The document discusses the Service Value Chain, a new operating model for after-sale service and spare parts management. Key points: 1) Traditional models are siloed and product-focused, unable to meet modern service needs cost-effectively. 2) The Service Value Chain integrates functions like sales, customer support, and engineering to focus on service across the lifecycle. 3) It emphasizes quantifying service value and maximizing total lifetime value. Developing synergies between these functions is crucial to capturing benefits like increased revenue, lower costs, and better customer satisfaction.

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

2. 2

3. Contents
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
3

4. Introduction
After-sale service and spare service investments provide. By emphasizing these things,
parts operations are often vital. In either case, cost-effectively Service Value Chains have become
However, after-sale service meeting customers’ service increasingly vital as well as
and spare parts operations that requirements and mitigating the profitable. In fact, companies that
really add value—that enhance impact of surprise availability build Service Value Chains often
customer satisfaction, contribute problems are key. find that 50 percent or more of
significantly to companies’ revenue their profits end up coming from
and profit goals, and promote A significant after-sale service and support.
rigorous cost efficiency—are rare. This Accenture Point of View
More common are operations
opportunity exists for explains how such successes can
with traditional characteristics: companies to extract be attained. We first examine the
labor intensive, reactive, costly drawbacks of traditional after-sale
and minimally strategic. Given this
greater value from service and spare parts operating
reality, a significant opportunity their after-sale models (Section 1). From there we
exists for companies to extract service and spare-parts- explain how Service Value Chains
greater value from their after- integrate with Sales & Contract
sale service and spare-parts- management operations. Management, Customer Service &
management operations. And a Support, and Engineering (Section
powerful way to accomplish this Third is a stringent emphasis 2). We then identify four primary
is with a “Service Value Chain”: on the total lifetime value of a attributes of a Service Value
a bidirectional, cross-functional company’s service assets—for Chain approach—how companies
approach that can enhance cost example, by directly helping to use Service Value Chains to “out-
efficiency, maximize capital manage service costs or, even structure” and “out-execute”
utilization, increase profitability more importantly, by creating competitors (Section 3). Lastly,
and even improve brand image. revenue streams associated with we briefly reiterate the potential
repair, replacement and warranty benefits for companies that
Perhaps the most important management. The potential in venture down this path
characteristic of a Service Value this area is significant: A recent (Section 4).
Chain is its clear integration study found that very little service
with all functions that influence revenue is captured by an OEM.
a company’s ability to provide Third party service providers, Companies that build
service to its customers. The most suppliers and repair shops are Service Value Chains
relevant of these functions are believed to own about 75 percent
Sales & Contract Management, of the service and parts market.
often find that 50
Customer Service & Support, percent or more of their
and Engineering. Lastly, Service Value Chains
are structurally different from profits end up coming
A second characteristic of their organizations’ forward- from after-sale service
the Service Value Chain is its focused “product value chains.”
tight focus on the quantifiable A key reason is the complexity of and support.
value that a service business forecasting service demands and
provides. For an asset owner/ rationalizing service operations—
operator, demonstrable service from field personnel and back-
value might manifest itself as office operations to service delivery
high asset reliability relative to operations in repair depots and
the organization’s investment. parts warehouses. Moreover, to
A for-profit aftermarket service keep inventories low, utilization
company, on the other hand, rates high and customers happy,
might think of service value as a Service Value Chain must excel
1) the extent to which its service at spare-parts forecasting, reverse
business contributes to a profitable logistics, repair depot operations,
customer relationship or 2) what inventory hub management,
level of return the company’s and technician scheduling
and deployment.
4

