Life used to be simple for manufacturers. You sold a product, and if it broke, you fixed it. Post-sales service was long considered a tactical cost center.
Today, however, aftermarket service is fast becoming a strategic imperative. Some manufacturers keen to compete in the face of difficult economic headwinds are focusing on improving the quality and productivity of their post-sales service to enhance customer satisfaction and drive profits.
"For manufacturers with a service infrastructure, it is becoming essential that service technicians are used to their fullest potential, not sitting idle," says Sumair Dutta, research analyst for the Strategic Service Management Practice at Aberdeen.
IBM has one of the largest service infrastructures around and, in recent years, the high-tech giant has found that virtually all of the lean concepts it has used to streamline manufacturing could be successfully applied to its huge, multibillion-dollar business process outsourcing operation. Its efforts have helped to reduce service costs while improving the company's ability to meet service-level agreement commitments and boosting productivity. These results earned IBM a tie for Managing Automation's 2008 Progressive Manufacturing High Achiever Award for Customer Mastery.