In recent years, the aftermarket has evolved from a cost center to a strategic profit driver for the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). A major transformation has been brought in by Service Lifecycle Management (SLM). This strategic approach has redefined how OEMs offer after-sales service to their customers while also balancing costs.
Apart from helping OEMs streamline service operations and maximize equipment uptime, SLM has also expanded revenue streams for them. This has developed service lifecycle management as a competitive necessity for the OEMs, regardless of the industry they belong to.
This article will explore service lifecycle management in detail, its stages, and how it impacts aftermarket operations for OEMs. We will also discuss how software solutions offered by Intellinet Systems help OEMs align with SLM stages and drive operational efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
Understanding Service Lifecycle Management
Service Lifecycle Management is a strategic process of managing an equipment’s complete service lifecycle end-to-end, right after its sold to the moment it is no longer of use. SLM involves a proactive approach that ensures that every aspect of the service process is handled efficiently. It may include pre-delivery inspection to maintenance, warranty, repairs, parts replacement, and even recall management.
SLM is driven by data and may work on cloud-based platforms to provide real-time visibility into multiple areas. This visibility enables the OEMs to analyze their assets, predict maintenance requirements, and streamline service operations.
Service Lifecycle Management also helps improve service planning using service data and enhance product designs using engineering data. This comes in handy for OEMs in bridging the gap between Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and their aftermarket services.
What Processes Does SLM Include?
Here is a list of what SLM includes:
- Pre-Delivery Inspection: Checking and inspecting the equipment before handing it to the customer.
- Scheduled Maintenance and Repairs: Managing periodic servicing, repairs in instances of equipment breakdown, and parts replacements over the equipment’s life.
- Spare Parts Management: Ensuring that the right and genuine spare parts are available whenever needed and at the right place.
- Warranty Management: Tracking and processing warranty claims with maximum efficiency. Also, checking and ensuring that the eligible parts and services are covered under warranty terms.
- Field Service and Technical Support: Supporting on-site service and field technician operations.
- Customer Communication: Sending reminders to the customers about the scheduled service, updates, and status of their ongoing repairs.
- Service Documentation: Recording and managing service history, manuals, inspection checklists, and repair logs.
- Analytics and Feedback: Using data and customer feedback to identify frequent failures, improve product design, or enhance service strategies.
Importance of SLM for OEMs
It is quite familiar that the aftermarket drives a huge revenue to the OEMs. Industry research has shown that aftermarket services generate about 34% of the total revenue, with a whopping 25-55% of profit margins.
Just the parts business alone contributes 10-15% of the total sales and 25-50% of profits. This clearly displays the potential of SLM as a crucial aspect for OEMs in bringing a financial advantage.
But apart from revenue, service lifecycle management offers several other benefits, including:
- Stretching Equipment Uptime: Ensures that customer assets are continuously operated and avoids costly downtime and penalties. This is extremely crucial in the fleet and commercial segments.
- Streamlining Service Operations: It simplifies the delivery of complicated services by addressing challenges like Service Level Agreements (SLAs), logistics, and the shortage of skilled labor.
- Better Customer Satisfaction: Timely deliveries and proactive services improve customer experience and enhance their satisfaction.
- Improve Brand Loyalty: After-sales services help customers build a long-term association with the brand.
- Reducing Costs: Regulated parts stocks and automation in operational processing reduce warranty disputes and save significant costs.
With a sustainable SLM process, OEMs can deliver value throughout the asset lifecycle. It assists them in transforming their association with the stakeholders from bare equipment providers to a trusted partner. However, advanced tools are needed to meet this transformation in the current complex aftermarket ecosystem.
The Four Stages of SLM
Service Lifecycle Management involves four stages to deliver aftermarket services efficiently, including:
Connecting with Assets
The first stage of managing the service lifecycle begins with setting up a digital connection with physical assets after the product is sold. OEMs use telemetry and other data collection methods for this purpose. It provides them a real-time visibility into the asset’s performance, condition, and usage.
This data connectivity assists OEMs in proactive monitoring, detecting issues early, and performing predictive maintenance. It also enables the manufacturer to reduce unplanned downtime and ensure continuous operation.
Allocating Resources
Once the connection is established, OEMs need to allocate the resources to efficiently meet service demand. Resources involve everything from technicians, tools, spare parts, and schedules. This stage is all about handling the complexity involved in managing multiple SLAs, supply chains that operate globally, and workforce availability.
Effective allocation ensures that the right resource is available when needed and minimizes repair delays and costs. For example, sending a technician with the correct parts for repair work controls first-time-fix rates.
Executing Services
At this stage, it’s time to perform service tasks such as reactive repairs, preventive maintenance, and parts upgrades. To complete their work efficiently, technicians are highly dependent on the right parts, access to clear technical information, and real-time data.
Such dependency makes this stage crucial to ensure meeting SLA commitments and maintaining customer satisfaction. Quick repairs and properly implemented service help the OEMs in improving their brand value.
Optimizing Processes
The final stage uses data analytics for enhancing customer experiences through improved service operations and upgrading product designs. OEMs analyze the service data to identify trends, minimize recurring issues, and refine resource allocation. This optimization helps OEMs ensure continuous improvement and streamlined service operations.
For example, post-analysis of warranty claims data, the OEM might find a flaw in product design, indicating the need for engineering improvements.
