The Service Value ChainDriving High Performance in Service and Spare Parts Robert Giacobbe, Cameron Plummer, Kristine Renker and Andre P. Skerlavaj

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Introduction 04

Traditional operating models cannot 06 keep pace with today’s needs

A New Operating Model: The Service Value Chain 08 Core Attributes of a Service Value Chain 14

High Performance and the Service Value Chain 18

About the Authors 18

Contents

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After-sale service and spare parts operations are often vital. However, after-sale service and spare parts operations that really add value—that enhance customer satisfaction, contribute significantly to companies’ revenue and profit goals, and promote rigorous cost efficiency—are rare. More common are operations with traditional characteristics: labor intensive, reactive, costly and minimally strategic. Given this reality, a significant opportunity exists for companies to extract greater value from their after-sale service and spare-parts-management operations. And a powerful way to accomplish this is with a “Service Value Chain”: a bidirectional, cross-functional approach that can enhance cost efficiency, maximize capital utilization, increase profitability and even improve brand image.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of a Service Value Chain is its clear integration with all functions that influence a company’s ability to provide service to its customers. The most relevant of these functions are Sales & Contract Management, Customer Service & Support, and Engineering.

A second characteristic of the Service Value Chain is its tight focus on the quantifiable value that a service business provides. For an asset owner/operator, demonstrable service value might manifest itself as high asset reliability relative to the organization’s investment. A for-profit aftermarket service company, on the other hand, might think of service value as 1) the extent to which its service business contributes to a profitable customer relationship or 2) what level of return the company’s

Introductionservice investments provide. In either case, cost-effectively meeting customers’ service requirements and mitigating the impact of surprise availability problems are key.

A significant opportunity exists for companies to extract greater value from their after-sale service and spare-parts-management operations.

Third is a stringent emphasis on the total lifetime value of a company’s service assets—for example, by directly helping to manage service costs or, even more importantly, by creating revenue streams associated with repair, replacement and warranty management. The potential in this area is significant: A recent study found that very little service revenue is captured by an OEM. Third party service providers, suppliers and repair shops are believed to own about 75 percent of the service and parts market.

Lastly, Service Value Chains are structurally different from their organizations’ forward-focused “product value chains.” A key reason is the complexity of forecasting service demands and rationalizing service operations—from field personnel and back-office operations to service delivery operations in repair depots and parts warehouses. Moreover, to keep inventories low, utilization rates high and customers happy, a Service Value Chain must excel at spare-parts forecasting, reverse logistics, repair depot operations, inventory hub management, and technician scheduling and deployment.

By emphasizing these things, Service Value Chains have become increasingly vital as well as profitable. In fact, companies that build Service Value Chains often find that 50 percent or more of their profits end up coming from after-sale service and support. This Accenture Point of View explains how such successes can be attained. We first examine the drawbacks of traditional after-sale service and spare parts operating models (Section 1). From there we explain how Service Value Chains integrate with Sales & Contract Management, Customer Service & Support, and Engineering (Section 2). We then identify four primary attributes of a Service Value Chain approach—how companies use Service Value Chains to “out-structure” and “out-execute” competitors (Section 3). Lastly, we briefly reiterate the potential benefits for companies that venture down this path (Section 4).

Companies that build Service Value Chains often find that 50 percent or more of their profits end up coming from after-sale service and support.

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Service Value Chain CharacteristicsIntegrates all functions that affect a company’s ability to provide service to its customers—particularly Sales & Contract Management, Customer Service & Support, and Engineering.

Emphasizes the quantifiable value that an after-sale service business provides.

Focuses on the total lifetime value of a company’s service-oriented assets.

An approach that is structurally different from most organizations’ forward-focused “product value chains.”

