After-Sales

Technology driven industries are facing new challenges to manage the spare part business of high-quality products due to decreasing innovation cycles and increasing product complexity. An influencing factor for the total profitability is the after-sales strategy for spare parts after the end-of-production decision of a product. On the one hand the guaranteed service level can be achieved by excess stocks and expensive scrapping actions. On the other hand if out of stock situations may occur, penalties and an eventual image loss have to be taken into account. Both strategies can be combined to reduce costs significantly by using a dynamic life cycle simulation approach.

After-sales services generate a high percentage of today’s business volume in the industry of producer goods. Basis of after-sales services is the availability of spare parts for a contracted timeframe of support. A long term provision of electronic spare parts, however, faces problems because of short innovation cycles and the resulting decreasing availability of components. A closed-loop supply chain integrating manufacturer and treatment facilities provides an opportunity to ensure a long-term provision of spare parts by using components of used equipment.