Performance Evaluation of Service Centers for a Servitizing Company

Equipment manufacturers are launching ever more extensive maintenance services for the machines they sell. We find evidence that such a servitization strategy does not only add customer value but can also enable higher operational efficiency and profitability. To be successful in a servitization strategy proper performance evaluation of the service centers is required. We show that Data Envelopment Analysis is a suitable technique for benchmarking in field services. The developed model copes with the frequently encountered problems of zero weights and insufficient discriminative power, while incorporating the strategic directive of servitization. Our approach is applied at a case study company in the compressed air industry.