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Businesses are always looking for new ways to increase revenue, boost margins and increase capital effectiveness. All of these objectives can be addressed by improving the after-sale service and spare parts operating model. However, service and spare parts businesses mostly tend to be silo-oriented afterthoughts (Figure 1)—even among companies that take their commitment to customer service very seriously. Some of those committed companies are able to maintain high service quality; it just costs them more money. Still, an Accenture survey revealed that service management has yet to achieve “mission-critical” status at a majority of companies. Only 42 percent of respondents view formal service

management programs as key to the overall customer experience.1

Companies often lack a formal, service-centric process because the corporate operating models around which their supply chains were built are generally product oriented rather than service oriented. These operations simply were not designed to handle reverse supply chain flows or to smoothly accommodate parts inventories and the logistics associated with repairs and returns. This is another reason why a Service Value Chain initiative is often so valuable.

Other flaws in a company’s operating structure may also contribute to sub-par or overly expensive service:

Unaligned missions Discrete organizational structures run counter to the need for a common company-wide view of spare-parts and service management. The frequent result is that service levels across business units end up being wildly uneven. Most areas become over- or under-serviced, but few are well-aligned with customer needs. For example, with too little cross-functional contact, Procurement may simply aggregate part-order requests—again resulting in excess volume. Further upstream, Engineering may design parts in response to demands from other internal departments, but without the serviceability perspective that comes from field service technicians or maintenance personnel.

1. Traditional operating models cannot keep pace with today’s needs

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MasterData/ mgt Reporting

Figure 1: The traditional operating model for service management.

Sales and Contract Management

Corporate Management

Service Event Management

Sourcing and Procuremen

Spare Parts Planning

Repair

Reverse Logistics

Warranty Management

Service

Accountability Performance Management

Finance, HR and IT

Sourcing and Procurement

Forecasting and Planning

Manufacturing/Process

Warehousing and Distribution

Product Value Chain

Product Design and Product Lifecycle Management (Engineering)

Master Data Management

Customer Point of Use/Delivery

Discontinuous processes Siloed functions can result in constrained views of demand characteristics, organizational preparedness and customer expectations or customer relevancy. Supply chain planners, for instance, need cross-functional information and cooperation to effectively forecast spare-part needs, track and optimize inventory, coordinate parts orders with repair orders, and manage vendors and purchase orders. Another example is product lifecycle managers who must use field data to establish serviceability requirements, develop comprehensive product-failure information and link that data to parts planning and product development. This information is an important input for service

delivery functions seeking to coordinate the availability of parts, tools and skilled repair technicians.

Underpowered legacy systems Companies need specialized software and systems to ensure service efficiency and service-parts transparency. However, many legacy systems are not up to the task because they were designed primarily to support enterprise operations, product sales and production-oriented supply chains. They do not excel at service-demand analytics, service-part safety stock management, variations associated with sporadic demand, service partner management, integrated scheduling and dispatch for technicians, and the deployment of tools.

Fortunately, it is feasible to transition from a model that positions service management as an appendage to a model in which proactive service themes and actions are infused across the supply chain. As demonstrated in the next section, the most important challenge is developing an integrated service model and deeper relationships with other core functions.

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2. A New Operating Model: The Service Value ChainService Value Chains are about integration and collaboration: making service and parts operations an integral, life-cycle-wide consideration—from product design, to sourcing and procuring parts and components, through customer use and after-sale support, and on to end-of-life disposition (Figure 2). However, Service Value Chains are also about making service management performance quantifiably better. One of the most frustrating things about traditional service management approaches and structures is that value is hard to assess. This is why Service Value Chain approaches emphasize the capture of measurable improvements, such as:

• 10 percent to 20 percent increases in service revenue.

• 10 percent to 20 percent improvements in customer satisfaction.

• 15 percent to 30 percent reductions in service costs.

• 25 percent to 40 percent jumps in working capital utilization.

• 15 percent to 30 percent increases in technician efficiency.

Reengineering the relationship between service management and three operating functions–Sales & Contract Management, Customer Service & Support, and Engineering—is key to capturing these benefits.

