For most heavy equipment, a key measure of effectiveness is reliability. And, for paving equipment specifically, equipment downtime can be downright catastrophic – leading to lost revenue, productivity and more. Unexpected downtime during paving projects comes at a cost to both the manufacturer and the customer, and proactive maintenance through an optimized after-sales service is the key to these paving equipment manufacturers’ success.
This reliability factor, also known as maximized product uptime, is why two of the leading OEMs in the asphalt paving industry, Sumitomo and Dynapac, are working with Syncron to optimize their after-sales service organizations. Sumitomo, a leading manufacturer of construction machinery like hydraulic excavators and asphalt pavers, knows equipment downtime can be troublesome and costly, and Dynapac, a complete provider for soil rollers, asphalt compaction and paving equipment, is more focused on its service parts supply chain than ever before.
In a highly seasonal business, it’s common for these types of heavy equipment to accumulate a list of ‘trouble areas’ over the course of a hot paving season, and, for Dynapac, addressing those areas preemptively directly impacts the customer experience. In its more than eight-decade history, they have been focused on constantly enhancing the customer experience. And, with at least $3.7 trillion of investment in global economic infrastructure needed every year from now until 2035, updates to roads and airports, among other assets, will put pressure on equipment that is in the field today.
“At Dynapac, ensuring part availability to keep our machines up and running is our top priority,” says Abhijit Som, Vice President Aftermarket at Dynapac. “The road industry is very demanding when it comes to uptime. Oftentimes, roads are built overnight, and crews only have a set number of hours to complete the job. This makes proactively repairing machines to support maximized product uptime paramount to success.” And that proactivity has paid off – through Syncron Inventory™, Dynapac has achieved and maintained a 97% fill rate, keeping machines running like clockwork season to season.
“Simply put, proper maintenance helps maximize production capacities and seasonal profit potential,” admits Steve Shawd with Asphalt Drum Mixers, Inc. According to the expert, proactive maintenance “can extend the overall service life of the [equipment], which maximizes profit” by keeping products up and running. And, that kind of laser-focus on product uptime requires an eye on all parts of the after-sales service side of the business, including pricing, as well. Prior to working with Syncron, Sumitomo’s service parts price management process was a completely manual and time-consuming effort. And, in a world where orders for service parts are constantly fluctuating, Sumitomo sought a cutting-edge solution to help streamline and optimize their business processes, improving customer satisfaction and better predicting and meeting financial goals.
“We were seeing a decrease in both efficiency and quality due to an increase in the number of manhours needed to manage service parts pricing for new sales models and regions,” said Mr. Kazuo Kawashima, Deputy Corporate Officer, Customer Support Division & General Manager, Parts Department at Sumitomo. Now, with Syncron Price™, the Sumitomo team will be able to review the entire service parts pricing process, ultimately improving the quality and efficiency of pricing, while simultaneously enhancing customer satisfaction and financial performance.
Ultimately, it’s this pairing of an optimized inventory and pricing that paves the way for manufacturers to shift to a servitization model that prioritizes product uptime. The measure of any good pricing solution is maintaining a strong customer base, and not losing any customers to the competition. Combine that with optimized inventory demand, ensuring fill rates are increasing, and manufacturers will start to lay the groundwork for success in today’s evolving marketplace.
Solutions like Syncron are what help make this foundation of success a reality. By measuring both pricing and demand from a single platform, Syncron provides an infrastructure that can evolve and scale as their needs mature. After-sales service is a significant source of competitive differentiation, revenue, profits and customer loyalty, and with the right combination of service parts management and pricing solutions in place, manufacturers will have the optimized after-sales service organization necessary to focus on what matters most: maximized product uptime.
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Customers are demanding maximized product uptime and manufacturers understand they need to deliver it, but they don’t yet have the infrastructure in place to support it. In the research report, “Maximized Product Uptime: The Emerging Industry Standard,” discover and learn how maximized product uptime is impacting the customer experience and why that matters to manufacturers. Download the report to learn more!
