MAINTAINING LEGACY SYSTEMS AND PRODUCT CONTINUITY

Today there are two main options: Repair or License.

In today’s economy, OEMs are faced with continuously reducing product lifespans. Customers are expecting new products every several years. Long gone are the times when a product had a lifespan of over 15 years. Simultaneously, the pressure is rising on reducing Engineering headcount and having to redesign products because of reduced component lifespan. Some industry customers expect available repair services of products for over ten years after the last product was sold. These issues force OEMs to make large investments or to find a reliable partner to help.

Let us have a quick look at the available options:

Repair:

Customers expect a good experience; they expect to be taken care of in the best possible way. They may even require getting a replacement part installed at their premises.

Some massive investments or finding a partner to take care of the process are needed. The right partner can help improve your customer aftermarket experience:

Flexible and straightforward product routing with ease-of-use data capture for failure analysis—warranty validation, RMA creation and generation, and contact center functionality. At the same time, you need to ensure that your products are repaired correctly, that you are minimizing repeat returns, and you are reducing your warranty costs. 

Full track and trace with carrier integration and remote stock holding and reporting. If done right, this can maximize the value of your returns. Streamlined returns and triage not only speed up turnaround and response time they also reduce scrap and recapture the value of your assets. The parts must be remanufactured or reconditioned to be “like new.”

You need to scale globally and strategic locations to provide rapid turnaround in every region, minimizing your investment in swap inventory and mitigating your transportation costs. The right partner will receive, inspect, refurbish, repair, and redistribute products, providing you with a single, simplified point of contact for all your reverse logistics needs.

Licensing:

In this model, the partner takes over full ownership of the legacy products.

Product Licensing is a bold move that enables OEMs to focus on its core

- new product evolution and development

- while providing a robust customer service model for older products.

OEMs need to devote their R&D resources and personnel to develop new technologies. Part of this process involves assessing whether a product or product line is still core to its overall strategy. That said, it’s imperative to continue serving customers who rely on older products with decades-long lifecycles. This presents a Catch 22: an OEM typically does not have the resources (i.e., cash, working capital, armies of engineers) to develop new products and continue meeting customers’ high expectations for the service and support of older products.

Licensing also minimizes product support costs for legacy products, provides ongoing, experienced customer support for mature product lines, and funds future R&D.

Whatever solution is best for you, it is essential to keep the end customer in mind and offer them a flawless process to make sure they return.