Product design and service delivery both affect service performance, and therefore a product support strategy must be defined during design stage, in terms of these two dimensions, to ensure the delivery of “promised product performance” to customers. Furthermore, product support strategy should not only be focused around product, or its operating characteristics, but also on assisting customers with services that enhance product use and add additional value to their business processes. This paper examines various issues such as reliability, availability, maintainability, and supportability (RAMS), etc., which directly or indirectly affect product support, maintenance needs and related costs on the basis of a case study conducted in a manufacturing company. The main purpose of the study was to analyse the critical issues related to the product support and service delivery strategy as being practised by the company, and to suggest means for improvements. On the basis of the case study, the paper presents an approach for design and development of product support and maintenance concepts for industrial systems in a multinational environment. The paper emphasizes that the strategy for product support should not be centred only on “product”, but should also take into account important issues such as the service delivery capability of the manufacturers, service suppliers, the capability of users' maintenance organization, etc.

Purpose -Most advanced durable industrial products need some kind of support to compensate for weaknesses in design or in product exploitation. Aims to examine different scenarios for product support and discusses approaches for development of product support strategy for conventional and functional products. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is based on a case study of a manufacturer of advanced durable industrial production systems. Findings -Traditionally, the customer buys, operates, and maintains equipment used in production systems. Alternatively, the customer can buy the performance, instead of the physical product. In such cases, the manufacturer is responsible for operating, maintaining, and supporting the product in addition to designing and making it. Thus, the long-term profit for both user and manufacturer will depend on the product's designed-in life cycle costs, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and supportability) characteristics, as well as on the effectiveness and efficiency of the product exploitation and support processes. In general, product support is a source of income for the manufacturer. In a functional product scenario, the need for product support is a liability and a cost driver for the manufacturer. Hence, delivery of performance requires a fundamentally different approach for product support strategy. Originality/value -An examination of different scenarios and different approaches for manufacturers' product support strategies.

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