A Service Value Chain means making service and parts operations an integral, life-cycle-wide consideration—from product design, to sourcing and procuring parts and components, through customer use and after-sale support, and on to end-of- life disposition.

Finance, HR and IT

Sales and Contract Management

Corporate Management

Sourcing and Procurement

Forecasting and Planning

Manufacturing/Process/ Repair

Warehousing and Distribution

Product Value Chain

Service Value Chain

IntegratedObjective: TotalLifetime Value

Accountability

Performance Management

Product Design and Product Lifecycle Management (Engineering)

Figure 2: How the Service Value Chain fits and operates.

Finance, HR and IT

Master Data Management

Customer Point of Use/Delivery

Customer Service and Support

Return/Repair Recycle

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Integration with Sales & Contract Management From a customer’s perspective, today’s products and the after-sale services associated with those products are not succinctly connected. Not only is the relationship confusing, it is potentially detrimental to the seller’s goal of maximum margin, profitability and customer loyalty. A better and simpler approach might be designing products for maximum reliability and taking a lifetime view of service and spare parts costs and pricing. This is where linkages between a Service and Spare Parts organization and Sales & Contract Management come in, and three capabilities are particularly key:

• Managed services are basically ongoing, customer-centric service commitments. For example, a global forklift manufacturer might provide a fleet of vehicles to a retail chain. A managed service relationship is then constructed to focus the two sides on the specific needs of each retail operation and distribution center (e.g., transport capacity defined by tonnages and pallet volume, as well as working hours). Guided by these commitments, the forklift company equips its fleet, maintains the trucks, charges batteries for electric trucks, and so forth.

• Performance-based (“power by the hour”) contracting can spur manufacturers to build more reliable products, while shifting the responsibility for maintenance and reliability to the OEM. For example, BAE Systems’ relationship with the UK’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) typically involves contracts for discrete maintenance, repair

services and the provision of spares and parts. The MoD maintains responsibility for integrating the various service contracts and meeting the aircraft-availability requirements of its end customer, the Royal Air Force.

• Strategic parts pricing implies a service-oriented, product-life-cycle view that is geared to maximizing profitability rather than cutting costs. Consider a heavy equipment manufacturer that implemented a new pricing approach after it ran out of cost-cutting options. The company repositioned several products based on the price elasticity of key market segments. It also identified a clear threshold beyond which it would save more in terms of warranty reimbursements at a lower price than it would gain in profit from a higher price. Lastly, the manufacturer instituted a “product life cycle view” for pricing decisions—emphasizing

Developing synergies between Sales & Contract Management and the Service Value ChainSell products and reliability instead of products and repair.

Take a life-cycle view of service and spare parts costs and pricing.

Consider performance-based contracting or managed services.

Optimize profits through strategic parts pricing.

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price leadership and product value, rather than following competitors’ leads. This new approach helped produce a two-percentage-point increase in gross margin within a year.

A better and simpler approach might be designing products for maximum reliability and taking a lifetime view of service and spare parts costs and pricing. This is where linkages between a Service and Spare Parts organization and Sales & Contract Management come in.

Integration with Customer Service & Support

The mission here is to align service operations to the expectations of specific customer segments. Segmentation is not a new concept but it is not often applied to after-sale service and spare parts management. Linking the Service Value Chain to an organization’s customer-service efforts addresses this shortcoming by tying segmentation approaches to service areas such as customer interface management, call center operations, self help and documentation support.

Findings from a recent Accenture service management survey demonstrate how valuable the connection can be. Researchers found that only 80 percent of responding companies consistently fix problems the first time. Eighty percent was also the fill rate for respondents’ customer-facing

Developing synergies between Customer Service & Support and the Service Value ChainLink customer-segmentation approaches to customer service offerings.

Develop a portfolio of value-oriented service products.

Use simulation and modeling to create the right mix of service products.

Align pricing of service-related products with delivered and perceived customer value.

