1. The service business is the future
New machine sales are stalling, service must be the answer
Rainer Hundsdörfer said out loud what many in the room were already thinking: "The situation is very modest. The topic of new machines is difficult. All the more important is the service business, and especially the spare parts business."
This is not a short-term outlook. Anyone following developments in mechanical engineering knows: competitive pressure from China is growing, investment cycles are getting longer, and customers are keeping their existing equipment in operation for longer. The machines keep running, they need service, maintenance, and spare parts.
Those who still manage their spare parts business reactively today, ordering when something is missing, planning on an ad hoc basis are not just losing margin. They are losing the differentiating factor that will be decisive in an increasingly price-driven market.
2. Digitalization means much more
Digitalization doesn't start with the software
Fabian Kracht got to the point in his session about what causes so many digitalization projects to fail before the first piece of software is even purchased: "Technology is the smallest part of the solution. First comes the strategy: where do I want to go? Then the processes: how will we work then? Then the organization: which roles will change? And above all: what should my customer get out of it?"
That sounds like common sense. In practice, it rarely is. Many companies start with selecting a tool before they've answered the question of what problem the tool is actually supposed to solve. The result: systems are introduced, but never truly adopted. Processes don't change. The ROI fails to materialize.
Kracht's point is not an argument against technology, it is an argument for taking the groundwork seriously. Digital transformation happens within an ecosystem, not within a tool.
3. Plug-and-Play at PartsCloud
Plug-and-play is not a marketing term, it's an experience
The third statement was the shortest. Björn Feldbusch on the integration of PartsOS at his company: "Two, three workshops. We provided the data and off we went. No problems." This is the objection we hear most often: a new planning system means an IT project. Months of implementation. Internal resource commitment. Risk.
And that is often the experience companies have had with enterprise solutions. It carries over into how they assess every new system, unfairly so.
What Feldbusch describes is exactly what we built PartsOS to be from the very beginning: no months-long implementation, no external IT consulting, no big project. The system reads into the ERP data and begins generating order recommendations in weeks, not quarters.
Takeaways
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1. After Sales = growth segment
The after-sales area is not a cost center to be optimized. It is the growth segment that needs to be developed.
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2. This question needs to be asked.
Those who want to digitalize spare parts planning should not start with the software question, but with the question: What should concretely improve for our customers and our team?
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3. The first step
The first step toward better spare parts planning is smaller than most expect.
What the Summit shows
We look forward to 2027.
Two days of intensive discussion between companies and solution providers — and the picture that emerges is consistent: the mechanical engineering sector knows that the service business is strategically decisive. Many companies also know that their planning is not yet where it needs to be.
What is often missing is not the knowledge, but the first structured step.
That is precisely what formats like the Service Pioneers Summit deliver: not a master plan for everyone, but direct exchange between people who know the same problem and have found different ways to solve it.
Photo credit: © Madlen Medvedovskyy / redhead productions. The aftermovie of the Service Pioneers Summit 2026