5. Service Value Chain Characteristics
Integrates 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.”
5

6. 1. Traditional operating models cannot keep pace
with today’s needs
Businesses are always looking for management programs as key to Unaligned missions
new ways to increase revenue, the overall customer experience.1 Discrete organizational structures
boost margins and increase run counter to the need for a
Companies often lack a formal,
capital effectiveness. All of these common company-wide view
service-centric process because the
objectives can be addressed by of spare-parts and service
corporate operating models around
improving the after-sale service management. The frequent result
which their supply chains were
and spare parts operating model. is that service levels across
built are generally product oriented
However, service and spare parts business units end up being
rather than service oriented.
businesses mostly tend to be wildly uneven. Most areas become
These operations simply were
silo-oriented afterthoughts (Figure over- or under-serviced, but few
not designed to handle reverse
1)—even among companies that are well-aligned with customer
supply chain flows or to smoothly
take their commitment to customer needs. For example, with too
accommodate parts inventories
service very seriously. Some of little cross-functional contact,
and the logistics associated with
those committed companies are Procurement may simply aggregate
repairs and returns. This is another
able to maintain high service part-order requests—again
reason why a Service Value Chain
quality; it just costs them more resulting in excess volume. Further
initiative is often so valuable.
money. Still, an Accenture survey upstream, Engineering may design
revealed that service management Other flaws in a company’s parts in response to demands
has yet to achieve “mission- operating structure may also from other internal departments,
critical” status at a majority of contribute to sub-par or overly but without the serviceability
companies. Only 42 percent of expensive service: perspective that comes from
respondents view formal service field service technicians or
maintenance personnel.
Figure 1: The traditional operating model for service management.
Sales and Contract Management
Corporate Management
Product Value Chain Service
Sourcing and Forecasting Manufacturing/ Warehousing Customer Point
Procurement and Planning Process and of Use/Delivery
Distribution Service Event Management
Sourcing and Procurement
Spare Parts Planning
Repair
Reverse Logistics
Warranty Management
Product Design and Product Lifecycle Management (Engineering)
Master Data Management
Finance, HR and IT
Accountability Performance Management
MasterData/ mgt
Reporting
6

7. Discontinuous processes delivery functions seeking to Fortunately, it is feasible to
Siloed functions can result in coordinate the availability of parts, transition from a model that
constrained views of demand tools and skilled repair technicians. positions service management
characteristics, organizational as an appendage to a model in
Underpowered legacy systems
preparedness and customer which proactive service themes
Companies need specialized
expectations or customer and actions are infused across the
software and systems to ensure
relevancy. Supply chain planners, supply chain. As demonstrated
service efficiency and service-
for instance, need cross-functional in the next section, the most
parts transparency. However,
information and cooperation important challenge is developing
many legacy systems are not up
to effectively forecast spare- an integrated service model and
to the task because they were
part needs, track and optimize deeper relationships with other
designed primarily to support
inventory, coordinate parts core functions.
enterprise operations, product
orders with repair orders, and
sales and production-oriented
manage vendors and purchase
supply chains. They do not excel
orders. Another example is
at service-demand analytics,
product lifecycle managers who
service-part safety stock
must use field data to establish
management, variations associated
serviceability requirements,
with sporadic demand, service
develop comprehensive product-
partner management, integrated
failure information and link that
scheduling and dispatch for
data to parts planning and product
technicians, and the deployment
development. This information
of tools.
is an important input for service
7

8. 2. A New Operating Model: The Service Value Chain
Service Value Chains are about • 10 percent to 20 percent A Service Value Chain
integration and collaboration: increases in service revenue.
making service and parts means making service
• 10 percent to 20 percent
operations an integral, life-cycle- improvements in customer and parts operations an
wide consideration—from product
design, to sourcing and procuring
satisfaction. integral, life-cycle-wide
parts and components, through • 15 percent to 30 percent consideration—from
customer use and after-sale reductions in service costs.
product design, to
support, and on to end-of-life • 25 percent to 40 percent jumps
disposition (Figure 2). However, in working capital utilization. sourcing and procuring
Service Value Chains are also • 15 percent to 30 percent parts and components,
about making service management increases in technician efficiency.
performance quantifiably better. through customer use
One of the most frustrating Reengineering the relationship and after-sale support,
things about traditional service between service management
management approaches and and three operating functions– and on to end-of-
structures is that value is hard to Sales & Contract Management, life disposition.
assess. This is why Service Value Customer Service & Support, and
Chain approaches emphasize Engineering—is key to capturing
the capture of measurable these benefits.
improvements, such as:
Figure 2: How the Service Value Chain fits and operates.
Sales and Contract Management
Corporate Management
Accountability
Performance Management
Product Value Chain
Sourcing Forecasting Manufacturing/ Warehousing Customer Return/
and and Process/ and Point of Use/ Repair
Procurement Planning Repair Distribution Delivery Recycle
Integrated
Objective: Total
Lifetime Value
Customer Service and
Support
Service Value Chain
Product Design and Product Lifecycle Management (Engineering)
Master Data Management
Finance, HR and IT
Finance, HR and IT
8