Avoid complexity by bundling and modularizing service products.

Compile and leverage all available customer and service data.

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SKUs. Across the entire sample, 10 percent of service calls were cited as unresolved due to lack of parts, tooling or information. Several implications can be drawn from this research: • Valuable customers are often alienated by unsatisfactory service.

• Stratifying customers’ service needs could provide new revenue-enhancement opportunities.

• Better, more efficient service could result from a clearer understanding of each customer segment’s ongoing needs.

The Accenture survey identified several companies that excel in service management. These leaders tend to be particularly good at tailoring service programs for each customer or customer segment. Take General Electric’s Aviation Division, which has a program called Intelligent Workscopes. GE must tune engine performance based on what aircraft customers

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require, and that generally varies by airline. Some customers opt for better short-term performance, others for fuel savings, and still others for longer-term durability. Intelligent Workscopes factor in such customer needs before engines go into the shop. They also consider how much customers wish to spend on maintenance. GE Aviation maintenance personnel are consequently able to plan and execute more cost effectively and to stock the right (and right amount of) parts.

Organizations focused on after-sale customer relationships also do other things well. Because they have worked to understand and financially quantify customers’ parts and service requirements, leaders are able to construct profitable service products such as preventive-maintenance or machine-overhaul packages. Those same companies also are likely to understand

how simulation or modeling can create the right mix of appropriately priced services. These organizations leverage all available customer and service data (e.g., maintenance records and service inquiries) and develop proactive service and parts strategies that are consistent with their business strategies. As a result, they consistently meet customers’ delivery requirements, as well as other performance expectations.

Service management leaders excel at tying segmentation approaches to service areas such as customer interface management, call center operations, self help and documentation support.

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mining company in China. One of that company’s business units designed a conveyor belt that was different from the company standard. Since belts must be replaced frequently, significant added costs were associated with design; replacement; SKU management and storage; installation equipment and processes; and the need for a special supplier. This complexity drove increased cost to serve.

One company that excels at standardization is Asus, a Taiwanese computer and gaming hardware manufacturer. Its vast product portfolio means it has an enormous number of parts that require detailed planning, forecasting and replenishment. Moreover, different categories have different demand characteristics. This created a compelling case for a design standardization program that led to fewer unique parts and greater SKU rationalization.

As Asus learned, an environment of fewer SKUs offers advantages that go beyond less complexity and lower costs. Companies may also have an easier time working with suppliers on design-for-serviceability programs. Moreover, supplier-focused incentives may transcend volume and price to include engineering designs that help companies improve maintenance.

If a piece of equipment is part of a larger machine or operation, tighter service linkages with Engineering help increase interoperability levels, thereby ensuring that an existing technology or platform does not become redundant each time a new version is released. The missions of complexity reduction and standardization may be further enhanced by including maintenance/service engineers in all product- and system-design activities. The potential

Use more standard components and common parts.

Emphasize interoperability.

Increase information capture and knowledge transfer.

Deploy more feedback systems and alarms.

Reduce product complexity.

Work with suppliers on design-for-service ability programs.

Developing synergies between Engineering and the Service Value Chain

Integration with Engineering In most organizations, Engineering and Service are not tightly coupled. Yet there are many good reasons why they ought to be. For example, when Engineering and Service do not communicate well, the latter group may be unable to accurately forecast asset outages and product failures. Likely results include bad first-time-fix ratios, long service-order lead times, and large spare parts inventories.

The best way to avoid the above scenarios is with tighter coupling between Service and Engineering organizations. And one of the best places to start is with a complexity-reduction initiative. Extensive product lines and government-mandated service-life commitments in certain countries and industries mean that product manufacturers must often maintain many part iterations. This can create tremendous complexity, which is what happened to a large

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system works in the curves”). Same for a repair facility (“This engine chassis is designed in a way that makes it extremely difficult to extract the battery. Easier disassembly might make it possible for repairs to be done on site”).

