Sensor triggered replacement of spare parts: Customer service process innovation

Abstract

Customer services hold an increasingly dynamic and crucial role in today’s highly competitive world. It is also one of the important factors that enable companies to sustain their competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to develop a basic model of customer service process automation, which will support the spare parts replacement procedure. The idea is to use sensors for identifying the condition of spare parts in real time and initiate an automated replacement process at the right time. A conceptual model of an integrated customer service process automation, derived from a case study, is illustrated, which emphasizes the significance of information exchange between business processes and communication between supply chain collaborators. The suggested changes for the model aim to improve the service level, machine and part life, design of the part and also to reduce human errors during ordering process, overall cost and inventory level.