Aftermarket strategy

This aerospace & defense organization successfully won the contract to supply UK military forces with next generation communications equipment. Due to severe operational pressures this equipment was needed urgently and the supplier faced significant challenges in costs, time, and technology to meet the design, development, and delivery milestones.

Challenge
Following final decision on the communication platform and its integration and initial deployment, A.T. Kearney was asked to help develop the aftermarket strategy. The key objective was to provide through-life support for the equipment, including spares, maintenance, and upgrades, to ensure it was available as and when needed by military users. However, because of the need to support the equipment in peace and war, the support strategy had to extend from “factory-to-foxhole.” It required flexibility to support UK forces on global operations and align with the UK's emerging doctrine for field forces. The challenge was to capture technical and operational drivers, and then integrate them into a business-based model.

Approach
A working team was assembled, comprising engineers and logisticians, along with A.T. Kearney A&D experts. The team assessed and mapped out the various support elements and determined critical paths, dependencies, and key success factors.

Then a strategic support framework and initial operating concept was derived, which proved the basis for the medium-term support plan and supply chain strategy. These deliverables included:

• First-pass operational concept and operating principles
• Business model
• Financial analysis
• Maintenance and logistics options
• Supply chain drivers, including key supplier roles, supply chain linkages, and performance targets

Results
These deliverables helped the client present their initial operating concepts and options to their customer, which were subsequently developed and integrated into the through-life support plans and arrangements for the equipment.