Closed-loop feedback information can be supported by early alarms that provide rapid sensitization and help to quickly eliminate design defects. Some years ago, Sony faced problems with volatile laptop batteries. The company responded by compressing the detection time for part failure. This meant enormous savings in reverse logistics, warranty expenses, technician labor and even potential liabilities. Implementation of automatic feedback loops is key to adding the Value in “Service Value Chain.”

Another benefit of improved integration between Service and Engineering is a tighter focus on

impacts of complexity reduction on spare parts inventories, field technician efficiency and warranty management costs are significant.

Another good way to connect Service Management and Engineering is with a closed-loop feedback process. Increasing information capture and knowledge transfer at every service chain node helps Engineering maximize serviceability, while giving Service Management an opportunity to simplify Engineering’s design tasks. For example, in the aftermarket service space, organizations should be able to capture transactional feedback from technicians and loop that information back to Engineering. Technicians may provide enlightening insights into quality (“This new service board doesn’t work as well as the earlier one”) or design (“This fastener doesn’t move easily, perhaps because of the way the interlock

the supplier-chargeback process for products under warranty. Improved failure analysis can help companies identify root causes which may, in turn, produce significant chargebacks. However, very few companies currently have formal chargeback processes in place, mainly because they lack the necessary data.

In net, a tight relationship between Service Management and Engineering has numerous benefits: • If a part is designed for serviceability, then repairs during scheduled or unscheduled downtimes can run smoother and faster, with necessary spares and labor available when needed.

• Future design efforts can leverage warranty and repair information to build more reliable products.

• Warranty risk and costs are reduced.

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3. Core Attributes of a Service Value Chain A Service Value Chain avoids vertical silos, encourages an integrated product and service perspective, promotes a distinctive service strategy, encourages enterprise-wide integration, enhances end-to-end visibility, and tightens companies’ focus on the achievement of lower total cost of ownership. And as we have discussed, the Service Value Chain draws much of its power and profit potential from its integration with other business functions. Supporting this commitment to cross-functional integration, here are four key attributes of a Service Value Chain—what it takes from a service standpoint to out-structure and out–execute competitors.

A Service Value Chain avoids vertical silos, encourages an integrated product and service perspective, promotes a distinctive spares/service strategy, and encourages enterprise-wide integration, end-to-end visibility and approaches geared to ascertaining and achieving lower total cost of ownership.

Centralized Operations Companies’ service and parts-management objectives benefit significantly from a centralized high-level enterprise view which aligns specific service objectives with the overall business strategy. Highly decentralized organizations, on the other hand, often experience varying or inconsistent behaviors and accountabilities, which makes it harder for service and parts organizations to maximize their contributions to business profitability and competitive advantage. The improvement potential of service planning and management capabilities is particularly great with centralization. Key examples include network strategy and segmentation, inventory planning, and asset-base management.

Companies with Service Value Chains often (but not always) have an easier time dealing with the reverse supply chain requirements associated with service and spare parts management. In addition, this may also be key to increasing global parts “transparency.”

With standardized processes, companies are able to establish more robust parts and service interactions across functions. If procurement entities do not work cross-functionally they will invariably focus more on cost metrics, which can increase a component’s or product’s total cost of ownership. For example, Procurement may be able to work more effectively with operations and maintenance people to create strategies that reflect how spare parts and equipment are actually used and maintained.

Partner Networks As part of the Service Value Chain network, “collaboration by design” is fundamental for the relations with Service Partners. One key reason is the innate benefit of pan-enterprise visibility into all Service Assets such as available parts inventories, associated service provider technicians or integrated repair partner capacities. Another benefit is the potential to remove logistics costs by tight direct integration of Service Partners, e.g. by enabling direct shipments of parts to a repair depot or a service technician truck, rather than routing assets through a complex distribution channel. A third reason is rapid resolution of conflicts along the Service Value Chain through streamlined decision-making and auditing procedures in the acquisition and deployment of the Service Assets.

