Doc #88 — Spare Parts Triage and Cannibalisation Strategy

---

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS BY ACTUAL URGENCY

First week

1. Classify cannibalisation framework design as a planning priority — not because parts are being consumed at an alarming rate (most equipment stops running when fuel is rationed, automatically preserving parts), but because early framework design prevents chaotic informal stripping that destroys record-keeping and priority access.
2. Issue a national directive: no scrapping, disposal, or informal stripping of any industrial equipment, commercial machinery, or electronic systems without authorisation. Existing auto dismantlers, scrap dealers, and e-waste processors are notified that their operations now fall under national resource authority oversight.
3. Designate existing auto wrecking yards, industrial surplus dealers, and equipment auction houses as controlled cannibalisation facilities. These businesses already have the infrastructure, tools, and expertise. Their role changes from commercial to strategic, but their operations continue.

First month

4. Begin the equipment census as a specific module within the national asset census (Doc #8). Priority census categories: power generation and distribution equipment, water treatment plant components, hospital and medical devices, telecommunications infrastructure, food processing equipment, and agricultural machinery.
5. Inventory NZ’s existing commercial spare parts stocks — auto parts wholesalers, industrial suppliers (Bearing & Transmission Distributors, BSC, CBC Bearings, Motion Industries NZ), electrical wholesalers (Ideal Electrical, Rexel), and electronic component distributors. These stocks are a strategic reserve equivalent in importance to fuel stocks.
6. Identify and classify all skilled personnel: automotive mechanics, industrial electricians, electronic technicians, millwrights, instrumentation technicians, biomedical equipment technicians. These are critical-skills personnel (Doc #1, Doc #156).
7. Begin the triage classification of major equipment systems nationally — assign every significant piece of equipment to Category 1 (nationally critical), Category 2 (regionally essential), Category 3 (important but substitutable), or Category 4 (donor pool). Section 2 provides the classification framework.

First 3 months

8. Establish regional spare parts registries — centralised records of what parts have been stripped, from what equipment, in what condition, and where they are stored. This can begin as a paper-based system and migrate to a digital database as capacity allows.
9. Set up regional cannibalisation workshops with proper tooling, storage, and record-keeping at existing auto dismantlers and industrial maintenance facilities.
10. Begin systematic cannibalisation of Category 4 (donor pool) equipment — starting with the highest-demand parts for Category 1 systems.
11. Establish parts storage facilities with environmental controls appropriate to the parts being stored (Section 6).
12. Begin cross-training programs: automotive mechanics learning industrial maintenance, electricians learning electronic repair, general tradespeople learning systematic disassembly and component testing (Doc #156).

First year

13. Regional spare parts registries operational and interconnected (at least by telephone and periodic written reports, even if digital networking is impractical).
14. First round of Category 4 donor stripping substantially complete for high-demand components.
15. Parts fabrication capability developing at machine shops (Doc #91) to supplement cannibalised stocks for items that can be locally manufactured — gaskets, bushings, simple brackets, some bearing housings.
16. Storage protocols demonstrated effective: random audit of stored parts shows acceptable degradation rates.

Ongoing (Phases 2–5)

17. Progressive cannibalisation of Category 3 equipment as Category 2 and 1 systems require parts.
18. Development of local manufacturing capability progressively reduces dependence on cannibalised parts for simple mechanical components (Doc #91, Doc #92, Doc #93).
19. Electronic components remain cannibalisation-dependent indefinitely — there is no local production pathway for semiconductors, capacitors, precision resistors, or printed circuit boards within the planning horizon of this document.
20. Parts registry evolves into a national equipment maintenance database, tracking not just cannibalised parts but the condition and maintenance history of all critical equipment.

---

ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION

The value of what is being preserved

NZ’s installed base of equipment represents hundreds of billions of dollars of pre-event replacement value — a figure that is meaningless under recovery conditions. What matters is the functional value: a working water treatment plant serves 50,000 people. A functioning telecommunications switch connects an entire district. A hospital ventilator supports a patient who otherwise dies.

The economic justification for a cannibalisation programme is therefore not measured in dollars but in functional years of critical infrastructure operation.

The cost of not acting

Without systematic cannibalisation, critical equipment fails and stays failed. The alternative to cannibalisation is either local fabrication (possible for some mechanical parts, impossible for electronics — see Doc #91) or doing without. “Doing without” a water treatment plant means untreated water. “Doing without” a hospital X-ray machine means diagnostic blindness. “Doing without” a telecommunications switch means loss of connectivity for a district.

Programme labour cost

A national cannibalisation programme requires approximately:

• Administrative overhead: 50–100 person-years per year for registry maintenance, priority allocation decisions, and logistics coordination across all regions.³
• Skilled labour for stripping and testing: 200–500 person-years per year, depending on the pace of cannibalisation. This labour comes primarily from existing mechanics, electricians, and technicians who are underemployed anyway under recovery conditions (most commercial repair work ceases when new equipment stops being purchased).
• Storage management: 20–50 person-years per year for parts warehousing and condition monitoring.

These are estimates, not calculations — the actual figures depend on the scale of cannibalisation activity, which depends on equipment failure rates, which are themselves uncertain. The total — roughly 300–650 person-years per year — is significant but modest relative to the infrastructure it preserves. For comparison, a single water treatment plant serving a city of 50,000 people, if it fails for want of a control board (pre-event replacement cost in the range of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the system), would require either an alternative water supply (hundreds of person-years to develop) or would cause illness and death that far exceeds any labour investment in parts management.

Breakeven

The programme pays for itself the first time a cannibalised part keeps a critical system running that would otherwise have failed. Given the number and variety of critical systems in NZ, this almost certainly occurs within the first months of operation. The economic case is not close — the question is not whether to do this, but how well to organise it.

---

1. THE CONCEPT: SYSTEMATIC CANNIBALISATION

1.1 What cannibalisation is

Cannibalisation is the controlled removal of serviceable components from one piece of equipment (the “donor”) to maintain another piece of equipment (the “recipient”) in operational condition. The donor is degraded or destroyed in the process; the recipient’s operational life is extended.

This is distinct from:

• Scavenging — uncontrolled, opportunistic removal of parts without regard to priority, record-keeping, or the donor’s potential future value. Scavenging is what happens when people strip abandoned cars for parts they need right now. It is inefficient, destroys potentially useful donor units, and creates no records.
• Repair — restoring a piece of equipment using new or remanufactured parts. Under recovery conditions, repair and cannibalisation converge: the “new” part comes from a donor unit rather than a factory.
• Parts fabrication — manufacturing replacement components locally. This is the long-term solution for mechanical parts (Doc #91) but is impossible for electronic components and impractical for many precision mechanical components in the near term.

1.2 Military precedent

Cannibalisation is standard practice in every military logistics system in the world. The NZ Defence Force, like all modern militaries, maintains cannibalization protocols for aircraft, vehicles, and equipment.⁴ The US military’s cannibalisation system (CANN) is extensively documented and provides a template for civilian adaptation. Key principles from military practice:

• Designated donors: Specific units are formally designated as parts donors. They are not randomly stripped — they are selected based on condition assessment and the donor’s remaining operational value relative to the recipients it can support.
• Authorisation required: No cannibalisation occurs without formal authorisation from the maintenance authority. This prevents informal stripping that degrades future parts availability.
• Full documentation: Every part removed is recorded — what it is, what condition it is in, where it came from, where it went, and when. This documentation is essential for tracking parts availability and predicting future shortages.
• Reversibility where possible: Some cannibalisation is reversible — if a better solution materialises, the donor can be restored. Documentation enables this.
• Priority-driven: Parts flow from lower-priority to higher-priority systems. A training aircraft is stripped before an operational aircraft. A transport helicopter is stripped before an attack helicopter. The civilian equivalent: a commercial coffee machine is stripped before a hospital dialysis machine.