9. Developing synergies between Sales & Contract
Management and the Service Value Chain
Sell 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.
Integration with Sales & • Managed services are basically services and the provision of spares
Contract Management ongoing, customer-centric service and parts. The MoD maintains
commitments. For example, a responsibility for integrating the
From a customer’s perspective,
global forklift manufacturer might various service contracts and
today’s products and the after-
provide a fleet of vehicles to a meeting the aircraft-availability
sale services associated with
retail chain. A managed service requirements of its end customer,
those products are not succinctly
relationship is then constructed the Royal Air Force.
connected. Not only is the
to focus the two sides on the • Strategic parts pricing implies
relationship confusing, it is
specific needs of each retail a service-oriented, product-
potentially detrimental to the
operation and distribution center life-cycle view that is geared to
seller’s goal of maximum margin,
(e.g., transport capacity defined maximizing profitability rather
profitability and customer loyalty.
by tonnages and pallet volume, as than cutting costs. Consider a
A better and simpler approach
well as working hours). Guided by heavy equipment manufacturer
might be designing products for
these commitments, the forklift that implemented a new pricing
maximum reliability and taking a
company equips its fleet, maintains approach after it ran out of cost-
lifetime view of service and spare
the trucks, charges batteries for cutting options. The company
parts costs and pricing. This is
electric trucks, and so forth. repositioned several products
where linkages between a Service
and Spare Parts organization and • Performance-based (“power based on the price elasticity of key
Sales & Contract Management by the hour”) contracting can market segments. It also identified
come in, and three capabilities are spur manufacturers to build more a clear threshold beyond which
particularly key: reliable products, while shifting it would save more in terms of
the responsibility for maintenance warranty reimbursements at a
and reliability to the OEM. For lower price than it would gain in
example, BAE Systems’ relationship profit from a higher price. Lastly,
with the UK’s Ministry of Defense the manufacturer instituted a
(MoD) typically involves contracts “product life cycle view” for
for discrete maintenance, repair pricing decisions—emphasizing
9

10. Developing synergies between Customer Service &
Support and the Service Value Chain
Link 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.
price leadership and product value, Integration with Customer SKUs. Across the entire sample, 10
rather than following competitors’ Service & Support percent of service calls were cited
leads. This new approach helped as unresolved due to lack of parts,
produce a two-percentage-point The mission here is to align service tooling or information. Several
increase in gross margin within operations to the expectations implications can be drawn from
a year. of specific customer segments. this research:
Segmentation is not a new • Valuable customers are often
A better and simpler concept but it is not often alienated by unsatisfactory service.
applied to after-sale service and
approach might be spare parts management. Linking
• Stratifying customers’ service
needs could provide new revenue-
designing products for the Service Value Chain to an
enhancement opportunities.
organization’s customer-service
maximum reliability and efforts addresses this shortcoming • Better, more efficient service
taking a lifetime view by tying segmentation approaches could result from a clearer
to service areas such as customer understanding of each customer
of service and spare interface management, call segment’s ongoing needs.
parts costs and pricing. center operations, self help and The Accenture survey identified
documentation support.
This is where linkages several companies that excel in
service management. These leaders
between a Service and Findings from a recent Accenture
tend to be particularly good at
service management survey
Spare Parts organization demonstrate how valuable the
tailoring service programs for each
customer or customer segment.
and Sales & Contract connection can be. Researchers
Take General Electric’s Aviation
found that only 80 percent of
Management responding companies consistently
Division, which has a program
called Intelligent Workscopes. GE
come in. fix problems the first time. Eighty
must tune engine performance
percent was also the fill rate for
based on what aircraft customers
respondents’ customer-facing
10

11. require, and that generally varies how simulation or modeling
by airline. Some customers opt for can create the right mix of
better short-term performance, appropriately priced services.
others for fuel savings, and still These organizations leverage all
others for longer-term durability. available customer and service
Intelligent Workscopes factor data (e.g., maintenance records
in such customer needs before and service inquiries) and develop
engines go into the shop. They proactive service and parts
also consider how much customers strategies that are consistent
wish to spend on maintenance. GE with their business strategies.
Aviation maintenance personnel As a result, they consistently
are consequently able to plan meet customers’ delivery
and execute more cost effectively requirements, as well as other
and to stock the right (and right performance expectations.
amount of) parts.
Organizations focused on Service management
after-sale customer relationships leaders excel at
also do other things well.
Because they have worked to tying segmentation
understand and financially approaches to service
quantify customers’ parts and
service requirements, leaders are areas such as customer
able to construct profitable service interface management,
products such as preventive-
maintenance or machine-overhaul
call center operations,
packages. Those same companies self help and
also are likely to understand
documentation support.
11

