Coen Jeukens is vice president of global customer transformation at ServiceMax. He works with customers and prospects to fully unlock the true value and potential of their service organizations. Prior to joining ServiceMax, Coen was the services contract director at Bosch where he implemented an outcome-based business model, with highly impressive results. Coen is also a regular keynote speaker at prominent field service conferences around the globe.
Where does the digital transformation journey in after-sales truly begin? Is it the product’s sale, its initial commissioning, or the first service call? At its core, we believe that a strong foundation for efficient service delivery processes starts within engineering.
This blog is the first in a three-part series exploring how engineering influences service:
- Part 2: How the Service Bill of Materials Drives System of Record Across the Platform
- Part 3: How the Service Bill of Materials Enables Cross-selling & Upselling
The role of the service manual in engineering
When engineers design a product, they build around an intended use profile. This profile dictates wear and tear, prompting the maintenance engineering team to develop strategies to sustain and extend the product’s lifecycle. These insights are typically captured in the service manual and summarized in the Service Bill of Materials (BoM).
Service manual: the golden standard of service
In a recent engagement, we reviewed the service manual for a moderately complex product to outline the service delivery processes. Our belief: the service manual is the gold standard. It represents the baseline service expectations to uphold product continuity and lifecycle.
Contained within the 165-page manual were details on serviceable parts, preventative maintenance schedules, kits, consumables, spare parts, and calibration values—everything essential to meeting the original engineering specs. However, one question stood out: How does all this valuable information move from engineering to after-sales service teams? What system of record supports the after-sales teams to act on these insights?
The importance of cross-functional data sharing
Over the past decade, the push for digitization has transformed multiple functions—engineering is advancing in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), manufacturing in Computer-aided Manufacturing (CAM), sales in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and service in Field Service Management (FSM). However, these functions often operate in silos, creating a barrier to data sharing and collaboration.
If your organization designs, manufactures, sells, and services products, each function adds valuable data that enhances the product’s lifecycle at every stage—from engineering and build through to service and support. Sharing this data fosters a connected lifecycle that enhances overall value.
Design for service
In our discussions with the aforementioned prospect, we explored how engineering decisions could shape after-sales service delivery processes. The service manual, while detailed, lacked established processes within the service team to leverage its insights fully.
The service BoM as a roadmap for service teams
The introductory message of the manual summarized this well: "Congratulations on your purchase! To protect your investment and maximize your return, this manual includes best practices for ongoing care and maintenance to ensure optimal performance across the product lifecycle.” In essence, this is the product’s service standard, built directly from the value proposition made at the point of sale.
The Service BoM sits at the heart of this standard, acting as a distilled version of the full Engineering/Manufacturing BoM. It only includes serviceable parts, offering service teams a clear roadmap of the maintenance required and the specific skills needed to support the product. This clarity enables service teams to deliver precise, effective support aligned with engineering’s specifications.
Design for continuous improvement
The service manual also serves a dual purpose: it guides service operations and provides a feedback loop to engineering for continuous improvement. For example, one critical metric documented in the Service BoM is the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF).
Identifying and addressing MTBF outliers
When engineering specifies MTBF for each component, they do so based on expected lifecycle data—call it the "Plan." Once products are in the field, actual performance data—"Actual"—is collected. If Actual performance aligns with Plan, all is well. But if there’s a significant deviation, understanding the root cause becomes vital to improving both product design and service protocols.
Potential issues could include:
- Incorrect installation
- Unintended use of the product
- Variances in service delivery
- Extended maintenance cycles by customers
- Use of non-approved spare parts
Toward an actionable service BoM
What began as a straightforward review of a product’s service manual evolved into a pivotal discussion about bridging engineering and service. No longer a static document in a repository, the service manual, and its Service BoM, became an actionable asset for improvement and value delivery in both engineering and service domains.
Learn more about service bill of materials
An SBOM serves several critical functions, all of which impact the successful service of a product.
Learn More