This strong collaboration among partners should also be the basis of strategic sourcing along the network: closely working and improving the end-to-end value chain jointly with Service Partners helps to identify, select and shape mutually beneficial value propositions. In short, understanding the capabilities of partners and leveraging their strengths can result in better, cheaper service.

Specialized Skills and Advanced Technology Leaders in service management often are distinguished by their deployment of unique tools, systems, skills and personnel—including a senior decision maker who is distinct from the executive responsible for the product value

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chain. With that distinction, often times these companies may also have developed a separate P&L for their parts and service businesses. As a result to the increased importance of service, a dedicated talent management strategy is required.

These same companies also are likely to depend less on ERP to handle parts and service, since ERP systems often struggle in areas such as forecasting, managing distributed inventories and aligning resources with specific service or maintenance events. After all, service/maintenance forecasting is very different from regular product, production or wholesale forecasting. Among other things, it involves randomized demand forecasting, which cannot be done with traditional ERP-based time- series forecasting. Dedicated technology investment is needed to compliment typical ERP to comply with service specific requirements.

Service businesses are also likely to require extensive mobile technology. Utility companies, for example, maintain parts depots that are in remote locations or disconnected from the regular warehouse network. These organizations need mobile devices to maintain and check inventories in those locations. Using remote diagnostic capabilities to monitor performance and predict and plan for outages can take this industry’s service planning to the next level of sophistication.

Service/maintenance forecasting is very different from regular product, production or wholesale forecasting. It involves randomized demand forecasting, which cannot be done with traditional ERP-based time-series forecasting.

An Integrated Approach to Performance Management In traditional supply chains, accountability and performance are measured vertically—within siloed functions. This is rarely optimal for any company, but it is particularly problematic in after-sale service and parts management.

To fully balance costs against service levels, organizations need to establish performance metrics that work across supply chain functions and reflect the value stream’s collective contributions. Imbued in a Service Value Chain, this horizontal alignment may emphasize goals that are not the same as those associated with specific vertical modes. For example, Sourcing & Procurement’s specific priorities may range from lead times and contract compliance to purchase order fill rate, supplier concentration and average purchase order value. Supplier contributions in the form of cost reductions or service innovations also may be noteworthy. Performance metrics for distribution could be speed of service or delivery accuracy.

For example, although leaner inventories are always desirable, the preferred company-wide goal of exceptional service may require raising inventories. Similarly, a company-wide focus on lead times may also mean higher costs unless most spares are procured locally. However, none of the above goals inherently reflect a company’s overall priorities, which is why organizations need to formulate enterprise-wide parts and service objectives, and then prioritize performance metrics across all nodes in the service chain.

To fully balance costs against service levels, organizations need to establish performance metrics that work across the Service Value Chain.

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Outsourcing is not automatically a characteristic of any particular business model. However, organizations may wish to combine a Service Value Chain initiative with the transfer of parts and service management to a third party.

By drawing on the skills and resources of a third party, companies can often sidestep the need for large investments in physical assets; as well as human and technology resources. Third parties can generally amortize those investments across multiple customers. A good service-outsourcing example is Lockheed-Martin which has outsourced the global service and support of its manufacturing equipment. The agreement encompasses interactive diagnostic help, preventive maintenance, field service, training, replacement, and spare parts and productivity improvements. Savings were realized in areas ranging from greater operational and maintenance efficiencies to purchasing/management cost reductions.

Spares and inventory management is a good example of a potentially fruitful outsourcing opportunity. Accenture experience suggests that companies can achieve reductions of 10 percent to 20 percent in operating costs by optimizing and outsourcing spares and inventory management activities. Many companies that manage a high volume of parts and inventories—e.g., those in consumer electronics, industrial equipment, medical equipment, automotive manufacturing and various other industrial sectors—are seeking ways to remove after-sale-service assets from their books so they can concentrate resources on other activities.