Intellinet Systems’ Product Offerings for Smoother SLM
At Intellinet Systems, we offer purpose-built software solutions to support OEMs through the four stages of SLM. Our solutions cater to industries like automotive, aerospace, agriculture, construction, and electric vehicles.
These solutions include Intelli PDI, Intelli Catalog, Intelli Warranty, Intelli Bulletin, Intelli Manual, and Intelli Desk. It helps the OEMs deliver streamlined service operations and competitive aftermarket services. Here is how each product aligns with SLM:
Intelli PDI
Intelli PDI is a mobile app-based tool that automates Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) processes. This helps OEMs in ensuring that products meet high quality standards before they reach customers. It allows dealers to inspect the product based on a predefined quality checklist, record remarks, and submit detailed reports on the product’s condition.
They can also add multimedia, such as images and videos, to produce visual documentation. As a digital system, Intelli PDI helps in minimizing manual errors, improving accuracy, and ensuring product quality in real-time.
SLM Impact: Intelli PDI supports aftermarket services by ensuring assets are defect-free at delivery. This helps OEMs in reducing post-sale service demands and enhancing customer trust through quality assurance.
Intelli Catalog
Intelli Catalog is an AI-powered spare parts catalog software helping OEMs simplify parts identification and ordering. Its easy-to-navigate interface allows users to search, select, and order parts easily. Advanced search capabilities, such as 2D/3D graphics and VIN/serial number lookups, ensure accurate part selection. This combination allows OEMs to reduce downtime and boost first-time fix rates.
Apart from the web software, it is also available as mobile apps on iOS and Android platforms, allowing field technicians to access it easily on-site. To ensure real-time flow of data, OEMs may integrate it with their existing systems, like Dealer Management System (DMS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
SLM Impact: Intelli catalog optimizes spare parts management, helping OEMs minimize inventory costs and improve customer uptime. It also enables them to boost aftermarket revenue through opportunities to upsell spare parts.
Intelli Warranty
Intelli Warranty streamlines the entire warranty claims processing for OEMs, right from claim submission to supplier recovery. This assists OEMs in reducing operational costs, ensuring SLA compliance, and minimizing warranty disputes. By analyzing warranty data, OEMs can gain insights into claim patterns and trends.
This helps them identify the recurring issues, improve product designs, and detect any fraud instances. Intelli Warranty supports multi-currency and further assists global OEMs in managing their international operations efficiently.
SLM Impact: By using service data for product improvement, Intelli Warranty allows OEMs to reduce warranty costs (by detecting fraud claims) and improve customer satisfaction (by resolving claims timely).
Intelli Bulletin
To replace outdated methods of communication, like email or physical posts, we developed Intelli Bulletin. It provides a centralized platform for delivering technical updates to the dealers and technicians. The platform uses the best security and encryption to ensure the security of sensitive data, such as regulatory requirements and company policies.
Intelli Bulletin’s engagement analytics track open rates and downloads, providing OEMs with visibility into resource sharing and its utilization. Its search options provide quick access to bulletins and improve service planning.
SLM Impact: Intelli Bulletin helps OEMs have timely and secure communications with their dealers. This ensures that the dealerships are well-informed throughout the service-related updates, reducing downtime and improving service delivery.
Intelli Manual
Intelli Manual uses AI-driven features to simplify technical documentation for OEMs. It allows technicians to search for manuals using multiple search formats, reducing training time and support queries for the OEMs. System-generated FAQs and text summarization help them simplify complex information. Intelli Manual also provides a user feedback loop for continuous updates and improvement. These features make documentation easy accessible and engaging, and improve technician productivity.
SLM Impact: Through innovative documentation management, Intelli Manual improves the efficiency of service execution. This helps OEMs in minimizing support needs and reducing costs.
Intelli Desk
Intelli Desk is a technical support software that simplifies the reporting and resolution of field issues for OEMs, from their dealers to service managers. It provides features like efficient knowledge transfer and SLA enforcement tracking, assisting OEMs in ensuring proactive management of field-related issues. Its multiple reporting capabilities, like Technical Assistance Report (TAR) and Field Technical Report (FTR), ensure that each issue is escalated and resolved proactively.
By providing a centralized platform for logging and tracking, Intelli Desk supports OEMs in ensuring the timely resolution of field requests. Its structured root cause analysis helps in preventing recurring issues and enhancing product quality. With a user-friendly interface, technicians can deliver field service efficiently and enhance operational efficiency.
SLM Impact: Intelli Desk helps manufacturers accelerate issue resolution and improve technician productivity. This improves streamlined service operations for OEMs and ensures field issues are resolved efficiently.
Takeaways
Manufacturers experience a continuous pressure to deliver exceptional aftermarket services to maintain competence in today’s highly competitive ecosystem. However, they also have to manage costs and simplify the complexity involved in aftermarket operations to enhance customer experience.
Service Lifecycle Management provides an opportunity for OEMs to address these challenges effectively. OEMs can adopt SLM practices to transform their aftermarket operations into a strategic process and reduce costs, boost revenue, and build customer loyalty.
Software offerings at Intellinet Systems facilitate this process for OEMs by offering multiple solutions to simplify and manage their aftermarket services. Its products assist manufacturers at every stage of SLM to ensure streamlined operations. Through sustainability tracking and unified analytics dashboards, these software solutions help OEMs align with emerging SLM trends and stay ahead in the aftermarket.
Ready to transform your aftermarket operations through simplified SLM? Connect with our experts today to explore how our solutions can drive success for your business.
