that would trigger warnings on lower stock level in the inventory. Guesswork in this quantity levels may lead either to stockouts or overstocking.

A simple, practical approach is to ask four questions for every spare:

1.    Can the component be replaced quickly once technicians are on-site?

2.    Is the supplier lead time lengthy or inconsistent?

3.    Is the component shared across multiple sites or charger models?

4.    Does a failure result in complete operational downtime?

Translating Answers into Action

·   If a part causes complete downtime, has long lead times, and is used widely → it requires a higher minimum quantity

·   If impact is partial and sourcing is reliable → a moderate minimum is sufficient

·   If the part is non-critical and easy to source → keep a low minimum, monitored rather than heavily stocked

This shifts minimum quantity planning from intuition to risk-based decision making.

KPIs That Show Why Spare Parts Management is necessary

A focused set of KPIs to understand the current state is mentioned below:

·      Stockout incidents

·      Repeat failures by part type

·      First-time fix rate

·      Inventory turns

·      Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)

·      Charger uptime

Together, these metrics will show you how spare parts strategy is improving reliability.

Conclusion - Turning Spare Parts into an Operational Strength

As EV charging networks mature, asset management must go beyond monitoring and alerts. Repair readiness becomes just as important as fault detection.

Spare parts are not passive inventory. They are also a part of the operational enablers of charger uptime.

By embedding spare parts into the asset management workflow, linking them to chargers and history, operators can move away from reactive maintenance toward predictable, scalable operations.

This is where Iris R-One brings value by structuring spare parts management as part of the EV charger asset lifecycle, managing the spare data accurately, restoring traceability, reducing trial-and-error, and helping charging networks stay online as they scale.