1.3 The scale of NZ’s parts reservoir

NZ holds an enormous quantity of equipment, most of which will sit idle under recovery conditions:

Category	Approximate quantity	Primary parts value
Registered vehicles	~4.4 million5	Bearings, electrical components, motors, pumps, hoses, fasteners, glass, rubber, steel, copper, aluminium
Farm tractors and machinery	~80,000–120,000 tractors; uncounted implements6	Hydraulic components, bearings, gears, PTO shafts, electrical systems
Industrial equipment (factories, workshops)	Unknown — census required	Motors, drives, controls, bearings, seals, sensors, instrumentation
Consumer electronics (computers, phones, TVs)	~5–8 million computers; ~5 million smartphones; millions of other devices7	Semiconductors, capacitors, resistors, connectors, displays, batteries, wire
Commercial equipment (HVAC, refrigeration, kitchen)	Unknown — census required	Compressors, motors, thermostats, contactors, relays, copper tubing
Medical devices	Unknown — census required (hospitals + GP practices + dental)	Precision electronics, sensors, pumps, displays, batteries, specialised connectors
Telecommunications infrastructure	~5,500–7,000 cell sites; fibre network equipment nationwide8	Optical transceivers, power amplifiers, baseband units, switches, routers, power supplies

The vehicles alone contain hundreds of millions of individual components. The electronics contain billions of discrete components (resistors, capacitors, integrated circuits). The total parts reservoir is large relative to any single system’s needs — the challenge is not scarcity of parts in aggregate but matching the right part to the right need at the right time.

---

2. THE TRIAGE FRAMEWORK

2.1 Four-category system

All significant equipment in NZ is classified into one of four triage categories based on its contribution to national recovery. This classification determines priority access to cannibalised spare parts and determines which equipment is protected and which enters the donor pool.

Category 1 — Nationally Critical

Equipment whose failure directly threatens life, public health, or the continuation of nationally essential services. Category 1 equipment receives first access to all spare parts, including cannibalised components from any lower category.

Examples: - Electrical grid infrastructure — generators, transformers, switchgear, protection relays, SCADA control systems (Doc #67, Doc #69) - Water treatment and distribution — pumps, chemical dosing systems, filtration equipment, telemetry - Hospital equipment — ventilators, anaesthesia machines, monitors, imaging systems, sterilisation equipment, laboratory analysers - Telecommunications core network — backbone routers, optical terminal equipment, exchange switches, critical cell sites (Doc #127) - Emergency services equipment — fire appliance pumps, ambulance medical equipment, police communications - National government communications and computing systems

Category 2 — Regionally Essential

Equipment whose failure significantly degrades regional economic function or food production. Category 2 receives spare parts after Category 1 needs are met.

Examples: - Food processing and dairy factory equipment — milking machines, pasteurisers, refrigeration, meat processing lines - Agricultural machinery — tractors, harvesters, irrigation pumps, grain handling equipment - Regional transport — essential-use vehicles (Doc #6), freight trucks, buses, rail equipment - Regional hospital and health centre equipment beyond intensive care - Secondary telecommunications — non-critical cell sites, local distribution equipment - Commercial fishing vessel equipment — engines, refrigeration, navigation electronics - Forestry and sawmill equipment - Machine shops and fabrication workshops (Doc #91) — lathes, mills, grinders and their electronic controls

Category 3 — Important but Substitutable

Equipment that provides useful function but whose loss can be worked around with manual alternatives, reduced capability, or reallocation of capacity from other sources. Category 3 receives parts only after Categories 1 and 2 are satisfied. Category 3 equipment is not itself cannibalised unless it becomes clear that its operational value is permanently less than its parts value.

Examples: - Non-essential commercial vehicles - Office and administrative equipment — printers, copiers, non-critical computers - Retail and commercial refrigeration (beyond food safety requirements) - Building heating and ventilation systems (not in hospitals or critical facilities) - Non-essential manufacturing equipment - Domestic appliances in institutional settings (laundries, kitchens) where manual alternatives exist

Category 4 — Donor Pool

Equipment formally designated for cannibalisation. This includes: - Equipment damaged beyond economic repair (the cost in labour and parts to restore it exceeds its operational value) - Surplus units where fewer are needed than exist (e.g., if NZ needs 50 working MRI scanners but has 80, the 30 worst-condition units enter the donor pool) - Equipment made obsolete by changed conditions (e.g., commercial espresso machines, vending machines, gaming consoles) - Vehicles designated for cannibalisation under Doc #6 fleet triage - Equipment voluntarily surrendered by owners who no longer need it

2.2 Classification authority

Classification decisions involve balancing competing needs across regions and sectors. The authority structure:

National level: The National Resource Authority (NRA, established under Doc #1) sets the triage framework, defines category criteria, and resolves disputes between regions. The NRA maintains a national registry of Category 1 equipment and allocates nationally scarce components (e.g., if only three replacement circuit boards for a specific transformer relay exist in NZ, the NRA decides which three transformers get them).

Regional level: Regional engineering authorities (established under the Emergency Governance Framework, Doc #143) classify equipment within their regions, manage regional spare parts registries, and coordinate cannibalisation operations. Regional authorities handle the vast majority of parts allocation decisions — most spare parts needs are routine and do not require national-level intervention.

Sector specialists: Medical equipment classification should involve clinical engineers and medical staff. Telecommunications equipment classification should involve network engineers. Power grid equipment classification should involve Transpower and distribution company engineers. The triage framework is set nationally, but technical assessment of individual equipment items requires domain expertise.

2.3 Reclassification

Equipment moves between categories as conditions change:

• A factory that was non-essential becomes essential when it is repurposed for critical production — its equipment moves from Category 3 to Category 2.
• A Category 2 tractor suffers a catastrophic engine failure that cannot be repaired — it moves to Category 4 (donor pool), and its still-functional hydraulic pump, alternator, and starter motor are available for other tractors.
• A hospital scanner is Category 1, but when a second identical scanner arrives (cannibalised from a mothballed hospital), the worse-condition unit may be reclassified to Category 4.

Reclassification must be documented and approved by the appropriate regional or national authority.

---

3. VEHICLE FLEET AS PARTS RESERVOIR

3.1 Scale and composition

Doc #6 (Vehicle Management) covers vehicle fleet triage in detail. This section addresses the parts-reservoir dimension.

NZ’s 4.4 million registered vehicles contain, conservatively:⁹

• ~4.4 million engines (with crankshafts, pistons, valves, bearings, oil pumps, water pumps, alternators, starters)
• ~4.4 million gearboxes (with bearings, gears, synchros, seals)
• ~18 million road wheels and tires
• ~4.4 million lead-acid batteries (containing lead and sulfuric acid, recyclable — Doc #35)
• ~4.4 million sets of lighting (headlamps, indicators, wiring)
• Hundreds of millions of bearings, seals, fasteners, electrical connectors, relays, and fuses
• Substantial quantities of copper (wiring harnesses, alternators, radiators), aluminium (engine blocks, wheels), steel (structural and mechanical components), and rubber (hoses, seals, mounts, belts)

Under the Doc #6 framework, approximately 200,000–400,000 vehicles remain operational, roughly 3.5 million are mothballed, and the remainder enter the donor pool. Even a modest fraction of the mothballed fleet — perhaps 300,000–700,000 vehicles cannibalised over a decade, depending on equipment failure rates and operational fleet size — yields hundreds of millions of usable components.

3.2 Standardisation advantage

NZ’s vehicle fleet is concentrated on relatively few platforms. The Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara, and Toyota Corolla are among the most common models.¹⁰ Parts interchangeability within model families (and sometimes across manufacturers using shared platforms) means that a single donor vehicle can supply parts for many recipients.

The cannibalisation programme should identify the most common vehicle platforms in NZ’s operational fleet and maintain dedicated donor pools for each. If the operational fleet standardises on Toyota Hilux diesel for rural utility, Ford Ranger for regional transport, and Isuzu trucks for freight (as Doc #6 suggests), then donor pools of these specific models should be maintained and catalogued at regional cannibalisation workshops.

3.3 Beyond the vehicle: components for non-vehicle applications

Vehicle components have value beyond vehicle repair:

• Alternators can serve as small generators (12V DC, typically 60–150A) for off-grid power, battery charging, and workshop applications.
• Starter motors provide high-torque, short-duration drive suitable for winches, hoists, and intermittent mechanical applications.
• Electric window motors and wiper motors provide low-power drive for automation, ventilation, and light mechanical applications.
• Vehicle wiring harnesses contain substantial copper wire of known gauge and insulation quality.
• Vehicle relays, fuses, and connectors are standardised components usable in any 12V electrical system.
• Vehicle headlamps (especially LED units from newer vehicles) provide efficient lighting.
• Catalytic converters contain platinum-group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium) that are valuable industrial catalysts — potentially useful for chemical production.¹¹
• Lead-acid batteries are recyclable: the lead is recoverable and sulfuric acid can be re-used or produced from NZ sulfur resources (Doc #35, Doc #113).

