Aftermarket Availability for Ramp-Up with SKF

Agricultural distributors partnering with SKF can provide their customers (Agri dealers and farmers who repair agri machines) with the spare parts (including SKF products) and equipment they need when needed, even during intense farming periods. We know the high availability of machinery and surplus parts for maintenance ensures increased productivity and solid sales growth. Still, due to the highly seasonal nature of agriculture and the complexities related to predicting demand spikes, this can be easier said than done. The challenge to successfully ramp up business is enhanced, mainly when production time and lag are high. For distributors to succeed in the aftermarket, they need to be able to buy from SKF, deliver, and fulfill the demand of their customers for agricultural equipment, even on short notice.

By analyzing the market data, customers, and existing sales of a few thousand products, the demand could be estimated more accurately to optimize the availability of SKF stock. This would benefit the agricultural distributors that sell the spare parts for machinery maintenance, and the inventory levels would not need to be excessive to account for the availability problem, which, in turn, is cash-consuming. SKF sees the partnership with agricultural distributors as a business of increasing focus, and we are now looking for innovative data-driven solutions to indicate demand-chain management and logistics.