12. Developing synergies between Engineering and the
Service Value Chain
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.
Integration with Engineering mining company in China. One As Asus learned, an environment
In most organizations, Engineering of that company’s business units of fewer SKUs offers advantages
and Service are not tightly coupled. designed a conveyor belt that that go beyond less complexity
Yet there are many good reasons was different from the company and lower costs. Companies may
why they ought to be. For example, standard. Since belts must be also have an easier time working
when Engineering and Service do replaced frequently, significant with suppliers on design-for-
not communicate well, the latter added costs were associated serviceability programs. Moreover,
group may be unable to accurately with design; replacement; SKU supplier-focused incentives
forecast asset outages and product management and storage; may transcend volume and
failures. Likely results include bad installation equipment and price to include engineering
first-time-fix ratios, long service- processes; and the need for a designs that help companies
order lead times, and large spare special supplier. This complexity improve maintenance.
parts inventories. drove increased cost to serve.
If a piece of equipment is part
The best way to avoid the above One company that excels at of a larger machine or operation,
scenarios is with tighter coupling standardization is Asus, a tighter service linkages with
between Service and Engineering Taiwanese computer and gaming Engineering help increase
organizations. And one of the hardware manufacturer. Its vast interoperability levels, thereby
best places to start is with a product portfolio means it has ensuring that an existing
complexity-reduction initiative. an enormous number of parts technology or platform does not
Extensive product lines and that require detailed planning, become redundant each time
government-mandated service- forecasting and replenishment. a new version is released. The
life commitments in certain Moreover, different categories have missions of complexity reduction
countries and industries mean that different demand characteristics. and standardization may be
product manufacturers must often This created a compelling case for further enhanced by including
maintain many part iterations. This a design standardization program maintenance/service engineers
can create tremendous complexity, that led to fewer unique parts and in all product- and system-
which is what happened to a large greater SKU rationalization. design activities. The potential
12

13. impacts of complexity reduction system works in the curves”). the supplier-chargeback process
on spare parts inventories, field Same for a repair facility (“This for products under warranty.
technician efficiency and warranty engine chassis is designed in a way Improved failure analysis can help
management costs are significant. that makes it extremely difficult companies identify root causes
to extract the battery. Easier which may, in turn, produce
Another good way to connect disassembly might make it possible significant chargebacks. However,
Service Management and for repairs to be done very few companies currently have
Engineering is with a closed- on site”). formal chargeback processes in
loop feedback process. place, mainly because they lack
Increasing information capture Closed-loop feedback information the necessary data.
and knowledge transfer at can be supported by early alarms
every service chain node that provide rapid sensitization In net, a tight relationship
helps Engineering maximize and help to quickly eliminate between Service Management
serviceability, while giving Service design defects. Some years ago, and Engineering has numerous
Management an opportunity to Sony faced problems with volatile benefits:
simplify Engineering’s design tasks. laptop batteries. The company • If a part is designed for
For example, in the aftermarket responded by compressing the serviceability, then repairs
service space, organizations should detection time for part failure. This during scheduled or unscheduled
be able to capture transactional meant enormous savings in reverse downtimes can run smoother and
feedback from technicians and logistics, warranty expenses, faster, with necessary spares and
loop that information back to technician labor and even potential labor available when needed.
Engineering. Technicians may liabilities. Implementation of • Future design efforts can
provide enlightening insights into automatic feedback loops is key to leverage warranty and repair
quality (“This new service board adding the Value in “Service information to build more
doesn’t work as well as the earlier Value Chain.” reliable products.
one”) or design (“This fastener
doesn’t move easily, perhaps Another benefit of improved • Warranty risk and costs
because of the way the interlock integration between Service and are reduced.
Engineering is a tighter focus on
13