A cannibalisation programme should therefore not think only in terms of vehicle-to-vehicle parts transfer but should catalogue vehicle components by their generic function for allocation to any application.

---

4. INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT

4.1 The industrial inventory problem

NZ’s industrial equipment base is poorly documented. Unlike vehicles, which are registered with the government, factory equipment, workshop machinery, and commercial systems are private assets with no central registry. The national asset census (Doc #8) must establish what exists, but until that census is complete, the cannibalisation programme operates with incomplete information.

What is known in general terms:

• Dairy processing: NZ has approximately 80–90 dairy processing sites operated by Fonterra, Synlait, Westland (now part of Yili Group), Open Country Dairy, and others.¹² These contain pasteurisers, separators, spray dryers, refrigeration compressors, CIP (clean-in-place) systems, and process control electronics. Many sites have duplicate or parallel processing lines, some of which could become donors.
• Meat processing: Approximately 50–60 licensed export meat processing plants operated by Silver Fern Farms, ANZCO, Alliance, and others.¹³ Equipment includes refrigeration, rendering, packaging, and quality control systems.
• Sawmills and timber processing: Approximately 200–300 sawmills of varying size.¹⁴ Equipment includes bandsaws, docking saws, planers, dry kilns, and materials handling. Some are modern with electronic controls; smaller operations use simpler equipment.
• Agricultural machinery: NZ’s approximately 80,000–120,000 tractors are a critical fleet. The most common brands — John Deere, Massey Ferguson (AGCO), New Holland (CNH), Case IH — have moderate parts interchangeability within brand families.¹⁵ Modern tractors increasingly depend on electronic control units (ECUs) for engine management, hydraulic control, and GPS guidance — these are the components most vulnerable to failure and impossible to locally produce.
• Machine shops: Covered extensively in Doc #91. Lathes, mills, and grinders are themselves critical infrastructure — they are the equipment that makes parts for everything else. Machine shop equipment should never be cannibalised unless it is genuinely beyond repair.

4.2 Agricultural equipment triage

Farm machinery is Category 2 (regionally essential) by default, because food production is non-negotiable. The triage within the agricultural equipment pool follows the same logic as vehicle triage:

• Operational: Machinery actively used for food production receives priority parts access.
• Reserve: Machinery not currently needed but in working condition, stored for future use or for deployment if an operational unit fails.
• Donor: Machinery with major failures (blown engines, cracked frames, severe hydraulic damage) whose components are worth more distributed across the operational fleet.

A specific concern for agricultural equipment is electronic dependence. Modern tractors (post-2005 John Deere, post-2010 across most brands) increasingly require functional ECUs to operate at all — the engine will not start without a functioning engine management computer. Older tractors with purely mechanical fuel injection (pre-electronic diesel) can operate indefinitely without electronic components and should be prioritised for continued service.¹⁶ Newer tractors with failed ECUs may need to be retrofitted with mechanical fuel injection — feasible in principle but labour-intensive and not guaranteed to succeed, because modern common-rail diesel engines are designed around electronic injector timing and fuel pressure profiles that differ substantially from mechanical injection systems. Retrofit requires workshop capability, mechanical injection pumps and injectors cannibalised from older donor tractors, and potentially modification of fuel delivery plumbing and engine timing. Some engine designs may not accept mechanical retrofit without significant re-engineering. Doc #91 discusses the fabrication limitations relevant here.

4.3 Centralised industrial spares

NZ’s industrial suppliers hold significant stocks of generic components:

• Bearings: BSC (Bearing Service Company), CBC Bearings, Bearing & Transmission Distributors, and other bearing specialists hold stocks of thousands of SKF, NTN, Timken, and NSK bearings in standard sizes.¹⁷ These are among the most critical industrial components — bearings are in every rotating machine, they wear out, and NZ cannot manufacture precision bearings. Bearing stocks should be inventoried, centralised under NRA authority, and allocated strictly by triage category.
• V-belts and timing belts: Gates, Optibelt, and Continental belt stocks held by industrial distributors. Finite and irreplaceable. Allocation by triage priority.
• Seals and O-rings: Parker, NOK, Trelleborg seal stocks. Rubber and elastomer seals degrade in storage (Section 6) — FIFO (first in, first out) allocation is essential.
• Electrical contactors and relays: Schneider, ABB, Siemens stocks at electrical wholesalers. Every motor starter, every control circuit, every safety interlock uses contactors and relays. These are finite but the total stock is large relative to failure rates.
• Fasteners: Bolts, nuts, screws, and specialised fasteners in NZ’s wholesale stocks represent a very large supply relative to demand. NZ can also fabricate fasteners locally (Doc #91, Doc #92). Fasteners are not a critical constraint.

All of these stocks should be included in the Category A requisition framework (Doc #1) alongside fuel, tires, and pharmaceutical stocks.

---

5. ELECTRONICS: THE HARDEST CONSTRAINT

5.1 Why electronics are different

Mechanical parts can, given sufficient skill and equipment, be fabricated locally — though each fabrication step carries its own dependencies. A gasket can be cut from sheet rubber, cork, or copper (assuming sheet stock remains available or can be produced — Doc #91). A bearing housing can be machined on a lathe (requiring a functional lathe, cutting tools, and a machinist — all finite resources under recovery conditions). A bracket can be welded (requiring welding rod or wire, shielding gas or flux, and electrical power). The performance of locally fabricated parts is typically inferior to factory originals and the labour cost high, but local fabrication is at least possible for mechanical components.¹⁸

Electronic components cannot be locally fabricated within any realistic timeframe. A silicon integrated circuit requires photolithography, ultra-clean fabrication environments, rare-earth dopants, and process knowledge that NZ does not possess and cannot develop in less than decades.¹⁹ Even simple passive components — precision resistors, film capacitors, ceramic capacitors — require materials and processes unavailable in NZ. Printed circuit boards require copper-clad laminate, photo-resist chemicals, and etching processes that depend on imported chemicals.

This means that for electronic components, cannibalisation is the only supply for the foreseeable future. Every electronic component in NZ at the time of the event is part of a finite, non-renewable stock that must be managed with the same discipline as petroleum stocks.

5.2 The electronics inventory

NZ holds an enormous quantity of electronic components, but they are embedded in devices rather than available as discrete components:

• Consumer electronics: ~5–8 million personal computers and laptops, ~5 million smartphones, millions of tablets, televisions, routers, gaming consoles, and other devices.²⁰ These contain processors, memory chips, display drivers, power management ICs, WiFi/Bluetooth modules, speakers, microphones, cameras, batteries, and hundreds to over a thousand passive components each (a typical smartphone contains 700–1,000 discrete components; a laptop motherboard contains 1,500–3,000).²¹
• Automotive electronics: Every modern vehicle contains an engine management ECU, body control module, instrument cluster, ABS controller, and often many more electronic modules. Across 4.4 million vehicles, this represents billions of electronic components.
• Industrial electronics: Variable frequency drives (VFDs), programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), sensors, transducers, and process instruments across NZ’s industrial base.
• Telecommunications electronics: Addressed in Doc #127 — optical transceivers, routers, switches, baseband units, power amplifiers.
• Medical electronics: Patient monitors, imaging systems, laboratory analysers, infusion pumps — complex electronics with strict performance requirements.

5.3 Electronics cannibalisation: what is practical

Not all electronic components can be usefully cannibalised. Surface-mount components soldered to modern circuit boards are extremely small (common 0201-size resistors and capacitors measure 0.6 mm x 0.3 mm),²² difficult to remove without damage, and nearly impossible to test individually without specialised equipment. Cannibalisation of modern electronics is practical at the board level, not the component level:

Board-level cannibalisation (practical): - Remove a complete circuit board from a donor device and install it in a recipient device of the same type. This is how electronics repair already works for most consumer and industrial equipment. - A broken laptop with a good display provides a replacement display for an identical laptop with a cracked screen. - A VFD with a failed power stage provides a replacement control board for a VFD of the same model with a failed control board. - A telecommunications switch with a lightning-damaged interface card provides replacement cards for other switches.

Component-level cannibalisation (limited but valuable): - Through-hole components (larger, with wire leads that pass through holes in the circuit board) can be desoldered and re-used. These include some capacitors, resistors, connectors, relays, transformers, and older integrated circuits. - Power semiconductors (MOSFETs, IGBTs, diodes) in discrete packages can sometimes be removed and re-used. - Connectors, switches, fuses, and electromechanical relays can be recovered from any device. - Wire, cable, and wiring harnesses can be recovered. - Passive components from older equipment (pre-2000 electronics with through-hole construction) are more recoverable than components from modern surface-mount devices.

