Supply Chain Matters kicks-off the first of a new market education series- A Path Towards Internet of Things Enabled Service Management, in collaboration with supply chain planning and service parts technology provider ToolsGroup.

This supply chain industry analyst is not alone in communicating the long-term implications and benefits of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies applied to multi-industry supply chain business processes.

When I speak to audiences on the future of industry supply chain capabilities, I often context that in over my 30 years of experiences and observations, what I always considered to be the “holy-grail” of our profession was the ability to connect the physical and digital components of various supply chain business processes. That vision is becoming much more of a reality as supply chain teams begin to leverage IoT data and information into planning and customer fulfillment decision-making. From my view, that reality is not the far away. 

One of the most promising line-of-business areas that will benefit from IoT enabled technologies applied to supply chain will be equipment services management, especially service and spare parts management. Consider the possibilities when physical objects such as engines, motor vehicles, capital, and other forms of equipment, proactively communicate needs for required maintenance services, replenishment, or repair parts.

Consider the possibilities of far more knowledgeable insights into item-level service or spare parts product demand, more efficient and less costly multi-tier service echelon inventory management, and a more responsive services management process for your customers. A longstanding challenge in service or replenishment parts planning and management has always been the ability to forecast item-level demand when such demand is sporadic or sudden.  Now consider the opportunities to have demand-driven or predictive failure data and information emanating directly from the physical equipment.

Three to five years from today, equipment manufacturers will be communicating to investors about many of these new top-line revenue business growth areas where physical and digital interact in a more predictive service management business capability. Such capabilities insure maximum uptime for customers, supported with a super-efficient supply chain planning and resource management capability connects the physical with the digital.

This is all very possible. However, with any solid business model, there are requirements for foundational process and decision-making capabilities.  If your business or enterprise is considering such business models, now is the time to consider investments in fundamental decision-making support capabilities that can best take advantage of the implications of physical and digital coming together.

We submit one of the most fundamental investments to consider is that of a robust service parts planning and fulfillment process that leverages today’s more advanced capabilities of in-memory computing, machine learning and analytics to support automated decision-making and resource balancing. IoT married to machine learning and more predictive analytics pays near-term dividends for current service management processes as well as future, more robust business models.

In our four-part Supply Chain Matters market education series, A Path Towards Internet of Things Enabled Service Management, in collaboration with supply chain planning and service parts technology provider ToolsGroup, we will help readers to understand and be able to articulate the following:

  • The current state of service and spare parts planning processes and why tailored service parts planning capabilities so different than other forms of supply chain planning? Why is it increasingly becoming fundamental to any service management process and why are so many equipment manufacturers currently investing in this capability?
  • How does a robust service parts planning capability play a foundational role in an Internet of Things (IoT) enabled environment? How does such capabilities, augmented by new advanced technologies, enhancing the effectiveness of an overall IoT integrated process?
  • What are the overall benefits for customers and to the business, and what are some current-day examples? How is this best articulated to the C-Suite? Why equipment manufacturers and services providers are already on this path?

Join us over the coming weeks as we dive deeper into each of these topical areas reflecting on how to build the foundations for both a robust, more efficient, and less costly service parts planning capability as well as laying the critical foundation for new IoT enabled service management business models.

Bob Ferrari

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