14. 3. Core Attributes of a Service Value Chain
A Service Value Chain avoids Centralized Operations Partner Networks
vertical silos, encourages an Companies’ service and parts- As part of the Service Value Chain
integrated product and service management objectives benefit network, “collaboration by design”
perspective, promotes a distinctive significantly from a centralized is fundamental for the relations
service strategy, encourages high-level enterprise view which with Service Partners. One key
enterprise-wide integration, aligns specific service objectives reason is the innate benefit of
enhances end-to-end visibility, with the overall business strategy. pan-enterprise visibility into all
and tightens companies’ focus on Highly decentralized organizations, Service Assets such as available
the achievement of lower total on the other hand, often parts inventories, associated
cost of ownership. And as we have experience varying or inconsistent service provider technicians
discussed, the Service Value Chain behaviors and accountabilities, or integrated repair partner
draws much of its power and profit which makes it harder for capacities. Another benefit is
potential from its integration service and parts organizations the potential to remove logistics
with other business functions. to maximize their contributions costs by tight direct integration of
Supporting this commitment to to business profitability and Service Partners, e.g. by enabling
cross-functional integration, here competitive advantage. The direct shipments of parts to a
are four key attributes of a Service improvement potential of service repair depot or a service technician
Value Chain—what it takes from a planning and management truck, rather than routing assets
service standpoint to out-structure capabilities is particularly great through a complex distribution
and out–execute competitors. with centralization. Key examples channel. A third reason is rapid
include network strategy and resolution of conflicts along the
segmentation, inventory planning, Service Value Chain through
A Service Value and asset-base management. streamlined decision-making
Chain avoids vertical and auditing procedures in the
Companies with Service Value acquisition and deployment of the
silos, encourages Chains often (but not always) have Service Assets.
an integrated an easier time dealing with the
reverse supply chain requirements This strong collaboration among
product and service associated with service and spare partners should also be the
perspective, promotes parts management. In addition, basis of strategic sourcing along
this may also be key to increasing the network: closely working
a distinctive spares/ global parts “transparency.” and improving the end-to-end
service strategy, and value chain jointly with Service
With standardized processes, Partners helps to identify, select
encourages enterprise- companies are able to establish and shape mutually beneficial
wide integration, end- more robust parts and service value propositions. In short,
interactions across functions.
to-end visibility and If procurement entities do not
understanding the capabilities
of partners and leveraging their
approaches geared work cross-functionally they will strengths can result in better,
invariably focus more on cost
to ascertaining and metrics, which can increase a
cheaper service.
achieving lower total component’s or product’s total Specialized Skills and Advanced
cost of ownership. For example, Technology
cost of ownership. Procurement may be able to work Leaders in service management
more effectively with operations often are distinguished by their
and maintenance people to create deployment of unique tools,
strategies that reflect how spare systems, skills and personnel—
parts and equipment are actually including a senior decision maker
used and maintained. who is distinct from the executive
responsible for the product value
14

15. chain. With that distinction, Service/maintenance For example, although leaner
often times these companies inventories are always desirable,
may also have developed a forecasting is very the preferred company-wide goal
separate P&L for their parts and different from regular of exceptional service may require
service businesses. As a result raising inventories. Similarly, a
to the increased importance product, production or company-wide focus on lead times
of service, a dedicated talent wholesale forecasting. may also mean higher costs unless
management strategy is required. most spares are procured locally.
It involves randomized However, none of the above goals
These same companies also are demand forecasting, inherently reflect a company’s
likely to depend less on ERP to overall priorities, which is why
handle parts and service, since ERP which cannot be done organizations need to formulate
systems often struggle in areas with traditional ERP- enterprise-wide parts and service
such as forecasting, managing objectives, and then prioritize
distributed inventories and aligning based time-series performance metrics across all
resources with specific service forecasting. nodes in the service chain.
or maintenance events. After all,
service/maintenance forecasting An Integrated Approach to
is very different from regular Performance Management To fully balance
product, production or wholesale In traditional supply chains, costs against service
forecasting. Among other things, accountability and performance are
it involves randomized demand measured vertically—within siloed
levels, organizations
forecasting, which cannot be done functions. This is rarely optimal for need to establish
with traditional ERP-based time- any company, but it is particularly
series forecasting. Dedicated problematic in after-sale service
performance metrics
technology investment is needed and parts management. that work across the
to compliment typical ERP to
comply with service specific To fully balance costs against Service Value Chain.
requirements. service levels, organizations need
to establish performance metrics
Service businesses are also likely that work across supply chain
to require extensive mobile functions and reflect the value
technology. Utility companies, for stream’s collective contributions.
example, maintain parts depots Imbued in a Service Value Chain,
that are in remote locations or this horizontal alignment may
disconnected from the regular emphasize goals that are not
warehouse network. These the same as those associated
organizations need mobile devices with specific vertical modes. For
to maintain and check inventories example, Sourcing & Procurement’s
in those locations. Using remote specific priorities may range
diagnostic capabilities to monitor from lead times and contract
performance and predict and plan compliance to purchase order
for outages can take this industry’s fill rate, supplier concentration
service planning to the next level and average purchase order
of sophistication. 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.
15