Not practical: - Removing individual surface-mount components (resistors, capacitors, ICs) from modern circuit boards for re-use on different boards. The equipment (hot air rework stations, solder paste, stencils) and skill required makes this impractical at scale, and components are often damaged during removal.

5.4 Electronic component priorities

Given the finite nature of electronic stocks, the cannibalisation programme must prioritise which electronic components are most critical:

Highest priority (no substitute, no local production): - Power grid protection relays and SCADA controllers (Doc #67) - Water treatment plant process controllers - Telecommunications network equipment (Doc #127) - Hospital medical devices - Radio transmitter and receiver components (Doc #128)

High priority (substitution difficult): - Variable frequency drives for industrial motors (can revert to direct-on-line starting, but with 20–40% higher energy consumption for variable-load applications, loss of soft-start capability increasing mechanical wear, and no speed control — motors run at fixed speed only)²³ - PLC controllers for automated processes (can revert to manual operation using hardwired relay logic or direct human control, but with estimated 2–5x increase in labour requirements per process line and loss of quality-control automation such as temperature profiling and timing sequences) - Battery management systems for lithium-ion packs (failure means the battery pack cannot be safely used)

Moderate priority (manual alternatives exist): - Computing equipment (Doc #135 addresses long-term bootstrapping; in the medium term, human computation bureaux can substitute for many computational needs) - GPS navigation (celestial navigation, Doc #138, provides an alternative for marine use; land navigation uses maps) - Electronic measuring instruments (mechanical instruments — pressure gauges, mechanical meters, mercury thermometers — can substitute for many applications)

5.5 The electronics timeline

Electronic equipment failure follows a characteristic pattern. Most modern electronics, if operated within specifications and protected from power surges, moisture, and physical damage, will function for 10–25 years.²⁴ Electrolytic capacitors are typically the first components to fail, with useful lifespans of 5–15 years depending on temperature and quality.²⁵ This means:

• Years 0–5: Most electronic equipment continues to function. Failures are random and relatively infrequent. The cannibalisation programme builds its registry and stocks.
• Years 5–15: Electrolytic capacitor failures become increasingly common. Equipment that runs hot or in harsh environments fails first. The cannibalisation programme becomes actively critical — boards and components from failed or surplus equipment maintain the operational fleet.
• Years 15–30: Semiconductor degradation, solder joint fatigue, and accumulated component failures thin the operational electronics population significantly. Only equipment that has been carefully maintained and selectively repaired with cannibalised components continues to function.
• Years 30+: Pre-event electronics are largely exhausted. NZ must have developed either local production capability (Doc #14, at a basic level) or trade relationships (Doc #151) to maintain any electronic systems.

This timeline means that the cannibalisation programme for electronics is a multi-decade management challenge. The decisions made in the first years about what to preserve, what to cannibalise, and what to prioritise will determine NZ’s electronic capability for a generation.

---

6. PARTS STORAGE

6.1 Why storage matters

A cannibalised part that degrades in storage is wasted twice — the donor was sacrificed for nothing, and the part is unavailable when needed. Proper storage is a core function of the cannibalisation programme.

Different component categories have different storage vulnerabilities:

6.2 Metals and mechanical components

Bearings: Precision bearings are the most storage-sensitive mechanical component. They are manufactured to tolerances of micrometres and packed in preservative grease. If stored improperly: - Moisture causes corrosion on bearing races and rolling elements, creating pitting that renders the bearing useless - Vibration (even from nearby traffic or machinery) can cause brinelling — small dents in the races from the stationary rolling elements - Dirt contamination destroys a bearing almost instantly when installed

Storage requirements: Original packaging where possible. Clean, dry environment. Temperature-stable (avoid sheds with extreme temperature swings that cause condensation). Stored on shelves, not loose in bins where they can bang together. Periodically inspected for rust — a bearing showing any rust spots should be used immediately or discarded, not returned to storage.²⁶

Gears, shafts, and precision machined parts: Coat with a preservative oil or grease. Wrap in VCI (vapour-corrosion-inhibitor) paper if available, or in oiled cloth. Store in dry conditions. Parts with ground or lapped surfaces (valve seats, cylinder liners) are particularly vulnerable to surface corrosion and must be protected.

Fasteners and general hardware: Less sensitive. Store in dry conditions, organised by size and type. Zinc-plated fasteners resist corrosion well in dry storage; bare steel fasteners should be lightly oiled.

6.3 Rubber and elastomers

Rubber components — hoses, belts, seals, O-rings, gaskets, tire inner tubes — degrade through: - Ozone cracking: Atmospheric ozone causes surface cracking in natural and some synthetic rubbers. Storage away from electric motors and other ozone sources helps.²⁷ - UV degradation: Sunlight breaks down rubber. Store in dark or covered conditions. - Heat: Accelerates all degradation processes. Store in cool conditions where possible. - Chemical exposure: Petroleum solvents, some lubricants, and many cleaning chemicals attack rubber. - Compression set: Rubber stored under compression (e.g., stacked O-rings, compressed hoses) permanently deforms. Store seals flat or loosely coiled; do not stack heavy items on rubber components.

Storage requirements: Cool, dark, dry. Away from electric motors and solvent fumes. Rubber components should be used on a FIFO basis — oldest stock first — because all rubber degrades with time regardless of storage conditions. Even under ideal storage, most rubber compounds have a useful shelf life of 5–10 years before properties degrade significantly.²⁸

6.4 Electronics

Electronic components and boards are vulnerable to: - Moisture: Causes corrosion on pins, traces, and component leads. Moisture absorbed into IC packages can cause solder joint failure when the board is later powered up (a phenomenon called “popcorn cracking”).²⁹ - Electrostatic discharge (ESD): Static electricity destroys semiconductor junctions. CMOS devices are particularly sensitive — a static discharge too small for a human to feel can damage them permanently. - Corrosion: Copper traces on circuit boards corrode in humid conditions, eventually breaking connections. - Battery leakage: Stored devices with batteries installed will eventually suffer battery leakage, which corrodes nearby components. All batteries should be removed from devices entering storage.

Storage requirements: Dry environment — relative humidity below 40% is ideal, below 60% is acceptable.³⁰ Anti-static bags for loose boards and components. Temperature-stable (avoid condensation from temperature cycling). Batteries removed. If desiccant packs are available, include them in storage containers. Label everything — a drawer of unlabelled circuit boards is nearly useless because identifying them without documentation is extremely difficult.

6.5 Storage facility requirements

The cannibalisation programme requires dedicated storage at each regional centre. Ideally: - A dry, weather-tight building with concrete floor (not a leaking rural shed) - Shelving systems for organised storage by category and part type - A workbench area for receiving, inspecting, cataloguing, and packaging incoming parts - Environmental monitoring — at minimum, a hygrometer (humidity gauge) to detect unsafe humidity levels - Security — parts stocks represent significant value and are a theft target

Existing facilities that may serve: commercial warehouses, government storage buildings, school gymnasiums (if schools are consolidated), and industrial premises that are no longer in active production. The key requirements are weather-tightness and dryness, not sophistication.

---

7. RECORD-KEEPING

7.1 Why records are essential

Without records, a cannibalisation programme collapses into scavenging. Records serve several functions:

• Matching supply to demand: When a Category 1 system needs a specific component, the registry identifies whether that component exists, where it is stored, and what condition it is in. Without this, finding a part requires searching through unsorted stockpiles — slow, unreliable, and often unsuccessful.
• Predicting shortages: Tracking cannibalisation rates by component type reveals which parts are being consumed fastest, enabling proactive measures (fabrication, design changes, or operational adjustments) before stocks run out entirely.
• Preventing theft and diversion: If every part is accounted for — stripped from an identified donor, logged into a registry, and allocated to an identified recipient — discrepancies indicate theft or unauthorised diversion. Without records, parts disappear without trace.
• Supporting fabrication priorities: As local manufacturing capability develops (Doc #91), the parts registry identifies which components are in shortest supply, guiding fabrication priorities.

