A Different Perspective
There are many ways to analyze a problem before it decides whether a path to the decision. A method that has worked well in Caterpillar over is first understand the whole question ... get the big picture right; then, when we have convinced us we truly and deeply understand the big picture, break it down to its essential elements. In modern language, the "eat the elephant one bite at a time."A big problem that we at Caterpillar stands with all the time, the price-our equipment is not cheap ... But then, it has never been our business plan to build cheap equipment; it has always been our plan to provide the best customer value.
The problem is that the price is a specific, finite things ... an absolutely-a number.People look at a number and relate it to something else, they already know and understand. My wife loves chocolate, and she has a tendency to analyze price as units of chocolate: "holy mackerel, I could buy a case of candy bars for the cost of new blender". My father-in-law is a golfers: "OK, let's see ... for the price of a new lawn trimmers when I could get a new set of irons ... and probably a new golf bag too."
It is a process of natural and human. We all do it; we take the finite things, number, and through a kind of internal, highly personal process we come with a value because numbers in and of itself has no importance. It is only when we can compare them with something else, in context, that number has significance and in our case "customer value".
The big Picture
The chart at the top is how we analyze the ' big picture ' machine life cycle. When a customer purchases a machine or a fleet of machines, these are the five elements that must be managed to extract the most "value" from purchases. the five elements include selection, operations and Project Management, Repair & Maintenance Management, business management & Rebuild, resale, sales.An enormous work and energy, and analysis and negotiate goes in the front end of this process to arrive at a purchase price (a number).. perhaps disproportionately so.It is our assertion that the real payoff comes from the management of these five elements on the absolute best way possible to reach the best possible customer value.Introductory price is an event; lifecycle management is a process.Gold is in the process!
At this point, I am sure I have excluded the majority of the Auditors is reading this blog, but I will ask them to keep up with me a little longer, we will return to the numbers in a while For the moment, I have tried to describe the "Big picture" side of things in this concept of "customer value"; in the next few weeks, we have various leaders within our business expert on its territory and concise discuss each of the five elements set out in the equipment life cycle chart, one by one; I hope you will stick with us and make comments that can be incorporated into the discussion about the life cycle management ... the path to Customer value.
Before we bring the experts to share their knowledge of these five elements, takes time to send me a note to share their perspective of these five elements, how the management of the lifecycle, or what keeps you you night?
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