Insights
Perspectives on Service, Technology, and Execution
This page brings together perspectives on after-sales, field service, digital transformation, and emerging technologies, drawn from real-world work with manufacturing and automotive organizations. The insights here explore what’s changing, what’s working, and where execution often breaks down, with links to deeper topic hubs for focused exploration.
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Latest Insights
The NPS Trap: When Measuring Satisfaction Hurts Service
NPS was built to predict aggregate customer behavior, not to drive individual scorecards. When teams hound customers for higher scores, the number stops measuring satisfaction and starts measuring appeasement. This piece breaks down why the scale fails at the individual level, and what service teams can track instead.
Why Great FSM Demos Create Bad Decisions
FSM platforms get bought on what they promise in a demo, not on whether they fit your actual process complexity. This article traces a real implementation where that gap surfaced mid-project and lays out a pre/during/post framework for catching it before it costs you months and a vendor rebuild.
The Technician Shortage Won’t Be Solved by Hiring. Here’s What OEMs Need to Rethink Instead
When a service leader spots a technician gap on the roster, the response is almost reflexive: open a requisition, raise the offer, wait. It feels like action. But in 2026, it is closer to wishful thinking. According to a 2026 manufacturing outlook study, 79% of manufacturing executives now identify skilled labor shortage as their single…
Complex Field Service Scheduling: Why Planning Comes Before the Dispatch Console
Most field service scheduling problems in complex industrial environments aren’t tool problems rather planning problems. This article explains why standard dispatch automation doesn’t transfer to multi-technician complex jobs, where the planning layer breaks down, and what organizations need to design before a job reaches the dispatch console.
AI in Warranty Operations: From Automation to Agents to Autonomous Operations
AI in warranty operations is moving through three distinct levels – automation, AI agents, and autonomous warranty. Most organizations are at Level 1 or early Level 2. This practitioner roadmap explains what each level actually delivers, what separates automation from genuine AI, and what integration and data prerequisites determine how far you can go.
OEM Parts Pricing Strategy: When the Margin Lever Starts Working Against You
OEM spare parts are the highest-margin lever in aftersales, and OEMs have leaned on them heavily for decades. But data shows that pricing has crossed a tipping point. This article examines what’s driving defection, why OEMs keep pulling the same lever anyway, and what a sustainable aftermarket revenue model actually looks like.
Why Installed Base Management Still Fails in Manufacturing
Despite years of digital transformation, manufacturers still struggle with installed base management. Explore the operational, organizational, and governance challenges behind fragmented asset data, and what successful organizations do differently.
Service Contract Management in Industrial Manufacturing: Managing Complexity at Scale
Service contract complexity is quietly undermining aftersales revenue in industrial manufacturing. Too many contract types, overlapping entitlements, and no asset-level visibility make upselling impossible and customer experience inconsistent. Drawing on two real implementation cases, this article outlines how to design and maintain service contracts that work at scale.
The Dealer’s Changing Role in OEM Aftersales: Partner, Channel, or Liability?
OEMs are quietly undermining the dealer networks they still depend on for last-mile service delivery. This article examines four friction points reshaping the OEM-dealer relationship in automotive and industrial manufacturing, and what people, process, and technology changes are needed to build a sustainable model.