7.2 The registry system

Minimum viable system (paper-based):

Each regional cannibalisation facility maintains a paper ledger with the following fields for each transaction:

Field	Description
Date	Date of stripping or allocation
Transaction type	Strip (from donor) / Allocate (to recipient) / Receive (into storage)
Part description	What it is — as specific as possible (e.g., “alternator, Bosch, 12V 90A, for Toyota 2KD-FTV engine”)
Part condition	Tested-good / Untested / Known-defective / Cosmetic damage only
Donor equipment	What it came from — make, model, serial number if available, location
Recipient equipment	Where it went (if allocated) — make, model, serial number, location
Storage location	Shelf/bin number in the storage facility
Handler	Who performed the stripping, testing, or allocation

This paper system works. It does not require electricity, software, or training beyond basic literacy. It is slow and difficult to search across multiple facilities, but it is robust.

Enhanced system (database):

If computing resources are available (and under baseline assumptions, NZ’s domestic telecommunications and computing infrastructure continues to function for years), a simple database application running on a local server or even a spreadsheet shared over the domestic network provides vastly better search, cross-referencing, and reporting capability. The database schema mirrors the paper fields above but adds:

• Cross-references between donor and recipient records
• Stock levels by part category and region
• Automated alerts when stock of a critical component falls below a threshold
• Integration with the national equipment registry (from the asset census, Doc #8)

The paper system should be the primary record regardless, because it continues to function when the power fails or the computer breaks. The database is an enhancement, not a replacement.

7.3 Cataloguing standards

Effective cataloguing requires consistent part descriptions. The programme should adopt a standard nomenclature — ideally based on the existing systems used by NZ’s auto parts and industrial supply industries, which are already familiar to the mechanics and technicians doing the work. For vehicles, the Partsworld or Partmaster catalogue numbering systems used by NZ auto parts distributors provide a ready-made classification. For industrial equipment, manufacturer part numbers are the primary identifier, supplemented by generic descriptions (e.g., “ball bearing, 6205-2RS, 25mm bore, 52mm OD, 15mm width” — this description identifies the bearing by international standard designation and allows matching even without the manufacturer’s specific part number).

---

8. ORGANISATION AND GOVERNANCE

8.1 Preventing black-market stripping

The greatest organisational risk is informal cannibalisation driven by individual need, barter, or profit. If a farmer needs a hydraulic pump seal and knows there is an identical tractor sitting unused on a neighbouring farm, the temptation to “borrow” the seal is strong. Multiply this by thousands of people, thousands of needs, and thousands of idle machines, and the result is widespread informal stripping that:

• Destroys the value of donor equipment (parts are removed without regard to what else the donor might supply)
• Creates no records (the system has no idea what parts have been taken or remain)
• Diverts parts from higher-priority needs (the farmer’s seal might have been needed for a water treatment plant pump)
• Damages social trust (neighbours feel their property has been stolen)

Countermeasures:

Legitimacy: The cannibalisation programme must be perceived as fair. If people believe that parts are being allocated to the well-connected while ordinary people’s needs are ignored, informal stripping becomes a form of justified resistance. Transparent priority criteria, published allocation records, and a responsive request process reduce the incentive for informal action.

Accessibility: People must be able to request parts and receive them within a reasonable timeframe. If the official system takes weeks to deliver a part that a farmer could strip from a neighbour’s machine in an hour, the official system will be bypassed. Regional cannibalisation workshops should be accessible (within a day’s travel for rural residents) and responsive.

Enforcement: Some level of enforcement is necessary. Unauthorised stripping of equipment should carry meaningful consequences — not draconian punishment (which breeds resentment) but loss of priority access to the cannibalisation system, community service obligations, or similar sanctions that reinforce the norm without creating an adversarial relationship between the programme and the public.

Community participation: Where possible, integrate the cannibalisation programme into existing community structures. Iwi and hapu, rural service centres, and community organisations can serve as local points of contact, reducing the bureaucratic distance between need and response. Marae, with their existing governance structures and community trust, are natural nodes for rural parts allocation — a farmer approaches the marae committee, which communicates the need to the regional cannibalisation authority, which fills the request from regional stocks. This leverages existing social capital rather than attempting to build a new bureaucratic system from scratch.

8.2 Regional engineering authorities

Each region requires an engineering authority with the following functions:

• Triage classification of equipment within the region
• Cannibalisation authorisation — approving which equipment is stripped and what parts are removed
• Parts allocation — deciding which recipient gets a contested part
• Registry management — maintaining the regional parts registry
• Skills deployment — assigning mechanics, electricians, and technicians to cannibalisation and maintenance tasks
• Coordination with national authority for Category 1 systems and nationally scarce components

These authorities should be staffed by experienced engineers and tradespeople — people who understand equipment, parts, and maintenance realities. Administrative staff are needed for record-keeping and logistics, but the decision-making core should be technically competent.

NZ’s existing professional engineering institutions — Engineering NZ (the professional body, formerly IPENZ), the regional branches of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and the engineering faculties at the University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, and other institutions — provide a pool of technically qualified people for these roles.³¹

8.3 Integration with existing sectors

The cannibalisation programme does not replace existing maintenance operations — it supplements them. Auto mechanics continue repairing vehicles; the programme gives them access to parts. Hospital biomedical technicians continue maintaining medical equipment; the programme ensures they receive priority components. Factory maintenance teams continue servicing production lines; the programme supplies donor components when normal spares are exhausted.

The programme’s role is coordination, prioritisation, and record-keeping — not the physical work of maintenance and repair, which remains with the skilled tradespeople who already do it.

---

9. SKILLS

9.1 Critical skills for cannibalisation

The cannibalisation programme depends on a range of trade skills:

Automotive mechanics: The largest single group. NZ has an estimated 15,000–20,000 registered automotive technicians.³² They understand vehicle systems, can diagnose faults, strip components without damage, and assess part condition. Under recovery conditions, many automotive businesses will have reduced commercial work — their skills and facilities are directly transferable to the cannibalisation programme.

Industrial electricians: Essential for stripping and testing electrical components — motors, contactors, relays, wiring, switchgear. NZ has approximately 10,000–15,000 registered electricians, though not all specialise in industrial work.³³ Industrial electricians also maintain the motors, drives, and control systems that keep Category 1 and 2 equipment running.

Electronic technicians: The scarcest critical skill. Board-level diagnosis and repair — identifying which board in a system has failed, testing replacement boards, soldering and rework — requires training that fewer people hold. Historically trained electronics technicians (from the era when “repair” meant fixing a board, not replacing a box) are disproportionately valuable. Many are retirement-age.³⁴ Knowledge capture from these individuals is a genuine Phase 1 priority.

Millwrights: Industrial mechanics who install, align, and maintain heavy machinery — pumps, compressors, gearboxes, conveyor systems. Millwrights understand bearings, seals, alignment, and vibration diagnosis. They are essential for both cannibalisation (knowing how to strip a machine without damaging components) and installation (ensuring cannibalised components are correctly fitted).

Biomedical equipment technicians: A small but nationally critical group — NZ has an estimated 100–200 biomedical technicians who maintain hospital equipment.³⁵ Their skills in medical electronics are irreplaceable. Each of these individuals should be identified, classified as critical personnel, and paired with trainees.

Refrigeration technicians: Refrigeration and air conditioning technicians understand compressor systems, refrigerant circuits, and heat exchangers — critical for maintaining food cold chains and some medical equipment.

9.2 Training and cross-training

The cannibalisation programme requires training in three areas:

1. Systematic disassembly: Taking equipment apart without damaging recoverable components. This is a specific skill — a mechanic who normally replaces parts does not necessarily know how to remove parts for re-use rather than disposal. Training in careful disassembly, component protection, and systematic cataloguing should be provided to all cannibalisation workshop staff.

2. Component testing: Assessing whether a cannibalised part is serviceable. For mechanical parts, this involves dimensional measurement, visual inspection, and sometimes functional testing. For electrical components, it requires multimeter testing, insulation resistance testing, and sometimes functional testing in a test rig. For electronic boards, it requires bench testing in a representative system.

3. Cross-trade skills: Recovery conditions blur the boundaries between trades. An automotive mechanic who can also do basic electrical testing is more useful than one who cannot. An electrician who understands electronic board-level diagnosis can maintain equipment that would otherwise be abandoned. Doc #157 (Trade Training and Apprenticeship) addresses the broader training framework; the cannibalisation programme should feed its specific skill requirements into that framework.

