Revamping Your Aftermarket Supply Chain. Customers expect the same speed and reliability when ordering spare parts as they do when buying finished products. Slow delivery or unavailability of spare parts hurts your reputation and turns aftermarket service into a nuisance. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way. By understanding the root causes of poor aftermarket performance and applying a structured strategy, you can transform your spare‑parts business into a competitive advantage.
Common Aftermarket Pain Points
Intermittent Demand
Aftermarket demand is irregular. Machines, tools and installations rarely fail on schedule. Even during planned maintenance, unexpected defects create urgent requests. This intermittent demand makes traditional forecasting ineffective and leads to either stockouts or excess inventory.
Mixed Model Operations
Many companies run production and aftermarket orders through the same people, systems and warehouses. While efficient, this mixed model masks different priorities. Production orders follow a steady rhythm, whereas aftermarket orders spike unpredictably and require rapid response. Without clear rules, teams focus on what’s visible—production—leaving spare‑parts customers disappointed.
Complexity
An aftermarket supply chain has more variables than a standard production chain. You juggle thousands of SKUs, long tail demand and customers scattered across regions. Unplanned events ripple through procurement, operations, warehousing and logistics. Without visibility into the end‑to‑end process, firefighting becomes the norm.
Build a Customer‑Centric Aftermarket Strategy
To fix the aftermarket, start by defining your relationship with your customers:
- Map customer value versus product importance. Which parts are mission‑critical for your customers? Which are nice to have? Align your service level with the perceived value.
- Decide where to play. Are you happy selling machines and spare parts for short‑term revenue, or do you want to be a long‑term partner offering total cost of ownership (TCO) services? Your ambition determines how much you invest in aftermarket capabilities.
Design Your Aftermarket Supply Chain
A robust strategy turns into action when you design the right processes and structures:
- Document the As‑Is process. Chart how your ERP, WMS, TMS and people handle orders today. Highlight overlaps between production and aftermarket flows.
- Educate the organization. Ensure everyone—from sales to warehouse—understands the aftermarket process and its impact on customer satisfaction.
- Define KPIs. Measure what matters: response time, fill rate, on‑time delivery and customer satisfaction. Make these metrics visible and actionable.
- Allocate resources wisely. Determine which tasks can be shared across production and aftermarket, which need dedicated fast lanes and where a hybrid approach works best.
- Strengthen collaboration. Establish clear communication between sales, operations, warehousing and service teams so that urgent orders are visible and prioritized.
Leverage Data and Technology
Advanced tools can make your aftermarket supply chain smarter and more responsive:
- Process mining and automation. Mapping and measuring your workflows reveal bottlenecks. Automating routine tasks frees your team to focus on customer care.
- Specialized forecasting. Models designed for intermittent demand, such as Croston’s method and modern machine‑learning algorithms, provide more accurate safety stock levels for slow‑moving parts.
- Digital twins. Virtual replicas of your supply chain let you simulate scenarios, balance inventory and test priority rules before deploying them. A digital twin combined with a control tower turns data into insights and enables a self‑healing supply chain.
At Act2Vision, we offer a Digital Twin Studio that connects your ERP, WMS, TMS and IoT data. We combine BPM & Process Mining with a data warehouse and control tower to create a single source of truth for your aftermarket operations.
Win Through Aftermarket Data Driven Excellence
A strong aftermarket supply chain is more than an insurance policy—it’s a constant data and revenue stream. A feedback loop. The better you perform, the more you learn about product performance and customer needs, helping you refine your core offering. By mapping your processes, prioritizing customer value, using the right technology and fostering collaboration, you can turn aftermarket service from a nuisance into a competitive edge.
Ready to elevate your aftermarket? Contact Act2Vision to explore how our project management services can help you design and implement a customer‑centric aftermarket strategy. Act2Vision can also provide department and teamleadership with our interim management services to lead the transition. With our Digital Twin StudioDigital Twin Studio and the Breakthrough Strategy we act as your Value Partner for the long term.
