Delivering a lifetime of value from your parts planning process

Parts planning -- a core element of service supply chain management -- is essentially the process of matching demand for spare parts with supply. However parts planning for aftermarket/service can be challenging, since post-sales service demand is often highly sporadic and random. Planning software alone isn't enough to effectively manage service parts. The planning process needs to be dynamic, adjusting to sudden changes in demand trends, and the shifting needs of the installed base. Entercoms Service Bureau gives you all you need to manage parts effectively in your service supply chain.

Overcoming Software Limitations

All best-of-breed planning software packages are built upon similar principles of service demand and inventory management -- selecting the right one is often easy, but how the software is used post-deployment determines success. Unfortunately many businesses fail to identify the different needs of parts, or their planners are not trained to recognize optimization opportunities. A common but flawed philosophy for many companies is that they set most planning parameters to their average (or default) values and plan based on these averages -- and worse, do not adjust these parameters as the business changes.

They miss out on substantial opportunities to increase service levels and reduce cost. The Service Bureau helps you exploit these opportunities, regardless of the planning software platform you use.

Smart Sparing and Network Optimization

Understanding your parts characteristics (cost, demand, install base, MTBF, criticality, lead-times, etc) is the key to optimizing your supply chain, reducing costs and increasing customer satisfaction. For example, consumables should be treated differently than repairable parts.  High cost low demand parts should consider pooling strategies. Warehouse locations, under the right scenarios, can be considered for regional stocking strategies. Transportation network complexities, trade regulations, and life cycle considerations must be incorporated into the strategic service plan. Critical parts have a higher level of importance than redundant parts, while redundant parts stocking strategies differ from degradable impact parts. 

Created by leading industry practitioners, Entercoms Service Bureau incorporates these strategies and many others through a smart sparing and network optimization process that immediately saves you money regardless of the planning system you use.

Service Budget and Performance Management

Budgets influence stocking strategies, that control Level Of Availability of parts, that impact customer satisfaction, that in turn creates firefighting, problem solving, and reactive disorder. Understanding your parts differences and creating planning strategy groups for parts with similar characteristics is proactive planning that leads to cost savings. The Service Bureau provides the added intelligence that can solve your planning problems and we drive higher Level of Availability of parts while reducing your costs at the same time.

Entercoms ServiceBureau evaluates every part not delivered to the customer on time for root cause and initiates corrective action. We also proactively control a “Parts At Risk” program and plan according to the customers’ contract entitlement. As the world and local economy changes, Entercoms has programs that can tweak your planning tool for simultaneous optimization.

Organizing Planning Teams for Maximum Performance

The efficiency of most planning teams decreases as planners do more fire-fighting, and spend their time crunching data for reporting purposes, rather than doing actual planning. Moreover, most planning teams do not have all the skills necessary to plan strategically and tactically. Entercoms supplements your planning organization with the right skill-sets, adding strategic, analytical and operational planning capability where required to support your needs.