---

10. THE CULTURAL SHIFT

10.1 From “replace” to “repair and scavenge”

Pre-event NZ, like most developed nations, operates on a replacement culture. When a washing machine fails, you buy a new one. When a car part wears out, you order a replacement from the dealer. When a phone screen cracks, you replace the phone. This culture is so deeply ingrained that most people do not know how to repair the equipment they depend on, and would not consider it even if they could — the replacement is faster, cheaper, and guaranteed to work.

This culture must reverse completely. Under recovery conditions:

• Nothing is replaced. Everything is repaired until it genuinely cannot be repaired.
• Repair means cannibalised parts, improvised solutions, and reduced performance — not factory-fresh restoration.
• Equipment that is “old” or “obsolete” by pre-event standards becomes valuable precisely because it is simpler, more repairable, and uses fewer electronic components.
• Skills that were economically marginal before the event — appliance repair, radio repair, shoe repair, small engine repair — become among the most valuable in the economy.

10.2 Practical implications

Design for repair: When equipment is modified, adapted, or newly fabricated (Doc #91, Doc #92), it should be designed for repair — accessible fasteners, standard components, simple construction, documentation of what was built and how. The pre-event trend toward sealed, unserviceable equipment (glued-together phones, soldered-in batteries, riveted appliances) is a luxury of cheap manufacturing that recovery conditions cannot afford.

Repair education: Basic repair skills — soldering, mechanical fastening, simple electrical testing, rubber patching, wood and metal repair — should be included in school curricula and community education programmes. Not because every person must become a technician, but because widespread basic repair competence reduces the burden on specialist tradespeople and reduces the rate at which equipment enters the irreparable category.

Social status: In pre-event NZ, a mechanic who kept a 30-year-old truck running was unremarkable. In recovery NZ, that same skill is nationally valuable. The cultural shift includes recognising repair and maintenance skills as high-status work — not through propaganda, but through the practical reality that people who can fix things are among the most useful members of any community.

---

11. CROSS-SECTOR INTERACTIONS

11.1 Cannibalisation and local manufacturing

As NZ’s machine shop capability (Doc #93), blacksmithing (Doc #92), and foundry capacity (Doc #93) develop, some cannibalised parts can be replaced with locally fabricated equivalents. This relieves pressure on the cannibalisation programme for those component categories while making cannibalised parts available for other needs.

Components that local manufacturing can progressively replace: - Gaskets and seals (from available rubber sheet, cork, copper sheet — inferior to moulded originals in pressure tolerance, chemical resistance, and service life, but functional for low-to-moderate pressure applications) - Simple brackets, mounts, and structural components (steel fabrication) - Fasteners (threaded on lathes or headed at forges — Doc #91, Doc #105) - Exhaust systems (welded steel pipe) - Simple electrical connections and terminals (copper working) - Cast iron components (foundry work — Doc #93) - Brake drums and shoes (casting and machining)

Components that remain cannibalisation-dependent indefinitely: - All electronic components (semiconductors, circuit boards, displays) - Precision bearings (require grinding capability and hardened steel that NZ cannot produce at bearing quality) - Hydraulic seals and O-rings (require synthetic rubber compounds) - Optical components (lenses, fibre-optic connectors, laser diodes) - Specialty alloys and heat-treated components

11.2 Cannibalisation and the grid

The electrical grid (Doc #67) is NZ’s most important industrial asset. Grid equipment — particularly transformers and protection relays — is Category 1 by definition. Transpower, NZ’s national grid operator, and the local distribution companies (Vector, Orion, Powerco, Unison, etc.) already maintain some spare transformer stocks and spare relay units.³⁶ The cannibalisation programme supplements these by identifying additional donor sources — transformers at decommissioned industrial sites, protection relays from surplus installations, control electronics from equipment being downgraded.

A specific concern: power transformers are not interchangeable like car parts. Each is built to specific voltage, current, and impedance specifications. A transformer from a decommissioned factory may not be suitable for a grid substation. Transformer cannibalisation requires engineering assessment by qualified power systems engineers, not generic parts allocation.

11.3 Cannibalisation and telecommunications

Doc #127 (Telecommunications Maintenance) describes the progressive contraction of NZ’s telecommunications network as electronic equipment fails. The cannibalisation programme supports this by: - Maintaining a national registry of spare telecommunications components - Coordinating the decommissioning of low-priority cell sites to provide components for high-priority sites - Preserving fusion splicers, optical test equipment, and other irreplaceable specialised tools - Identifying donor electronics from non-telecommunications sources that may contain compatible components

11.4 Cannibalisation and medical equipment

Hospital and medical equipment represents a special case because: - The consequences of equipment failure are directly measured in lives - Medical electronics are often highly specialised with no cross-compatibility between manufacturers or models - Biomedical technician skills are scarce - Maintenance requires calibration and testing to standards that ensure patient safety

The cannibalisation programme should establish a dedicated medical equipment stream with its own specialist staff, separate from the general industrial programme. NZ’s district health boards (now part of Health NZ / Te Whatu Ora) already maintain biomedical engineering departments — these should be networked nationally to share component information, pool donor equipment, and coordinate maintenance priorities.³⁷

---

12. CRITICAL UNCERTAINTIES

Uncertainty	Why it matters	How to resolve
Exact equipment inventory by category across NZ	Cannot prioritise what you cannot count	National asset census (Doc #8) — equipment module
Commercial spare parts stock levels	Determines how long standard parts supply lasts before cannibalisation becomes primary source	Inventory through Category A requisition (Doc #1)
Electronic component failure rates under NZ conditions	Determines how quickly the electronics stockpile depletes	Monitoring programme — track actual failure rates and adjust allocations
Bearing stock levels and condition	Bearings are among the most critical constraints for rotating machinery	Industrial supplier inventory + systematic inspection
Willingness of population to comply with cannibalisation controls	Determines whether parts flow through official channels or black market	Programme legitimacy, accessibility, enforcement balance
Skilled workforce size and age profile	Especially electronic technicians and biomedical engineers — determines maintenance capacity	Skills census (Doc #8)
Trans-Tasman trade timeline	Australia could supply electronic components, bearings, and other items NZ cannot produce	Diplomatic engagement (Doc #151)
Rate of CNC controller failure	Determines when machine shops lose CNC capability and must operate manually (Doc #91)	Monitoring + manual capability development as backup
Rubber degradation rates in NZ storage conditions	Determines useful life of stored seals, belts, and hoses	Systematic inspection of stored rubber components over time
Actual parts commonality across NZ vehicle fleet	Determines cannibalisation efficiency — high commonality means fewer donor models needed	Fleet census analysis

---

CROSS-REFERENCES

Document	Relationship
Doc #1 — National Emergency Stockpile Strategy	Establishes National Resource Authority and requisition framework. Spare parts stocks are Category A strategic resources.
Doc #6 — Vehicle and Transport Asset Management	Vehicle fleet triage — operational / mothball / cannibalize categories. This document extends the same logic to all equipment.
Doc #156 — Skills Census	Essential prerequisite — the cannibalisation programme cannot function without knowing what equipment and skills exist.
Doc #33 — Tires	Tires are a cannibalisation target but also a binding constraint — cannibalised tires only extend the timeline, they do not solve the rubber problem.
Doc #53 — Fuel Allocation Model	Fuel rationing automatically suspends most equipment use, creating the idle equipment pool that becomes the donor reservoir.
Doc #67 — National Grid: Transpower Operations	Grid equipment is Category 1 — highest priority for cannibalised parts.
Doc #69 — Transformer Maintenance and Rewinding	Transformer-specific maintenance that depends on cannibalised components.
Doc #91 — Machine Shop Operations and Training	The meta-capability that enables parts fabrication. Machine shops are both a customer of cannibalised parts (they need bearings, belts, and electronics) and a supplier of locally fabricated alternatives.
Doc #92 — Blacksmithing and Forge Work	Can fabricate some components that supplement cannibalised stocks — brackets, fittings, hardware.
Doc #93 — Foundry and Casting	Enables local production of cast components — brake drums, bearing housings, machinery frames.
Doc #105 — Wire, Fencing, and Nails	Wire and fastener production reduces dependence on cannibalised stocks for these items.
Doc #127 — NZ Telecommunications Maintenance	Telecommunications equipment cannibalisation strategy and network contraction management.
Doc #130 — Device Life Extension	Extends device operational life, reducing the rate at which equipment enters the cannibalisation pipeline.
Doc #144 — Emergency Governance Framework	Establishes the regional governance structures that provide the authority base for cannibalisation decisions.
Doc #151 — Trans-Tasman Relations and Trade	Trade with Australia could supply electronic components, bearings, and other items NZ cannot produce, relieving pressure on cannibalised stocks.
Doc #157 — Trade Training and Apprenticeship	Training pipeline for the mechanics, electricians, electronic technicians, and other tradespeople the cannibalisation programme depends on.