It should also be noted that outsourced service relationships naturally adhere to many of the Service Value Chain attributes—particularly centralized operations and oversight (which adds coordination and visibility), specialized skills and advanced technology (which increases utilization of leading-edge tools), and astute attention to performance management (which drives service level agreements and enables tighter, clearer metrics for gauging and capturing opportunities).

Outsourcing and the Service Value Chain

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Of all the Service Value Chain characteristics noted in this Accenture Point of View, the most important may be the fact that Service Value Chains are fully aligned with—but not simple extensions of—companies’ regular value chain models. However, Service Value Chains are infused with an end-to-end value chain orientation: They incorporate the knowledge and perspectives of key functions across the enterprise, and the benefits they produce are company-wide, rather than function-focused.

Those benefits are not insignificant. Accenture experience has shown that high performers in service management have built Service Value Chains that consistently increase service revenue, raise customer satisfaction, reduce service costs, improve working capital utilization, enhance technician efficiency and even strengthen brand image.

And what sorts of companies are optimal candidates for the development of a Service Value Chain? Broadly speaking, a close investigation might be advisable for any company seeking to elevate the quality and profitability of its after-sale service and parts-management operations.

4. High Performance and the Service Value Chain

About the AuthorsRobert Giacobbe is a senior executive in Accenture Supply Chain Management Consulting. He practices exclusively in the areas of service chain optimization and focuses on customer strategy, service resource planning, maintenance/repair, field enablement, returns/warranty and spares optimization work. He has extensive experience in leading his clients through service business transformation programs, from strategy formulation to solution deployment. He has worked across the heavy equipment, energy and high-tech industries. Based in Atlanta, he can be reached at robert.giacobbe@accenture.com.

Cameron Plummer is a senior executive in Accenture Supply Chain Management Consulting and leads Accenture’s Customer Service and Support Program for Communications & High

Tech in Asia Pacific. He also leads the Service Supply Chain Transformation activities across industries for Asia Pacific. Cameron’s client experiences include optimizing the service supply chain and integrating with customer contact capabilities to drive OPEX, CAPEX and customer satisfaction improvements. Cameron holds an engineering degree with honors from Arizona State University and is based in Beijing. He can be reached at cameron.plummer@accenture.com

Kristine Renker is a senior manager in Accenture Supply Chain Management Consulting. She is the research and development lead for global supply chain focusing on service management and manufacturing practices. She has industry and consulting experience in automotive, industrial equipment

and aerospace defense and consumer goods. Based in Chicago, she can be reached at kristine.m.renker@accenture.com.

André Skerlavaj is a senior manager in Accenture Supply Chain Management Consulting and leads Accenture’s Service Management group in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. He has extensive experience in the automotive and industrial equipment industries, focusing on after sales and service businesses. He is recognized for his broad range of service management expertise ranging from service strategy, process optimization to the technical conceptualization and implementation of the service solution—in field service operations, spare parts management and MRO. Based in Frankfurt, he can be reached at andre.p.skerlavaj@accenture.com.

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Copyright © 2011 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

References

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 211,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

1. “Accenture Research and Insights into Service Management Mastery,” © 2009 Accenture.

2. “Maintenance Outsourcing As a Global Strategy,” © Industry Week, May 1, 2009

About Accenture Supply Chain ManagementAccenture Supply Chain Management consulting services help clients across a broad range of industries to develop dynamic supply chains by aligning operating models to support business strategies, optimizing global operations, and enabling profitable product launches. Committed to helping clients achieve high performance through supply chain mastery, we combine global industry expertise and skills in supply chain strategy, sourcing and procurement, supply chain planning, manufacturing, product design, fulfillment, and service management

to help organizations transform their supply chain capabilities. We collaborate with clients to implement innovative consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions, and enhance the skills and capabilities of the supply chain workforce. For more information, visit www.accenture.com/supplychain.