point

November - 2015 - issue > Company of the Year-2015: Aftermarket Supply Chain Management Solutions

Hi-Tech e Soft: The Nuts & Bolts of Aftermarket Supply Chain Management Solutions

si Team
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
si Team
The master key to securing customer loyalty, fostering a company's brand and maintaining competitive differentiation is Aftermarket Parts & Services as it affects almost 90 percent of buying decisions of the customers. And with the recent survey revealing that aftermarket service and parts account for 20 percent to 30 percent of revenues and about 40 percent of profits for most manufacturers, how can one miss to mint this opportunity? However, the jeopardy is the complications attested to it. Being externally focused, the players and end user segment faces infrastructure inadequacy, especially since a significant number of these people are in locations remote from city infrastructure facilities. Hence, it becomes essential to secure the entire ecosystem to not only effectively manage the aftermarket space but also to effectively and efficiently manage customer expectations, to optimally manage feedback loops to design, manufacturing and inventory control. A close look into the industry further reveals the quandaries. Increased interdependency between the suppliers, manufacturing partners, customers and OEMs; frequent introduction of new products and multiple variants leading to operative complications in aligning to real time end customer and maintenance demands; supply chain catering to multiple OEMs comprising supplier performance in terms of quality, reliability and spare part availability; and lack of information, transparency and visibility leading to inability to clearly plan inventories affecting dealer sustenance and profitability are few.

This calls for the next wave of innovative solutions in the area of distribution and Hi-Tech e Soft's (a part of Hi-Tech Group, an ISO 9001 company) solutions aim to stitch together all components that make the aftermarket eco-space by developing and implementing light weight web based, cloud enabled and mobile enabled systems, that are easy to use and light on infrastructure requirements. Innovation and being open to new developments and ideas within and without the Hi-Tech group form one of the most compelling tenets of our group. Our keen eye on detail, regular customer and dealer contact programs help us understand both contemporary and emerging business process requirements, asserts Rajeev Narayanan, Vice President. Hi-Tech e Soft's technology team keeps a tab on the latest emerging trends in the digital space and ways to incorporate such technologies in its solutions. Currently, the company offers solutions based on new technologies like Cloud, e-Apps, Mobile Apps and several others to its customers.

A Dependable & Reliable Backbone
Most of the available solutions for the aftermarket are extensions to existing ERP or PLM solutions or offline bespoke applications, implemented primarily with erstwhile objectives, partially relevant to present day aftermarket supply chain management and demands. But Hi-Tech e Soft was born out of the need of its customers to seek a partner with core innovative engineering as the DNA for their engineering, manufacturing and software requirements. Its systems are light weight, decisively predictive, exit independent to enterprise solutions like ERP & PLM, seek to give and take, and importantly, only relevant information that influence and add value to the aftermarket supply chain ecosystem. Its three business units namely Product Design Services (PDS), Manufacturing Services (MS) and Software Services (SS) bring a unique blend of practical experience and domain competence to assist its clients achieve cost effective and efficient solutions.

Hi-Tech partners with its customers as a dependable and reliable backbone for all the PDS (detailing, design, analysis, styling or technical documentation), MS (ideation to prototyping, jigs & fixture design, tooling and equipment design & reverse engineering) and SS (customization of its own IP solutions for customer specific requests, developing bespoke engineering & manufacturing supply chain enablers and software support) needs of the clients. These equip Hi-Tech to secure the entire ecosystem to not only effectively manage the aftermarket space but also to effectively and efficiently manage customer expectations, to optimally manage feedback loops to design, manufacturing and inventory control. While we had numerous opportunities to develop bespoke applications in this domain for multiple customers, it is our IP Solutions like DIS (Dealer Information System provides rich functionalities including ready to deploy workflows for service , warranty, sales and spare parts management, CRM, travel card, and several others), MIS (Manufacturing Information System), eCatalog (provides solutions to several operational and strategic challenges in spare parts business for both the OEM and the aftermarket ecosystem of dealers, service support teams , part distributors among others), EMS (Enquiry Management System) and TIS (Technical Information System) that serves to largely cater to the aftermarket segment, cites Rajeev.

The Work Milieu

Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Share on facebook