---

APPENDIX A: QUICK-REFERENCE CANNIBALISATION PRIORITY TABLE

For field use by regional cannibalisation workshop staff.

Component type	Typical sources	Category 1 use	Storage sensitivity	Local fabrication?
Ball/roller bearings	Vehicles, electric motors, industrial machinery, commercial supplier stocks	Pumps, generators, turbines, conveyors	High — rust, contamination	No (precision grinding unavailable)
V-belts and timing belts	Vehicles, HVAC systems, industrial machinery	Grid equipment, water treatment, food processing	Moderate — rubber degrades	No (rubber compound unavailable)
Seals and O-rings	Vehicles, hydraulic equipment, pumps	Water treatment, hydraulic systems, medical	High — rubber degrades, compression set	Partial — can cut gaskets from sheet rubber or cork; inferior sealing performance and shorter service life vs. moulded originals
Electric motors (fractional HP)	Consumer appliances, HVAC, commercial equipment	Ventilation, small pumps, instrumentation	Low — store dry	No (requires copper wire, laminations, bearings)
Contactors and relays	Industrial switchgear, HVAC controls, vehicle systems	Grid protection, motor starters, control systems	Moderate — contact corrosion	No
Circuit boards (specific types)	Identical donor equipment	Medical devices, telecom, grid SCADA	High — moisture, ESD	No
Copper wire	Vehicle harnesses, appliance wiring, building wire	Telecommunications repair, motor rewinding	Low	Extractable and re-usable
Hydraulic hoses and fittings	Vehicles, farm equipment, industrial machinery	Agricultural machinery, industrial presses, earthmoving	Moderate — rubber degrades	Partial — steel fittings yes; hose rubber no
Fasteners (bolts, nuts, screws)	Everywhere	Everywhere	Low	Yes (Doc #91, Doc #105)
Glass (flat, optical)	Vehicles, buildings, instruments	Instrument covers, greenhouse repair, medical	Low	Limited (Doc #36 addresses glass production)
Lead-acid batteries	Vehicles	Grid backup, communications, medical	Moderate — sulfation if uncharged	Yes — recyclable (Doc #35)
Fuses	Vehicles, electrical panels, appliances	All electrical systems	Low	Partial — fusible wire can be sized
Thermostats and sensors	HVAC, vehicles, industrial equipment	Process control, medical, food safety	Moderate	No

---

APPENDIX B: MODEL CANNIBALISATION AUTHORISATION FORM

For use by regional cannibalisation workshops until a digital system is operational.

CANNIBALISATION AUTHORISATION — [Region]
Date: _______________
Authorising officer: _______________
Workshop: _______________

DONOR EQUIPMENT
Description: _______________
Make/model: _______________
Serial number: _______________
Location: _______________
Current triage category: _______________
Owner (if known): _______________
Reason for donor designation: _______________

PARTS TO BE REMOVED
1. _______________  Condition: _______________
2. _______________  Condition: _______________
3. _______________  Condition: _______________
4. _______________  Condition: _______________
5. _______________  Condition: _______________
(Continue on reverse if needed)

INTENDED RECIPIENT (if known)
Equipment: _______________
Location: _______________
Triage category: _______________

STORAGE DESTINATION (if not immediately allocated)
Facility: _______________
Shelf/bin: _______________

Strip completed by: _______________  Date: _______________
Parts received into storage by: _______________  Date: _______________

---

---

1. The practice of maintaining “hangar queens” — aircraft used primarily as parts donors — is documented across virtually all air forces. The US Air Force’s cannibalization programme is described in Air Force Instruction 21-101, “Aircraft and Equipment Maintenance Management.” The practice is not unique to aviation; naval and army vehicle maintenance use equivalent systems. The NZ Defence Force operates similar practices within the RNZAF, though at a smaller scale.↩︎

2. NZ Motor Vehicle Registration Statistics, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics-and-insights/fle... — Approximately 4.4 million registered vehicles as of 2023–2024.↩︎

3. Administrative overhead estimate is based on the scale of the programme (multiple regions, thousands of transactions per month, coordination requirements) and comparison with military logistics administration staffing ratios. This is an order-of-magnitude estimate; actual staffing will depend on the programme’s operational tempo and the level of detail maintained in records.↩︎

4. The NZ Defence Force’s maintenance and logistics publications are not publicly available in detail, but the NZDF follows NATO-standard maintenance practices including cannibalisation procedures. See: NZDF Annual Report, various years, for general maintenance capability descriptions. Military cannibalisation as a general practice is documented extensively in NATO Allied Joint Publication AJP-4.6 “Joint Logistics Doctrine.”↩︎

5. NZ Motor Vehicle Registration Statistics, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics-and-insights/fle... — Approximately 4.4 million registered vehicles as of 2023–2024.↩︎

6. NZ tractor fleet estimates are uncertain. Statistics NZ agricultural census data provides some farm machinery counts, but the most recent comprehensive data is from the 2017 Agricultural Production Census. The estimate of 80,000–120,000 tractors is based on approximately 50,000 farms in NZ (Statistics NZ) with an average of 1.5–2.5 tractors per farm (varying greatly by farm type and size). This figure requires verification through the national asset census.↩︎

7. NZ consumer electronics estimates are rough. NZ’s population of ~5.2 million and high internet penetration (~95%) suggests 3–5 million active internet-connected devices at any time. The total number of electronic devices including retired, stored, and infrequently used items is likely double this. Statistics NZ and the 2023 Digital Economy report provide some relevant data. https://www.stats.govt.nz/↩︎

8. Telecommunications infrastructure figures from Doc #127 and its sources. See that document for detailed citations on cell site counts and network infrastructure.↩︎

9. NZ Motor Vehicle Registration Statistics, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics-and-insights/fle... — Approximately 4.4 million registered vehicles as of 2023–2024.↩︎

10. NZ’s most common vehicle models by registration data: Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara, and Toyota Corolla are consistently among the top registered models. Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency fleet statistics. https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics-and-insights/fle...↩︎

11. Catalytic converters contain platinum-group metals at concentrations of approximately 1–5 grams per converter. At 4.4 million vehicles (not all with catalytic converters — diesels often use different emission controls), the total PGM content in NZ’s vehicle fleet is potentially 2,000–10,000 kg. These metals are valuable industrial catalysts. See: Hagelüken, C., “Recycling the Platinum Group Metals: A European Perspective,” Platinum Metals Review, 2012.↩︎

12. NZ dairy processing sites: Fonterra operates approximately 30 manufacturing sites in NZ. Other processors (Synlait, Open Country Dairy, Westland, Tatua, and others) operate additional sites. Total NZ dairy processing sites are estimated at 80–90. Fonterra Annual Report 2023; Dairy Companies Association of NZ.↩︎

13. NZ meat processing plant count from the Ministry for Primary Industries register of licensed exporters and domestic processors. The count includes all licensed premises; actual operating plants may be somewhat fewer. https://www.mpi.govt.nz/↩︎

14. NZ sawmill count estimate based on Ministry for Primary Industries forestry statistics and NZ Forest Owners Association data. The number includes a wide range from large export-oriented mills to small portable mills. https://www.mpi.govt.nz/forestry/↩︎

15. NZ tractor fleet estimates are uncertain. Statistics NZ agricultural census data provides some farm machinery counts, but the most recent comprehensive data is from the 2017 Agricultural Production Census. The estimate of 80,000–120,000 tractors is based on approximately 50,000 farms in NZ (Statistics NZ) with an average of 1.5–2.5 tractors per farm (varying greatly by farm type and size). This figure requires verification through the national asset census.↩︎

16. The increasing electronic dependence of modern agricultural machinery is well-documented in agricultural engineering literature and is a growing concern even under normal conditions (see the “right to repair” movement in farming). John Deere’s electronic lockout systems have been particularly controversial. Pre-electronic-injection diesel tractors (roughly pre-2000 for most manufacturers, though the transition dates vary) use purely mechanical Bosch, CAV/Lucas, or Stanadyne fuel injection systems that require no electronic input to operate.↩︎

