Unveiling the power of selling spare-parts as a happy-meal

Abstract: Companies selling industrial machines are seeing a shift where profits are moving from new sales, towards retrieving revenue throughout the whole customer life cycle. Instead of selling new machines, the companies in the industry need to look towards what is referred to as “the aftermarket”. The aftermarket is the part of the market where spare-parts and maintenance services are sold to existing customers. This part of the market is growing rapidly, and the competition on capturing market shares of the after-market have been increasing. Manufacturers of industrial machines need to capture market shares from the aftermarket, which currently is under the pressure of increased competition. Today, spare-parts can be sold either separately, or in combination with maintenance services. However, the first alternative is tedious for the customers, and the other alternative is not applicable for all customer segments. A third alternative, namely putting spare-parts together in bundles or “spare-part-kits” is also possible, but its potential has not been investigated until today. Investigate how a company can become a more attractive supplier of spare-parts by offering the parts in spare-part-kits. 1. Who are the stakeholders involved in the purchase of spare-parts? 2. Why is the concept of spare-part-kits relevant to suppliers of spare-parts? 3. What should be considered when implementing spare-part-kits? This thesis uses a holistic perspective to the problem, aiming to investigate how spare-part- kits would affect the organization as a whole. This is done by investigating the different parts of the organization relevant for the study by adopting a systems view to the problem, outlining the work by taking support in the Business Model Canvas. Spare-part-kits have the potential of increasing customer satisfaction and therefore also the potential of increasing sales of spare-parts. Spare- part-kits can reduce the time spent on ordering, handling and administrating spare-parts, improving communication internally between the stakeholders within the customer company. From a supplier’s point of view could spare-part- kits increase the customers trust towards the supplier and provide the customer with the ability to evaluate the process of ordering spare- parts.