In a recent blog, Schneider Electric’s Jean Marc Tixador considers how machine builders and OEMs will gain competitive advantage by offering  Machines as a Service (MaaS), in a similar way that software producers offer Software as a Service (SaaS).

In the industrial sector, end users running factories and OEMs providing machines are part of the same ecosystem. Machine builders must work within their own rules and constraints while still meeting their customer needs. This can be a tough balancing act that requires constant adaptation at all levels, in all domains.

End users, for their part, must negotiate the ongoing evolution of their own customers – from mass production to extreme customization, rapidly changing needs demand fluctuation and global competition. In turn, these factors impact the purchasing choices of machine builders and end users.

Machine as a Service (MaaS)

This is where MaaS comes into play, but what is it? MaaS is a machine (or piece of equipment) provided by a supplier, with guaranteed performance. The machine is rented (on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis), instead of purchased, and maintained by the supplier.

These technological evolutions are certainly very attractive for OEMs because they can finally better understand how their machines are used, how they perform as they age, how performance is linked to climatic conditions, to operator behaviour, to production output, etc. OEMs can now get direct feedback about what they sell without any biases from human interpretation.

Using this highly valuable information, machine builders gain insight into the building and selling of services, along with learning how to evolve the design of next generation machines (more robust, easier to use, cheaper…) and avoiding unnecessary over specification.  So, let’s design a connected machine and try to rent it out.

There is a but…

Selling a machine’s maximum technical characteristics is very different from renting guaranteed performance. Machines need to be produced before being rented (customers will not wait three months to get the machine they rented). This requires investment, but also storage space. Logistics need to be organised to deliver the machine to the renter and to get it back when the rental period is over. The machines need to be cleaned, repaired, or upgraded for the next customer, which means dedicated teams are needed to manage the machine fleet.

As with any new approach, there are challenges, but the prospect may be intriguing enough for some of your competitors to leverage their machine sales

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