16. 16

17. Outsourcing and the Service Value Chain
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).
17

18. 4. High Performance and the Service Value Chain
Of all the Service Value Chain Those benefits are not
characteristics noted in this insignificant. Accenture experience
Accenture Point of View, the has shown that high performers
most important may be the fact in service management have
that Service Value Chains are built Service Value Chains
fully aligned with—but not simple that consistently increase
extensions of—companies’ regular service revenue, raise customer
value chain models. However, satisfaction, reduce service costs,
Service Value Chains are infused improve working capital utilization,
with an end-to-end value chain enhance technician efficiency and
orientation: They incorporate the even strengthen brand image.
knowledge and perspectives of key
functions across the enterprise, And what sorts of companies
and the benefits they produce are optimal candidates for the
are company-wide, rather than development of a Service Value
function-focused. 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.
About the Authors
Robert Giacobbe is a senior Tech in Asia Pacific. He also and aerospace defense and
executive in Accenture Supply leads the Service Supply Chain consumer goods. Based in
Chain Management Consulting. He Transformation activities across Chicago, she can be reached at
practices exclusively in the areas industries for Asia Pacific. kristine.m.renker@accenture.com.
of service chain optimization and Cameron’s client experiences
André Skerlavaj is a senior
focuses on customer strategy, include optimizing the service
manager in Accenture Supply
service resource planning, supply chain and integrating with
Chain Management Consulting
maintenance/repair, field customer contact capabilities to
and leads Accenture’s Service
enablement, returns/warranty and drive OPEX, CAPEX and customer
Management group in Austria,
spares optimization work. He has satisfaction improvements.
Switzerland and Germany. He
extensive experience in leading his Cameron holds an engineering
has extensive experience in
clients through service business degree with honors from Arizona
the automotive and industrial
transformation programs, from State University and is based in
equipment industries, focusing on
strategy formulation to solution Beijing. He can be reached at
after sales and service businesses.
deployment. He has worked across cameron.plummer@accenture.com
He is recognized for his broad
the heavy equipment, energy
Kristine Renker is a senior range of service management
and high-tech industries. Based
manager in Accenture Supply expertise ranging from service
in Atlanta, he can be reached at
Chain Management Consulting. strategy, process optimization to
robert.giacobbe@accenture.com.
She is the research and the technical conceptualization
Cameron Plummer is a senior development lead for global and implementation of the
executive in Accenture Supply supply chain focusing on service service solution—in field
Chain Management Consulting management and manufacturing service operations, spare parts
and leads Accenture’s Customer practices. She has industry management and MRO. Based in
Service and Support Program and consulting experience in Frankfurt, he can be reached at
for Communications & High automotive, industrial equipment andre.p.skerlavaj@accenture.com.
18

19. 19

20. About Accenture About Accenture Supply Chain to help organizations transform
Management their supply chain capabilities. We
collaborate with clients to implement
Accenture is a global management Accenture Supply Chain Management
innovative consulting, technology and
consulting, technology services consulting services help clients
outsourcing solutions, and enhance
and outsourcing company, with across a broad range of industries
the skills and capabilities of the supply
approximately 211,000 people serving to develop dynamic supply chains
chain workforce. For more information,
clients in more than 120 countries. by aligning operating models
visit www.accenture.com/supplychain.
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Combining unparalleled experience,
optimizing global operations, and
comprehensive capabilities across
enabling profitable product launches.
all industries and business functions, Committed to helping clients achieve
and extensive research on the world’s high performance through supply
most successful companies, Accenture chain mastery, we combine global
collaborates with clients to help them industry expertise and skills in
become high-performance businesses supply chain strategy, sourcing and
and governments. The company procurement, supply chain planning,
generated net revenues of US$21.6 manufacturing, product design,
billion for the fiscal year ended fulfillment, and service management
Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is
www.accenture.com.
Copyright © 2011 Accenture References
All rights reserved.
1. “Accenture Research and Insights
Accenture, its logo, and into Service Management Mastery,”
High Performance Delivered © 2009 Accenture.
are trademarks of Accenture.
2. “Maintenance Outsourcing As a
Global Strategy,” © Industry Week,
May 1, 2009