How to Get Better Results

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Unlocking the Potential of the New Product Introduction Process

A well-designed and well-implemented New Product Introduction process contributes significantly to a new product's success and enhances service performance.

A well-designed and implemented new product introduction process usually results in a win-win situation for every participating group. While service, which usually comes in at the tail end of the development process, gains a great deal, this gain comes from the increased synergies generated by the NPI process and does not come at the net expense of another function or group. Service, by influencing product design for reliability and maintainability, benefits not only itself but also the entire company. By demonstrating the degree to which service margins and revenues contribute to a product’s overall profitability, service can transform itself into a front-line partner in the company’s success. Computer modeling is a powerful but underutilized tool in the service manager’s toolbox. Models can help the service manager or executive achieve or surpass objectives with optimal resource deployment. While other corporate functions have used modeling extensively in forecasting and decision support, the service function has been notably slow in adopting this versatile tool. This may stem from the traditional accounting, manufacturing, or marketing views of business that deal with tangibles and hard numbers. Service, on the other hand, with its focus on such intangibles as customer satisfaction and responsiveness to customer needs, appears reluctant to use hard data to make firm business decisions.

Life Cycle Management for Maximizing Profitability

This article highlights how LCM by benefiting all functions within a company, has a sustained effect on the bottom line.

Many organizations view service as a necessary, but problematic, drain on the organization and its resources. Because of this, they do not capture the full effectiveness and productivity gains resulting from a properly positioned and structured service function. Changing this state of affairs, while not trivial, is relatively easy to accomplish.

Here are seven ways of transforming your service function into a profitable resource that contributes to achieving your corporate objectives:

Computer Modeling in the Services Environment

By enabling Services to test business strategies and tactical approaches in a safe environment, Computer Modeling helps deliver enhanced services while controlling and optimizing costs.

Computer modeling is a powerful but underutilized tool in the service manager’s toolbox. Models can help the service manager or executive achieve or surpass objectives with optimal resource deployment. While other corporate functions have used modeling extensively in forecasting and decision support, the service function has been notably slow in adopting this versatile tool. This may stem from the traditional accounting, manufacturing, or marketing views of business that deal with tangibles and hard numbers. Service, on the other hand, with its focus on such intangibles as customer satisfaction and responsiveness to customer needs, appears reluctant to use hard data to make firm business decisions.

Value-Based Selling

A value-based service contract selling approach, built on quantifying the impact the service makes on the customer's financial performance, offers a multitude of benefits in return for the effort. This concept can be readily and beneficially applied to many different products and services in different market environments.

"...We contend that establishing and demonstrating service value is the better approach. This is particularly important when customers shut down some existing equipment to adjust to decreasing product sales. However, the need for service to ensure the maximum availability and performance of the equipment becomes more important than ever before. Contract services now become a vital component of the customer’s strategy to stay profitable by getting the most out of the equipment."

Parts Management Service

shows how strategically oriented Service organizations can create opportunities for themselves and their customers. This article discusses the creation and offering of a special parts management service.

While today’s products are designed for high reliability, nothing lasts forever. Therefore, prudent customers demand a “local” stock of critical spares on-site to minimize the risk of equipment downtime and production upsets. Reasons for stocking spares are as varied as competition and the customer base. Some keep spare parts on hand for maintaining their own equipment. Others keep critical spare parts on hand as a preventive measure against excessive downtime waiting for needed spares to arrive. This is particularly important where geographical distance, transportation problems, or political boundaries with their bureaucratic regulations impede speedy or timely parts delivery.

Strategically oriented Service organizations can create special parts management offerings for all these conditions designed to provide value to customers while contributing greatly to their own financial, marketing, and strategic objectives.

Creating & Leveraging Equity in Your Service Organization

helps companies resolve whether service is a drain on resources or an asset they can leverage to improve ROI and outlines steps to transform your service function into a more profitable resource that achieves your corporate objectives. You can implement these steps individually as your resources allow. Being mutually synergistic, they will yield the best results when all are in place. You will be pleased to find steps already in place now provide better results as other steps are implemented.

Armor-Plating Your Business

shows entrepreneurs and other business people how "soft skills," by eliminating or preventing many causes of failure, are essential to your business success.

Most entrepreneurs have a burning desire to succeed and a strong belief in themselves and the products or services they offer. Yet most businesses shut their doors within five years. What can entrepreneurs do to maximize the chances for success? They start off fully committed to do what it takes to ensure success and most put in long hours. However, the fact remains that far too many fail in spite of these efforts.

Why then this discrepancy between expectation and observed fact? Could it be possible that the problems being studied and touted as being causes are merely the symptoms of underlying causes? Recommended cures based on them are similar to trying to heal major trauma by putting band-aids on the injury long after the damage has been done.

Seven Ways to Maximize Returns from Your Service Organization

discusses how you can get the most out of your service function in supporting corporate objectives.

Many organizations view service as a necessary, but problematic, drain on the organization and its resources. Becauseof this, they do not capture the full effectiveness and productivity gains resulting from a properly positioned and structured service function. Changing this state of affairs, while not trivial, is relatively easy to accomplish.

Here are seven ways of transforming your service function into a profitable resource that contributes to achieving your corporate objectives:

Bring Service Into the Picture as Soon as Possible

Maximize the benefits from your Service Department

One of the tried and tested ways of maximizing the returns from your service organization is so simple and easy many often overlook it altogether, although the incremental costs are usually negligible and the benefits are many. Bring service into the picture as soon as possible, so that it helps you design maintainability into your products. Often, service is the last function brought on board during development cycles.At this stage, because of time-to-market and cost considerations, service can only react; it cannot help you improve maintainability by designing it in.

Designing maintainability into your products improves not only service effectiveness by reducing costs, but often improves ease-of-use as well, and makes them more attractive to potential customers.

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