17. NZ’s bearing distribution network includes BSC (Bearing Service Company), CBC Bearings, Bearing & Transmission Distributors, Motion Industries, and others. These distributors carry stocks from major manufacturers including SKF, NTN, Timken, NSK, and FAG/Schaeffler. Aggregate NZ bearing stock levels are commercially sensitive and not publicly available; the national inventory must be established through the requisition process.↩︎

18. The feasibility of local fabrication for mechanical parts depends on the availability of machine shop equipment (lathes, mills, grinders), cutting tools, raw material stock, and trained machinists. Doc #91 provides a detailed assessment of NZ’s machine shop capability and the dependency chains involved. Even “simple” fabrication tasks such as turning a bushing require a functional lathe, appropriate cutting tools (which themselves wear out and are difficult to replace), and dimensional measurement instruments. See Doc #91 for full analysis.↩︎

19. Semiconductor fabrication requirements are extensively documented. A basic integrated circuit fabrication facility requires photolithography equipment, clean rooms (Class 100 or better), ultra-pure chemicals, silicon wafers, ion implantation or diffusion furnaces, and process expertise developed over decades. See Doc #135 for a detailed discussion of the technology bootstrapping pathway for computing capability. The timeline to local IC fabrication is measured in decades, not years.↩︎

20. NZ consumer electronics estimates are rough. NZ’s population of ~5.2 million and high internet penetration (~95%) suggests 3–5 million active internet-connected devices at any time. The total number of electronic devices including retired, stored, and infrequently used items is likely double this. Statistics NZ and the 2023 Digital Economy report provide some relevant data. https://www.stats.govt.nz/↩︎

21. Component counts for consumer electronics vary by device and generation. A typical modern smartphone contains approximately 700–1,200 discrete components on its main board. Laptop motherboards are more complex, typically containing 1,500–3,000 components. These figures are based on teardown analyses published by iFixit and Chipworks/TechInsights. The total across NZ’s consumer electronics base runs into the tens of billions of discrete components, though most are surface-mount and not individually recoverable.↩︎

22. Surface-mount component sizes follow industry-standard designations. The 0201 package (0.6 mm x 0.3 mm) is common in smartphones manufactured from approximately 2015 onward. Even the more common 0402 package (1.0 mm x 0.5 mm) is too small for practical manual desoldering and re-use. See IPC-SM-782, “Surface Mount Design and Land Pattern Standard,” for component dimension standards.↩︎

23. Energy penalty for direct-on-line (DOL) starting versus VFD operation varies with application. For centrifugal loads (pumps, fans), VFDs save 20–50% energy by matching motor speed to demand rather than running at full speed continuously. The 20–40% range cited here applies to typical HVAC and water pumping applications. Additionally, DOL starting produces inrush currents of 6–8x rated current, increasing mechanical stress on couplings and driven equipment. See: US Department of Energy, “Adjustable Speed Drive Part-Load Efficiency,” 2012.↩︎

24. Electronic equipment reliability follows a “bathtub curve” — early failures in the first year, then a long period of low failure rates, then increasing failures as components age. The useful life of commercial-grade electronics (not military-hardened) is typically 10–25 years depending on the component quality tier, operating environment, and duty cycle. See: US Department of Defense, MIL-HDBK-217F, “Reliability Prediction of Electronic Equipment,” for component failure rate models. Actual failure rates in NZ conditions (moderate climate, stable grid power) should be toward the longer end of this range.↩︎

25. Electrolytic capacitors are widely recognised as the primary life-limiting component in most electronic assemblies. Their useful life depends strongly on temperature (roughly halving for each 10°C increase in operating temperature) and ranges from approximately 2,000 to 20,000 hours at rated temperature, translating to 5–15 years of typical operation. See: Parler, S., “Reliability of CDE Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors,” Cornell Dubilier Technical Note.↩︎

26. Bearing storage recommendations are from SKF Group, “Bearing Installation and Maintenance Guide,” and NSK Ltd., “Bearing Storage Guidelines.” Both recommend clean, dry, vibration-free storage in original packaging. Rust-spotted bearings should not be installed in precision applications. These recommendations represent standard industrial practice.↩︎

27. Rubber degradation mechanisms and storage guidelines are documented in Parker O-Ring Handbook (Parker Hannifin Corporation), which is a standard reference for elastomer properties and storage. The 5–10 year shelf life for rubber compounds under ideal storage conditions is a general guideline; some compounds (notably silicone) last longer, while others (natural rubber) degrade faster. Ozone cracking is a specific concern documented in ASTM D1149 testing standards.↩︎

28. Rubber degradation mechanisms and storage guidelines are documented in Parker O-Ring Handbook (Parker Hannifin Corporation), which is a standard reference for elastomer properties and storage. The 5–10 year shelf life for rubber compounds under ideal storage conditions is a general guideline; some compounds (notably silicone) last longer, while others (natural rubber) degrade faster. Ozone cracking is a specific concern documented in ASTM D1149 testing standards.↩︎

29. Electronics storage and moisture sensitivity: IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033, “Handling, Packing, Shipping and Use of Moisture/Reflow Sensitive Surface Mount Devices,” provides the industry standard for moisture-sensitive electronics storage. The “popcorn cracking” phenomenon (moisture absorbed into IC packages causing internal steam damage during soldering) is well-documented in electronics manufacturing literature. While post-event storage differs from manufacturing conditions, the moisture sensitivity of stored electronics is the same.↩︎

30. Electronics storage and moisture sensitivity: IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033, “Handling, Packing, Shipping and Use of Moisture/Reflow Sensitive Surface Mount Devices,” provides the industry standard for moisture-sensitive electronics storage. The “popcorn cracking” phenomenon (moisture absorbed into IC packages causing internal steam damage during soldering) is well-documented in electronics manufacturing literature. While post-event storage differs from manufacturing conditions, the moisture sensitivity of stored electronics is the same.↩︎

31. Engineering NZ (formerly IPENZ) is the professional body for engineers in NZ with approximately 22,000 members across all engineering disciplines. The University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, Massey University, and AUT all have engineering schools that could contribute personnel and expertise to the cannibalisation programme. https://www.engineeringnz.org/↩︎

32. NZ automotive technician and electrician registration figures are from the relevant licensing authorities. The Motor Industry Association and Motor Trade Association of NZ provide industry workforce data. The Electrical Workers Registration Board (EWRB) registers electricians. Exact current figures require verification; the estimates given are consistent with industry reports from 2020–2024.↩︎

33. NZ automotive technician and electrician registration figures are from the relevant licensing authorities. The Motor Industry Association and Motor Trade Association of NZ provide industry workforce data. The Electrical Workers Registration Board (EWRB) registers electricians. Exact current figures require verification; the estimates given are consistent with industry reports from 2020–2024.↩︎

34. The ageing of the electronics technician workforce is a concern noted internationally, not unique to NZ. The transition from through-hole to surface-mount electronics, and from “repair” to “replace” maintenance philosophies, has reduced demand for board-level repair skills over several decades. NZ’s polytechnic system (now Te Pūkenga) has progressively reduced enrolment in electronics repair courses. The remaining experienced repair technicians are disproportionately aged 55+. This observation is based on industry commentary and professional body reports rather than a specific published study.↩︎

35. NZ biomedical technician workforce estimate is based on the size of NZ’s hospital system (approximately 20 DHBs, now consolidated under Te Whatu Ora, with biomedical engineering departments at major hospitals). The NZ Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering provides some professional community data. The exact number of active biomedical technicians requires verification through the skills census.↩︎

36. Transpower NZ maintains strategic spare transformer stocks for the national grid, though the exact inventory is not publicly disclosed for operational security reasons. Distribution companies (Vector, Orion, Powerco, etc.) maintain their own spare equipment pools. The adequacy of these stocks for long-term isolation conditions is one of the critical uncertainties noted in Doc #67. See: Transpower Annual Report, various years; Electricity Authority NZ asset management reporting requirements.↩︎

37. Health NZ / Te Whatu Ora (formerly the 20 District Health Boards, consolidated in 2022) maintains biomedical engineering departments at major hospital sites. These departments manage medical equipment maintenance, calibration, and safety testing. The consolidation under Te Whatu Ora may facilitate national coordination of medical equipment cannibalisation — or may have disrupted existing DHB-level relationships. The actual state of medical equipment coordination at the time of the event would need to be assessed. https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/↩︎